Post by G on Apr 17, 2013 11:53:44 GMT -5
There is no lack of comics out there today. To me a ton them suck major dick and a few of them are okay. But even the ones that are okay, to me what is lacking is direction, cohesion, leadership. That is why I always think if I was in position to do comics, I would find a way to do it better. For one thing, I would have a set of rules that would have to be adhered by. I'm sure I can think of more as I go, but this is just a starter list that would have to be followed if comic creators worked for my company.....
1. No pose covers. No fan outs! No Family shots standing around and looking cool. Covers would have to give an insight to the story on the inside. The only time a pose cover could be used would be 1st issues and special occasion books (like anniversary 100th issues) or something like that. The rest of the time, each and every cover would have to have an insight as to what is going on inside, so along with that....
2. Creative text captions and word balloons can be used. I don't care how people say it messes up the artwork today. All I see is the same cover I've seen for the past 20 years anyway. I want to bring it back to the way it was in my day when the words on the cover enticed you to buy. I want characters saying something of drama. I want the word captions making you want to open the cover up. Word captions do not have to be used on every cover. But a combo of insight by drawing and/or text will be encourage/expected on every cover. No matter which one you use, or both. You have to get your point across on the cover.
3. No limited series. We have enough of those in comics and it just doesn't do anything for the greater picture. I don't want a quick payout. I want a company that has its shit together.
4. No story arcs. That's right. No point 1's or announcements that this is the start of a new story. To me, every issue is a jumping on point. And if you hop off for a bit, when you get back on, you can quickly catch up, because for me all comics will have....
5. Continuation. The best comics and even tv shows I ever see are the ones that start at point A and just keep going. Issue after issue after issue after issue. If you miss a couple. You can piece together in your mind what happened. Or better yet, go and track down the back issues. There will be no stopping point. The comic will keep going as 1 long story until the day it is canceled. No longer will the term backstory be considered a negative.
6. No crossovers without meaning. If I had Wolverine as an example, I wouldn't have him cross over just so I could draw him next to my character to pop his claws. Hell no, it would have to be a real part of the huge story.
7. No crossover events. To me, it doesn't brings you together. It splits you apart. Nothing worse than having to chase down a bunch of titles that you normally wouldn't buy and normally is forgotten about in 6-12 months anyway.
8. Crossovers would be rare. What lost it for me during the modern era is that crossovers became all too common. When I was growing up collecting, when a character crossed over to another title. It was an event. It was usually a fight. And it was meant to be thought of as an epic moment. I want to bring that back. I don't want characters appearing just because this one is a success and that one isn't. I want it to be part of the bigger story.
9. Cohesion between titles MUST exist. Put editors back to work. Make them more than yes men. I do believe in Characters being a part of a Universe and keeping things relative to the other titles is important. This is when crossovers become great because if 2 titles have their own storyline where they naturally meet. And then it impacts both of them later on separately in their own titles later. It's done it's job. I want to see editors doing the old "*As seen in issue #69 - Smiling Stan" like they used to. I want moments that harken back to a previous moment. Or harken to a moment in another title and for it to all make sense. Some people think that too many titles and moments and no one can keep up. I think no. It was done for years and we've gotten lazy. Cohesion is a big thing. The last great Cohesion we've had in comics was 20+ years ago in Pre-Unity Valiant. It's about damn time we got our act together again.
10. Death is death. You die. You gone. Even the big boys mess this up. So therefore, I think death should be rare or even non-existent. But if for chance you die....well. So long to you. That is a true LAST APPEARANCE of that character.
11. No Variant Covers......EVER! Sure, they make for extra sales. But they also alienate readers/collectors and completists. It makes people feel like what they have is inferior. It makes them care less. I have 1 copy of the same book but yours is more valuable than mine. No....not going to happen. If 1 copy gets hot and valuable, than everyone owning that copy will have a hot and valuable copy of that comic. Because there will only be 1 copy. This is a rule that will NEVER be broken. No Variant Covers.
12. No blinding overuse of colors......Sure, digital coloring has come a long ways and made things more vibrant and colorful. The problem is, page after slick page has almost blinded me from wanting to look. There is a such thing as pleasing natural colors. There is a such things as colors distracting from the page. The editorial staff will be working just as hard with the colors to make sure we aren't putting out blinding colors just for the sake of blinding colors. Colors will have to be what is naturally found in everyday life. With that being said....
13. Backgrounds must be drawn! This is a Lost Art. We've let creators today get away with drawing a character in space and then coloring the background either a solid color or gradients of 1 color fading into the next. It's lazy and shows lack of talent on everyone's behalf. Half the time today I don't know where characters are anymore. A lot of them look like they are floating around in a colored room. In my day, backgrounds were works of art and had to be completed much the same way as the foreground main characters. We need to get back to comics being drawn and not cheated on.
