"If It's Not Japanese, It's Crap!!"
Dave
Intermittent poses an interesting question: Does crap manga
get a free pass because (1) it's manga and (2) kids are reading
it? I know Dave wasn't directing the question at me (he was
reacting to an off-hand comment
Dirk
Deppy made in response to
Johnny
Bacardi), but I'd like to jump in anyway (
again).
Personally, I believe crap is crap, regardless of whether it's "exotic"
or beloved by small children. I know 'crap' is a term tossed
around
pretty lightly (especially online) but I generally try to reserve it
for work that's so abysmally bad that it doesn't have even the smallest
shred of entertainment value. Going by that strict definition, I
don't know if I've read anything recently that I would dismiss as
crap.
Terra Obscura probably comes closest off the top of
my head. Using the term more loosely, there might be other stuff
I'd place underneath that umbrella, but let's ignore that for now.
Moving on to Dirk's remarks, he can probably better explain what he
meant by them, but I didn't read them as saying that "transformer-style
robots, samurai warriors, teenage soap operas and big hyperexaggerated
gladiatorial arena-fight style sagas (sometimes all at once)" are crap;
I took him as saying, essentially,
your mileage may vary,
but it'd be a big help if you were 12 years old again. I don't
think
that's necessarily denigrating such comics. It's just recognizing
the
audience the stories are aimed at and admitting older readers may not
get the same thrill out of them. (Personally, I think the stories
in
Shonen Jump
are well-crafted and fun. True, I grew tired of the repetitious
nature
of the series after a couple chapters, but they're still well
done. For
one thing, the serials in
Shonen
Jump are actually structured as satisfying episodes.)
I think the same standard should apply to superhero comics. A
comic doesn't have to be mature or sophisticated to be good. It
can be simple and entertaining and aimed at kids. I think
superhero comics get such grief because they fail to meet either of
these goals. Face it, most superhero comics aren't for children
anymore. Even when you give kids
unqualified
access to superhero comics, kids aren't interested in them.
Perhaps this is further evidence of just how bad most superhero comics
are. Or that they're all geared toward an older audience. I
don't think it's a bad thing that there are superhero comics targeted
at adults, or that adults read them. I just think
it's
depressing that there aren't more mainstream American comics that
appeal to young kids.
