Quality versus Quantity...in todays comic market quantity is the bastard child of the two...
I was a huge comic fan during my teen years (late eighties/early nineties). Due to risings costs of the comics themselves/going to college/starting a family I left comics behind until 2007, when the 'Sinestro Corp War' hooked me back in.
I am now a die-hard Green Lantern fan, and would argue the stories produced by Geoff Johns (and company) have produced the greatest stories ever seen in the medium.
However, a disturbing trend has developed in the industry (well, between Marvel/DC anyway).
The storyline is waaaaaaaaaaay more scant than they ever used to be.
How can you tell? The ICON's tried and true method; used for over 20 years.
Grab a comic from the early nineties (or any earlier). Go and have a righteous bowel movement. The aforementioned comics used to last me AT LEAST half an hour. Now, grab a recent comic. I guarantee, you will need at least 2 of these lightweights to carry you over the threshold of the male equivelent of giving birth.
Comics these days are short on story and heavy on big splash pages/lotsa art. DC is even worse than Marvel; why is it that every DC comic these days has a 'preview' story at the end of every issue of some other comic that takes up the last 6 pages or so that could be used to further the actual comic story???
Greed is the answer. Johns and company stretching out every storyline to 2-3 times the amount of issues it would have taken comics of yore to do in one.
It does seem that we get a lot more filler then we used to. Perhaps it's because I'm a bit more price/value consious of my purchases. Radical gets the bulk of my money nowadays anyway so...
The older comics always had a writer's narrative along with character dialogue and there were 2-3 times as many panels per page. There was also less advertising and no multi-page previews.
I'm about tempted to wait for trades and just be behind the times regarding current arcs.
There are likely some valid critiques in the opening post, but we don't allow rants of this nature as threads. Sets a bad precedent. Sorry, but closed.
KMC Community Forums
Jul 1st, 2010 02:53 AM
