Post by KingGeorgeVII on Aug 10, 2007 1:40:52 GMT -5
So, you read that intro line and laugh derisively, thinking "that's a load of crap. Monster print runs, non-stop garbage published by greedy publishers for several years, and worse, greedy speculators and dealers who caused the whole thing to collapse upon itself within months."
And you'd be right.
So what good DID come out of the 1990's boom?
Easy: quality.
"WHAT?!"
"QUALITY???!!"
"Are you HIGH???!!"
Well, no, not recently (and, actually, not ever.)
See, what the boom ALLOWED is for an entire generation of young, talented, and struggling creators to either have the opportunity to work for one of the big publishers, or publish their material on their own.
Travis Charest got his mainstream start on an otherwise- wouldn't-be-published Green Lantern spinoff called Darkstars.
Darkstars would never be published today.
Stephen Platt, as well, got his start on a nearly cancelled Marvel book (which ended up being cancelled anyways.)
Sam Keith had been doing art for years, but was an unknown until a stint on MCP's Wolvie, which made him a star, and led to The Maxx.
Joe Mad, Jeff Campbell, Alex Garner, Pat Lee, and others got their start because of the vast quantity of material that was published, without which they may not have gotten a chance.
Terry Moore got Strangers in Paradise published, considered by many to be the finest comic of it's genre of the last 30 years, because of the boom. Moore would never have been able to sell Strangers in today's market.
Bone, Cry for Dawn, I, Lusiphur (Poison Elves), and many, many other quality independent works wouldn't have had the chance to see the light of day, or would not have been as successful, and so wouldn't have lasted as long.
Kurt Busiek, as well, although he had been writing since 1985, would not have convinced Marvel to do Marvels today. That, of course, is what sent him and a struggling young artist named Alex Ross into superstardom.
As for Busiek, he wouldn't have published Astro City with Marvel OR DC, and so likely wouldn't have published it at all.
Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis also started their careers in the Boom Years. Would Preacher have existed without the boom?
And let's not forget the publishers that came about in the early 1990's because the market was such that they could:
Valiant
Image (for better or for worse, Image changed the way comics were done. The impact they had cannot be understated, regardless of the quality of the early work.)
Milestone
Vertigo
Chaos
Sirius
Antarctic
Dark Horse, with it's acquisition of the Star Wars rights with Dark Empire in 1991 became the powerhouse that it is today, the only publisher to survive the 1980's.
So, yes, the early 1990's boom was, and still is, a vast wasteland of hype, die-cut, glow in the dark, holofoil, chromium, see-through panties junk. And yes, the vast majority of comics books published from the early 1990's is still worth only a quarter...or, in some cases, much less.
But it would be foolish to forget that this boom environment allowed material to see the light of day that might otherwise never have been published...an environment that certainly doesn't exist today, as creators like Steve Niles, Rick Remender, and yes, even Kirkman, struggle to gain even a fraction of that audience, even with material on par, or better than, the best of the early 90's, when the likes of moderate talents like Erik Larson and Jim Valentino, or worse, Rob Liefeld, were made millionaires.
So, while the 90's brought us a lot of stuff for which we should rightfully be horrified, it was not without its benefit.
And you'd be right.
So what good DID come out of the 1990's boom?
Easy: quality.
"WHAT?!"
"QUALITY???!!"
"Are you HIGH???!!"
Well, no, not recently (and, actually, not ever.)
See, what the boom ALLOWED is for an entire generation of young, talented, and struggling creators to either have the opportunity to work for one of the big publishers, or publish their material on their own.
Travis Charest got his mainstream start on an otherwise- wouldn't-be-published Green Lantern spinoff called Darkstars.
Darkstars would never be published today.
Stephen Platt, as well, got his start on a nearly cancelled Marvel book (which ended up being cancelled anyways.)
Sam Keith had been doing art for years, but was an unknown until a stint on MCP's Wolvie, which made him a star, and led to The Maxx.
Joe Mad, Jeff Campbell, Alex Garner, Pat Lee, and others got their start because of the vast quantity of material that was published, without which they may not have gotten a chance.
Terry Moore got Strangers in Paradise published, considered by many to be the finest comic of it's genre of the last 30 years, because of the boom. Moore would never have been able to sell Strangers in today's market.
Bone, Cry for Dawn, I, Lusiphur (Poison Elves), and many, many other quality independent works wouldn't have had the chance to see the light of day, or would not have been as successful, and so wouldn't have lasted as long.
Kurt Busiek, as well, although he had been writing since 1985, would not have convinced Marvel to do Marvels today. That, of course, is what sent him and a struggling young artist named Alex Ross into superstardom.
As for Busiek, he wouldn't have published Astro City with Marvel OR DC, and so likely wouldn't have published it at all.
Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis also started their careers in the Boom Years. Would Preacher have existed without the boom?
And let's not forget the publishers that came about in the early 1990's because the market was such that they could:
Valiant
Image (for better or for worse, Image changed the way comics were done. The impact they had cannot be understated, regardless of the quality of the early work.)
Milestone
Vertigo
Chaos
Sirius
Antarctic
Dark Horse, with it's acquisition of the Star Wars rights with Dark Empire in 1991 became the powerhouse that it is today, the only publisher to survive the 1980's.
So, yes, the early 1990's boom was, and still is, a vast wasteland of hype, die-cut, glow in the dark, holofoil, chromium, see-through panties junk. And yes, the vast majority of comics books published from the early 1990's is still worth only a quarter...or, in some cases, much less.
But it would be foolish to forget that this boom environment allowed material to see the light of day that might otherwise never have been published...an environment that certainly doesn't exist today, as creators like Steve Niles, Rick Remender, and yes, even Kirkman, struggle to gain even a fraction of that audience, even with material on par, or better than, the best of the early 90's, when the likes of moderate talents like Erik Larson and Jim Valentino, or worse, Rob Liefeld, were made millionaires.
So, while the 90's brought us a lot of stuff for which we should rightfully be horrified, it was not without its benefit.