14. No heroic poses. Aren't we all sick of this yet? It just isn't natural to me. I know whenever I've watched 2 to 10,000 people fight, I've never seen anyone in life get in a dramatic heroic pose, before, during or after the fight. No, they fought and their limbs and actions looked like they were fighting for their lives. They didn't have time to look Valiant and Here I come to save the day. They only had time to fight or flee or save their life or someone else's life. They had drama going on. To me, one of the #1 things I see missing from comics today is comics has lost the drama of fighting. The drama of meeting some other character and going at it. That page turning moment when a villain rushes in. The villain doesn't look heroic. He looks like he or she is about to kick your ass. It's drama. The heroes look like oh shit or lets attack. There isn't a bunch of characters flying up in the sky in the background looking like fighter jets. They look either surprised or already engaging on what is happening. That is the true drama. But if everyone is standing around looking like coloring book pictures. Hell, I'm ripping it off the artist's desk, balling it up and throwing it in the trash can. Which leads too...
15. Artist will follow the above rules or see their work in the shitcan. Too often today the artist has become the star and called their own shot. Even to the point of disagreeing or disrespecting the company they work for and blatantly not following script because they thought they could do it better. Nope. The star of this show isn't the artist. The star of this show is the Company. And the Company is the machine that has rules to follow and will be adhered to. If you don't like it....there is always Image to go work for. Over here, you're going to draw like you are told to draw. Any artist not following rules will be fired if they continue to not draw correctly after their work is balled up. Any editor not making the artist bend to the company line will be fired for not having any balls with the creative staff. It's the company will a strong ethics and gameplan over any creator here. Like it used to be.
16. Comics will be filled with words. No 6 page spreads with creative panels stretching a non-scene out so we can make this 1 story last for 12 issues. No filler crap nothing scenes. No comics being read in 5 minutes or less. Comics will have to be written. And what is produced is a bunch of words by time the comic is over. When the comic is over, you have experienced something. You'll feel you got your money's worth in terms of time spent reading the comic and not just flipping pages with 5 sentences on each page.
17. If creators become stars we'll be happy for them and want to showcase their work as much as possible and make the fans happy. But it doesn't mean they call the shots. If suddenly they get big headed and start demanding things get done their way, they can go kick rocks. Just like they say that "No player is bigger than the game" well, over here "No creator is bigger than the company". Go talk to Image.
18. We won't be political. Sure, there may be a presidential appearance or a case that touching upon world events that have recently happened (although it won't be exploited to death, like 911), we won't stand for shaping ourselves to be politically biased one way or another. To me there is nothing more irritating than seeing a comic creator spew at length about their political beliefs. I don't give a shit about your political beliefs. I want to see comics. And I don't want you swaying people with your comics with your own agenda because you now have the power to do so because you made it. That's like selling out to me and losing the love of the comics. That's like being bitter. The comic company will know no political bias.
19. Shock value for the sake of shock value has no part in this. We don't need to turn a seemingly straight character gay because it's now important to have gay characters in the community. If a character is gay, it will either start out as gay or will be hinted as gay all along. We don't need seemingly straight characters who've had 100's of issues appearing heterosexual suddenly being turned gay at the drop of a hat.
20. No character take overs by another person. We don't need 5 versions of Spider-Man. We need 1. If he dies. He dies. He doesn't need another one taking over. He doesn't need to suddenly turn black. Who is black and white and Asian from the start, will be that way until the finish.
21. Keep costs low. We don't need to make a glitter embossed cover that turned our $2.99 comics into $6.99.....sure a special issue will come here and there and with it may be a bump in price. But it's not going to rape the customer to want to get it. If we can't do that, than the issue just needs to have a regular cover....so......
22. Gimmick and special enhanced covers will be at a complete minimum. It's not special if 20 issues of a comic comes out and all 20 of them had variant covers and 8 of them had enhanced gimmicks. The ratios of variants will always be ZERO and the ratio for gimmicks will be like 1 out of 100 or even 1000 comics. Bring special back to special comics. It's not special if it happens all the time.
23. When characters fight, someone wins, someone loses. I remember in the 70's a lot of time when Marvel Characters fought, no one really lost. Its amazing how they pulled that off but when you look back, it's pretty true. Well, to some degree we would like to keep that wonderment of who would beat who going. But if two heroes fought. Someone would get their ass kicked and have to live with the shame.
24. There will be fan letter pages. And an editor will pick a few letters and answer them, just like the old days.
25. There will be a soapbox. There will be someone acting like the company leader and he will drum up excitement for what's coming up, just like Stan and Jim Shooter used to do. One thing you never doubted with them. You never doubted that they got you excited for what was coming next. And you never doubted that there was some leadership where they worked.
