Point-Counterpoint: Comics Suck
One interesting thing about blogging is you're never sure what other
people will respond to, or how they'll interpret what you've
written. On
Tuesday
I threw out some scattered thoughts I'd been
having and called it a blog entry. Over the last few days, a
number of people have commented on and reacted to my grumblings:
Dirk
Deppey,
Ron
Phillips,
David
Allen Jones,
Kevin
Melrose,
Rick
Geerling, and
Sean
Collins.
While it was certainly interesting to read other people's thoughts and
feelings about the ebb and flow of attachment to this hobby, I wanted
to clarify my own position on the matter. I wouldn't
really describe my feelings as "burnout" and I wasn't trying to express
despair about the current state of the art form; it was really just a
strange
observation about the floppy format that suddenly struck me.
Yeah, there was some ranting about cramped comic stores and the trap(s)
of preordering in there, but none of it made me want to abandon comics
or anything. As I said in my original post,
I guess in the end
my decision won't be anything dramatic: I'm not going to give up
comics or swear off floppies completely. I'll just do what I do
whenever I get in a mood like this: Trim down the pull list and
be more selective when I put together my monthly orders.
I can
see how my reflections sparked others to comment on their own
occasional ambivalence towards comics, but I didn't want anyone to come
away with the impression that I hate comics. I don't—not any
more than I hate any other medium, at any rate. I mean, it's not
as though comics are unique in serving as a target for my ire:
I generally hate going out to see movies, because I always end up in
front of some morons who think the theater is their private screening
room, talking during the movie, making and receiving calls on
their cell phones, etc. I grow tired of TV shows that I've watched
regularly. I buy books, DVDs, and video games based on the recommendations of others and it's not as
though I
like everything they're so sure I'll love.
So if the question is, "Do Comics Suck?" as Sean Collins put it, I'd
have to say:
Yes, but only to the extent that everything
sucks. And,
No, because as
Alan
David Doane points out, there have been a lot of good comics that
have come out this past year. (I feel a special "Year End"
retrospective coming on...) And even with books that aren't as
enjoyable or enriching as I might wish (
Avengers/JLA #2, I'm
looking at you), I still get the pleasure—the
intellectual satisfaction—of thinking about why I didn't like the
work, why I responded to the work the way that I did. And for me,
that's all I expect out of any form of literature, entertainment, or
art.
