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| Credit: Pixabay |
I apologise for posting so late and not on the weekend as usual. I’ve been overdue for a new prescription of lenses and so have been working slower due to eye strain. That should all change after I go to my optometrist appointment and purchase my new glasses in August.
Last week I was at Big Brother Comics in Sacramento looking for a current issue of "The Rocketeer", a comic series that debuted in the 1980s and paid homage to super hero comics of the 1930s. I would soon find out from the employees that they sold out of the most recent series back in the spring and there would be no plans to print anymore. Which is damned sad because you get very few super hero comics like that anymore. However, I was looking through several other comics hoping to find something likened to "The Rocketeer" and when I say “likened”, I'm talking about any comic book that takes after any time period between the late 1930s and early '80s. After those years, comics in general, including super hero comics, became more and more adult not necessarily in a sense of erotica and vulgarity or violence (although they have) but in the sense of sophistication. I love reading sophisticated storylines, but not in comics.
Well, anyway, I was looking for something in the likeness of "The Rocketeer and picked up something called " Invincible", although it looked like it could be more super hero humour than adventure. I flipped through it find it to be mostly freehand illustrated (or at least freehand style) like the comics of the above mentioned eras. Then I came across a panel where the titular hero is shown taking a crap on the bowl. I don't need to see that and don’t want to. Everybody knows what it looks like to excrete bodily waste. That's one reason I don't buy today’s comics, super hero or otherwise: they've been made to be a part of U.S. shock and disgust culture. This seemingly at the expense of kid-friendly comics. Oh, yeah! and guess what rack this comic was on? The one that has the sign at the top saying "Hey, kids, comics!" I don't know if the store uses that promo gimmick as simply an expression or if they really mean it, but in all reality I did not see one comic there that was made for ages 10 or younger.
Only a few years ago you used to see at least a small section consisting of at least five titles of comics that kids beginning from as early as age five could read (or at least could read the illustrations). I didn't see any section for children’s comics in this place. It just shows you that the comic book has been biased for adults when it was originally a medium for kids, especially for those who were still learning to read. So, the market has somehow robbed children of this beautiful (or at least once beautiful) form of storytelling. The comic book as a juvenile form of entertainment is now extinct like the dinosaur (not counting birds) due to extensive realism and overly literate stories. But still, you can find a few comics for younger readers.
An Overmarketed Age Group
Before I move on about the topic, I want to make one thing clear: I don't have anything against adult comics. I read them myself, particularly in the horror genre where in a visual medium in that genre it's a little hard not to go adult although many today go too far with it beyond believability. Adult comics are not necessarily bad things. The problem with them is that they are overmarketed to the point where they have bumped off kid-friendly comic books and have closed the medium off to younger minors.
The Problem with These Overmarketed Comics
One problem with comics today that turns off a sentimentalist and optimist like me is that they’ve gone to the extreme with realism. Age appropriation aside, one of the ways this has been done is with digitalised artwork. Almost every comic you pick up today has to be "picture perfect" and so can't have anything deviating from the most perfectly drawn line. So, what does the comic artist do? They use a digital tool, software, rather than a manual one such as pencil and ink to make the illustrations. The artist has sacrificed his/her own hand to the techno god. The natural energy and rhythm that runs through hand-drawn and hand-painted art conveyed by the artist’s individual style has been destroyed for the generic art produced by digital tools.
Now, on the topic of age appropriation. Extreme realism in today’s comics has produced vulgarity. It's not a vulgarity simply used to make the characters more believable but a vulgarity used for exploiting to the point of mere shock. We’ve seen this in the example above with The Invincible character on the toilet bowl.
Also, the problem with extreme realism in contemporary comics is that too many of them have become too slice-of-life and down-to-earth in their storytelling. I ultimately don't care about how so-and-so character is handling a break up with their lover and how it's nearly driving them to violence. I can read that in the news. I like to read about the unusual in comics and so what we’re not likely to see in real life.
Another big problem in today’s comics is they are trying to be too damn literary. They’re made too interpretive. This is partly done by overemphasising metaphoric storytelling over literal story telling. This overemphasis tends to reduce the action.