I'm sure we can add more to this. And make this list even better. I've often said I'd love to start a company if I could. And maybe it's all a pipe dream and would never ever happen. But if I ever did start a company, this would at the minimum be in place as the ground rules. And if you didn't follow them. You can carry your ass.
1. No pose covers. No fan outs! No Family shots standing around and looking cool. Covers would have to give an insight to the story on the inside. The only time a pose cover could be used would be 1st issues and special occasion books (like anniversary 100th issues) or something like that. The rest of the time, each and every cover would have to have an insight as to what is going on inside, so along with that....
2. Creative text captions and word balloons can be used. I don't care how people say it messes up the artwork today. All I see is the same cover I've seen for the past 20 years anyway. I want to bring it back to the way it was in my day when the words on the cover enticed you to buy. I want characters saying something of drama. I want the word captions making you want to open the cover up. Word captions do not have to be used on every cover. But a combo of insight by drawing and/or text will be encourage/expected on every cover. No matter which one you use, or both. You have to get your point across on the cover.
3. No limited series. We have enough of those in comics and it just doesn't do anything for the greater picture. I don't want a quick payout. I want a company that has its shit together.
4. No story arcs. That's right. No point 1's or announcements that this is the start of a new story. To me, every issue is a jumping on point. And if you hop off for a bit, when you get back on, you can quickly catch up, because for me all comics will have....
5. Continuation. The best comics and even tv shows I ever see are the ones that start at point A and just keep going. Issue after issue after issue after issue. If you miss a couple. You can piece together in your mind what happened. Or better yet, go and track down the back issues. There will be no stopping point. The comic will keep going as 1 long story until the day it is canceled. No longer will the term backstory be considered a negative.
6. No crossovers without meaning. If I had Wolverine as an example, I wouldn't have him cross over just so I could draw him next to my character to pop his claws. Hell no, it would have to be a real part of the huge story.
7. No crossover events. To me, it doesn't brings you together. It splits you apart. Nothing worse than having to chase down a bunch of titles that you normally wouldn't buy and normally is forgotten about in 6-12 months anyway.
8. Crossovers would be rare. What lost it for me during the modern era is that crossovers became all too common. When I was growing up collecting, when a character crossed over to another title. It was an event. It was usually a fight. And it was meant to be thought of as an epic moment. I want to bring that back. I don't want characters appearing just because this one is a success and that one isn't. I want it to be part of the bigger story.
9. Cohesion between titles MUST exist. Put editors back to work. Make them more than yes men. I do believe in Characters being a part of a Universe and keeping things relative to the other titles is important. This is when crossovers become great because if 2 titles have their own storyline where they naturally meet. And then it impacts both of them later on separately in their own titles later. It's done it's job. I want to see editors doing the old "*As seen in issue #69 - Smiling Stan" like they used to. I want moments that harken back to a previous moment. Or harken to a moment in another title and for it to all make sense. Some people think that too many titles and moments and no one can keep up. I think no. It was done for years and we've gotten lazy. Cohesion is a big thing. The last great Cohesion we've had in comics was 20+ years ago in Pre-Unity Valiant. It's about damn time we got our act together again.
10. Death is death. You die. You gone. Even the big boys mess this up. So therefore, I think death should be rare or even non-existent. But if for chance you die....well. So long to you. That is a true LAST APPEARANCE of that character.
11. No Variant Covers......EVER! Sure, they make for extra sales. But they also alienate readers/collectors and completists. It makes people feel like what they have is inferior. It makes them care less. I have 1 copy of the same book but yours is more valuable than mine. No....not going to happen. If 1 copy gets hot and valuable, than everyone owning that copy will have a hot and valuable copy of that comic. Because there will only be 1 copy. This is a rule that will NEVER be broken. No Variant Covers.
12. No blinding overuse of colors......Sure, digital coloring has come a long ways and made things more vibrant and colorful. The problem is, page after slick page has almost blinded me from wanting to look. There is a such thing as pleasing natural colors. There is a such things as colors distracting from the page. The editorial staff will be working just as hard with the colors to make sure we aren't putting out blinding colors just for the sake of blinding colors. Colors will have to be what is naturally found in everyday life. With that being said....
13. Backgrounds must be drawn! This is a Lost Art. We've let creators today get away with drawing a character in space and then coloring the background either a solid color or gradients of 1 color fading into the next. It's lazy and shows lack of talent on everyone's behalf. Half the time today I don't know where characters are anymore. A lot of them look like they are floating around in a colored room. In my day, backgrounds were works of art and had to be completed much the same way as the foreground main characters. We need to get back to comics being drawn and not cheated on.
