Is the comic book world stagnating?

[zarus tathra]

There was a Neil Gaiman interview a while back where he talked about how before Alan Moore and Jamie Delano and Grant Morrison and himself and the rest of the British Invasion of the 80's wrote their big books, which weren't that big at the time, I guess, comic books were in a rut, where they endlessly recycled their old stories. The metaphor he used was that it was like taking a copy of a copy of a copy. Eventually, you take so many copies that the image is indistinguishable from a Rorschach blot.

I think the same thing is happening now, except this time, Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore aren't around to move things along. They've basically moved on from comics in general, it seems. Nobody's taking in new influences the way the first British Invasion did. Neil Gaiman brought in literature, Jamie Delano brought in influences from left-wing politics, Grant Morrison brought in influences from the occult, and Alan Moore brought in influences from all three. But nobody's bringing in new influences from anything new now, except maybe anime/manga, which is really just a more violent, sexualized  version of Disney, anyway.

What are your thoughts?

[aitm]

they still make comic books? Seriously, I just thought it was a cute Big Bang side joke.....wow.

[GrinningYMIR]

the comic world is dying a slow death sadly, most of the new books are just rehashed version of the old ones, so much retconning going on that its not even funny, and the books themselves cost too much to justify buying them regularly.


its only a matter of time

[AllPurposeAtheist]

IT'S THE GREAT SNATCH!      
and the gift that keeps on giving.

[Damarcus]

Pic offered without comment.

The comic industry is doing a similar thing to what they did in the 90's, they are trying to make things as dark and gritty as possible in order to appear "mature" without actually understanding how that works.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

You guys just don't appreciate the great snatch do ya? :-k

[Insult to Rocks]

No APA, don't you see? Your comic and Damarcus' comic are simply two parts of the same whole! Who could imagine boners without snatches, after all. :P
In all seriousness though, yes, comics have been on the decline for a good long while. It makes me miss the good old days of the DCAU. :(  The batman cartoon was the best.

[Hydra009]

the comic world is dying a slow death sadly, most of the new books are just rehashed version of the old ones, so much retconning going on that its not even funny, and the books themselves cost too much to justify buying them regularly.


its only a matter of time

I dunno, there's still some diversity.  (Walking Dead, Kickass, Locke and Key, Empowered, etc)

But yeah, there's some serious problems creeping in.  Which is really a shame, because the artwork is really starting to look amazing now.
[spoil:1lja498i]

Slight improvement.   :-D[/spoil:1lja498i]

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Well feast your innocent eyes on these holy comics.. many written by your favorite comic book authors.  :shock:
//http://www.comicbookreligion.com

[stromboli]

I read comics like Adam Strange and the Atomic Knights back in the late 50'5 and 60's that were recycled later, not to mention Batman, Superman and the rest. You can only make so many super heroes, however warped they might be or how noble. Everything now to me is pretty much old ideas rehashed.

Vampirella in the 60's was the pinnacle to me, largely because of Frank Frazetta"s cover art. The format was very well done, a magazine styled with original stories and amazing artwork. If you haven't seen those books you have missed out.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampirella

apparently there is a new publisher, but I'm past that period of my life.

[Plu]

Aren't the movie industry and the music industry and all the other entertainment industries doing basically the same thing? If you look at the producers that spend big money, you're going to look at the producers that cater to the common denominator, and that means you're looking at rehashes of familiar stuff made for simple minds. That's where the money is.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

A thief steals a loaf of bread.  Another thief steals the loaf from him then yet another thief steals the same loaf and on and on and eventually the  loaf is so stale and moldy nobody wants it. Sooner or later the baker gets around to baking a fresh loaf with a whole bunch of hungry thieves standing around.

[Mister Agenda]

I bought comics WAY longer than most people, but even I gave them up. Though I'm thinking of buying that new Ms. Marvel for some Muslim girls I know.

I liked the recent Justice Society for awhile, but they made sure to ruin it before they cancelled it. After that it was easy to stop buying them altogether. And I'm still a great fan of superheroes. The art can be fantastic, but you need fantastic stories that respect the characters too.

[stromboli]

Everything has a saturation level. there are only so many plots and so many ways to portray people in them. I'm old enough to recognize old ideas rehashed into new ones. It has become so blatant that they are rehashing stuff like Batman, Superman and other comics even before the last rehash leaves the theater. Oh, sorry- the correct term is "reimagining"; my bad.

[Hydra009]

Aren't the movie industry and the music industry and all the other entertainment industries doing basically the same thing? If you look at the producers that spend big money, you're going to look at the producers that cater to the common denominator, and that means you're looking at rehashes of familiar stuff made for simple minds. That's where the money is.

True.  But practically everything's a rehash of something.

[spoil:rjankqkw][/spoil:rjankqkw]