Along with this, is modern day comics concentrate too much on the character's psychology. It's too much about the character and not enough about the action. Yes, the character should be likeable and believable, but not to the expense of action and events. This and the other problems above are what make the stories too adult oriented. Comics were originally supposed to be for entertainment and simplicity even if with clever writing and semi realistic art. As Douglas Wolk, author of “Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean”, says, “The comic book was originally conceived of and executed as entertainment for children. If it aspired to be art, that was fine . . .”
Younger kids don’t want to read a story about real life or a story where they have to think really hard about what's going on. Some of us adults, myself included, who regularly read prose fiction for our age groups don't always want to read comics that are at that same sophisticated or mature reading level. We want to take a break from that and read easier especially before we turn out the light to go to bed at night.
How to Find Juvenile Comics in an Adult Comic Dominated World
So, what's the solution to finding real entertaining, juvenile comic books like what we read when we were kids, like what our parents and grandparents read when they were kids, in a world that's been bombarded by adult level comics? The solution is to look to the fossils and gems. Look for back issues in your local comic shops that aren't biased against pre-1985 comic books. Also, many comics of the Golden Age (the 1940s) through Bronze Age (about the early 1980s) have been collected into spine-bound volumes (or graphic novel format) and can be found in both comic shops and book stores, online and off.
But those are juvenile comics that reflect past eras, what about ones that reflect our present-day era? You’ll have to hunt for those rare gems. Some large comic shops carry them and you can also search internet. As far as the latter goes, a good place to start is with “Previews World”. A couple of gems I've found in stores are the “Edgar Rice Burroughs' Universe” series by American Mythology that features stories with Burroughs’ famous characters such as Tarzan, Jane and John Carter; and, one that I picked up at Big Brother’s last week published by Image, "Astro City", which features a different super hero each issue from a team of super heroes. (It’s a teen-and-up comic.) So far, of what I’ve read, it appears to have a unique storyline while it still features interesting super heroes and supervillains and hand-produced art with the exception of sky backgrounds and energy bolts. But that's better than nothing.
So if you want to wade in the nostalgia of kids’ comics, super hero or otherwise, don't depend too much on finding them in the current issues wrack at your local comic book stores in. Look to the past and hunt for the fossils or go on a bigger hunt, online and off, for the modern-day gems.
Books on Sale at Smashwords!
Have you been looking for summer reading but sky-rocketing inflation has you hesitating at the stores' book shelves? Well, forget hesitation because Smashwords' July Summer Sale is going on right now! (In the southern hemisphere of the planet, it's known as the Winter Sale.)
This sale includes my own books which I've reduced to some groovy prices: 75% to 100% off! Yes, some of my books’ prices have been reduced to as low as free! Plus, thousands of other authors and publishers of sci fi, fantasy, horror and many other fiction and non-fiction genres are also offering super markdowns on their books. The Smashwords Summer Sale runs for the entire month of July, but not all books may remain discounted the entire month so check it out now!
BIP: Book-In-Progress
Also, in current events of the blogger, yours truly has been continuing working away on his book-in-progress (or BIP), "Bad App". I'm specifically working on two of the several short stories to be included in this collection. One of these two are almost done, the other I'm still working on the plot, mostly trying to work out how the story will unfold from its beginning to end. Specifically, it’s the middle that needs work but I think I figured it out the other day, I just have to write the details into the story. I was hoping to release the book by the end of August but it looks like it’s going to have to be done in September. I still have to do a beta release. If anyone's interested in volunteering as a beta reader let me know in the box below. Beta readers will get to see the book and its contents before anyone else!
If you want more details about "Bad Apps", you can sign up for my author's newsletter if you haven't already done so. I just ask that only U.S. people sign up due to the varying laws and regulations between countries.
This coming weekend is the fourth weekend of the month and so we'll have our Book-To-Movie review. Be here then!
Do you read comics? If so which ones (whether juvenile or adult)?
Until next time . . .
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