14. No heroic poses. Aren't we all sick of this yet? It just isn't natural to me. I know whenever I've watched 2 to 10,000 people fight, I've never seen anyone in life get in a dramatic heroic pose, before, during or after the fight. No, they fought and their limbs and actions looked like they were fighting for their lives. They didn't have time to look Valiant and Here I come to save the day. They only had time to fight or flee or save their life or someone else's life. They had drama going on. To me, one of the #1 things I see missing from comics today is comics has lost the drama of fighting. The drama of meeting some other character and going at it. That page turning moment when a villain rushes in. The villain doesn't look heroic. He looks like he or she is about to kick your ass. It's drama. The heroes look like oh shit or lets attack. There isn't a bunch of characters flying up in the sky in the background looking like fighter jets. They look either surprised or already engaging on what is happening. That is the true drama. But if everyone is standing around looking like coloring book pictures. Hell, I'm ripping it off the artist's desk, balling it up and throwing it in the trash can. Which leads too...
15. Artist will follow the above rules or see their work in the shitcan. Too often today the artist has become the star and called their own shot. Even to the point of disagreeing or disrespecting the company they work for and blatantly not following script because they thought they could do it better. Nope. The star of this show isn't the artist. The star of this show is the Company. And the Company is the machine that has rules to follow and will be adhered to. If you don't like it....there is always Image to go work for. Over here, you're going to draw like you are told to draw. Any artist not following rules will be fired if they continue to not draw correctly after their work is balled up. Any editor not making the artist bend to the company line will be fired for not having any balls with the creative staff. It's the company will a strong ethics and gameplan over any creator here. Like it used to be.
16. Comics will be filled with words. No 6 page spreads with creative panels stretching a non-scene out so we can make this 1 story last for 12 issues. No filler crap nothing scenes. No comics being read in 5 minutes or less. Comics will have to be written. And what is produced is a bunch of words by time the comic is over. When the comic is over, you have experienced something. You'll feel you got your money's worth in terms of time spent reading the comic and not just flipping pages with 5 sentences on each page.
17. If creators become stars we'll be happy for them and want to showcase their work as much as possible and make the fans happy. But it doesn't mean they call the shots. If suddenly they get big headed and start demanding things get done their way, they can go kick rocks. Just like they say that "No player is bigger than the game" well, over here "No creator is bigger than the company". Go talk to Image.
18. We won't be political. Sure, there may be a presidential appearance or a case that touching upon world events that have recently happened (although it won't be exploited to death, like 911), we won't stand for shaping ourselves to be politically biased one way or another. To me there is nothing more irritating than seeing a comic creator spew at length about their political beliefs. I don't give a shit about your political beliefs. I want to see comics. And I don't want you swaying people with your comics with your own agenda because you now have the power to do so because you made it. That's like selling out to me and losing the love of the comics. That's like being bitter. The comic company will know no political bias.
19. Shock value for the sake of shock value has no part in this. We don't need to turn a seemingly straight character gay because it's now important to have gay characters in the community. If a character is gay, it will either start out as gay or will be hinted as gay all along. We don't need seemingly straight characters who've had 100's of issues appearing heterosexual suddenly being turned gay at the drop of a hat.
20. No character take overs by another person. We don't need 5 versions of Spider-Man. We need 1. If he dies. He dies. He doesn't need another one taking over. He doesn't need to suddenly turn black. Who is black and white and Asian from the start, will be that way until the finish.
21. Keep costs low. We don't need to make a glitter embossed cover that turned our $2.99 comics into $6.99.....sure a special issue will come here and there and with it may be a bump in price. But it's not going to rape the customer to want to get it. If we can't do that, than the issue just needs to have a regular cover....so......
22. Gimmick and special enhanced covers will be at a complete minimum. It's not special if 20 issues of a comic comes out and all 20 of them had variant covers and 8 of them had enhanced gimmicks. The ratios of variants will always be ZERO and the ratio for gimmicks will be like 1 out of 100 or even 1000 comics. Bring special back to special comics. It's not special if it happens all the time.
23. When characters fight, someone wins, someone loses. I remember in the 70's a lot of time when Marvel Characters fought, no one really lost. Its amazing how they pulled that off but when you look back, it's pretty true. Well, to some degree we would like to keep that wonderment of who would beat who going. But if two heroes fought. Someone would get their ass kicked and have to live with the shame.
24. There will be fan letter pages. And an editor will pick a few letters and answer them, just like the old days.
25. There will be a soapbox. There will be someone acting like the company leader and he will drum up excitement for what's coming up, just like Stan and Jim Shooter used to do. One thing you never doubted with them. You never doubted that they got you excited for what was coming next. And you never doubted that there was some leadership where they worked.
I'm sure we can add more to this. And make this list even better. I've often said I'd love to start a company if I could. And maybe it's all a pipe dream and would never ever happen. But if I ever did start a company, this would at the minimum be in place as the ground rules. And if you didn't follow them. You can carry your ass.
My only problem with what your wrote above is the word "disrespects". The word "disrespect" was never a verb until a certain segment of our population started using it as one. 
