is it more or less weird not to be into comics....or non issue?
this is a question being asked by a guy (me) who can draw as well as, if not better, than most comic book artists
I used to be into comics...when i was a wee lad, and up till about maybe 22 or something. Aren't they all trash nowadays? What with all the image guys ripping off Marvel characters and people loving the ripoffs...but that's just my humble opine.
Ahhhh...... comic books of the Mid to late 90's. For some reason I don't miss thoses days of...
* Cross overs. With out fail, once every 12 months a cross over event will happen where for the next 3 to 4 months, you are stuck purchasing titles that you normally not have picked up. Now these are not so bad if this is going toward and epic events like
X-Men Age Of Apocalypse or
Death / Rebirth Of Superman. However some of these smaller cross overs like the many Darkness / Witchblade cross overs where just a waste of time and were real pain for readers. And some of these cross overs where poorly written.
what really annoyied me was the number of times where a particulare title had very little do to with the other all events. They are just involved as they happen to be there at the time.
* The It's-not-a-cross-over-cross-over. The number of times where in order to get a understanding of what was going on, you needed to pick every issue of a particulare line.
And these story arcs used to go on for a 2 years or so.
Eg.
Death Of Superman/Funeral for a Friend/Reign of the Supermen story line was about 12 months.
Batman's Knightfall to the aftermath of Knights End was 2 years where you need to pick up every Batman related comic.
Same goes with the Spider-man clone saga. And the Batman - Cataclysm / No Man Land story arcs. Seriously, story arcs like this might be rewarding to the older readers, but it's no way where you can easly get into new readers.
*
Superman Red / Superman Blue WTF where they thinking. Some superhereos can do with a face lift from time to time. Ironman has an armour for just about every situation. The X-men seem to be changing their looks too every 12 month to 2 years. Even the symbiot Spider-man kicked butt. However super hereo's contumes should be just left alone. Superman is one of them.
nuff'sed.
* The rise and fall of image comics.
Image was formed in the 90's. The company was formed by a lot of staff from Marvel and DCs that wanted thier own creative control over their own characters. Like compair Rob Liefield's Profet with X-Men's Cable. Both are the same character.
Image is really not the same company as they used to be. Firstly, Wildstorm is now owned by DC. There was also a lot of comic book title that they did start, but ended suddently.
Like just walk into any comic book shop as ask the following question
"When is
Battle Chasers Issue 10 coming out?" You will be shown the door quickly.
Image comics are still around, but they are not the same company as they used to be.
* Marvel going bankrupt. This really screw alot of time classic titles. Firstly they did that
Onslaught story line just to kill of a lot of characters.
Thankfully comics (or aleast the ones I read) have moved on from those days. At least now days, Marvel is not doing as many cross overs as they used to.
The comic code authority is no more. This is good thing as it exploring other issues that fer previously taboo before. Sexuality is being one of those taboos subjects.
The other thing that i like is that the stories are more about the characters, and not some villain trying to take over the world, and the super hereos are going to stop him just because it's the right thing to do.
Stories theses days are much more grittier. It not about capes, goofy constumes and secret idenities. It's more about about someone that has super powers and how they are trying to get along with their life in the real world. And to me, this make comic book reading that much more enjoyable than it was in the 90's.
