Topics That Will Not Die: #2 - The Floppy Format
This topic will probably persist until the single-issue format fades
away.
Laura
Gjovaag has blogged quite a bit about this topic
recently.
According
to her,
David
Fiore has the last word on the
issue, although I'm not sure why. David argues that the
"seriality" of comics makes them unique:
I would submit that the very things that intelligent fans
seem to
deplore these days (characters that don't change, zero opportunity for
"closure", endless permutations that grow out of minute variations in
the approach to a very limited number of existential situations,
etc.--the super-hero comic, in its "open-ended", monthly form is a
bonanza for structuralist analysis!!) are the things that make this
genre unique and fascinating.
A bit further down, David claims that the monthly format of floppies
contributes to this "open-endedness":
I'm not saying that self-contained "sequential art" is
devoid of
interest, but I am saying that the "traditional" model for the
presentation of these narratives is actually far more compelling
(formally!) than the types of works that mature fans seem to be
clamoring for. My message to the proponents of the monthly, "single"
super-hero format? Do not equivocate, and do not apologize!
I'm not sure I see the connection between David's two points. As
far as I can tell, a story's "open-endedness" is entirely independent
from the format the story is told in. Even if comics were all
published as big, thick OGNs the story could still remain unresolved
from book to book. And big, thick anthologies can be monthly as
well (
Shonen Jump, anyone?), so even if "open-endedness" is
somehow tied to publishing frequency, this doesn't resolve the matter
in favor of the floppy format. Heck, if how often a comic comes
out determines its resistance to closure then fans such as Fiore must
have been crushed when
Raijin Comics switched from weekly to
monthly
publication. Perhaps this is an argument for the return of the
weekly anthology à la
Action Comics
Weekly? That way you
could split many monthly comics into shorter serials that come out
weekly.
I think other factors are more critical in determining most comics'
"open-endedness": Lack of creative ownership/control and
publishers' desire to maintain properties in a recognizable state so as
to maximize their licensing potential. But I've already rambled
on long enough (especially considering Sunday's entry), so I'll leave
that argument as an exercise for the reader.
