I don't particularly like the approach and ratings systems used by SilverBulletComics, but they did an excellent interview with Darwyn Cooke, who says things that need to be said to the big two about how to handle the mass market.
Speaking of interviews, I think that anyone who reads any of his titles and doesn't check out Bendis's interview in this month's issue of The Comics Journal is an utter fool. Some cat named Ian Brill does a mighty nice couple of reviews as well and shows up old farts like myself quite handily, too, so maybe that's worth a peek as well. (Ian, seriously, good work.)
1Hi, Jenn.
Comic creators, editors and publishers would actually have to do their jobs � sell populist fare by the truckload that appealed to the mass market. They would have to give up this tight little circle where people care more about Bruce's feelings than they do whether there's a Batman story actually taking place. They'd have to work all ages with public light cast on the book's actual content, they'd have to compete with better written and produced entertainment from other media. Books that didn't sell would die. "Creators" who couldn't meet a monthly schedule would be restricted to specials and one-shots. Public taste and trends would have to be embraced. The precious superhero would have to share the stage with other more relevant genres like Romance, Crime, Horror, Humour and the like. Dicks like Kevin Smith1 would have to save their juvenile, oral-sex innuendo for something other than a mainstream DC comic.Cooke's a wonderful interview subject, as Chris Butcher and I were just discussing earlier today, and I love how he really doesn't hold back from talking about the creative process and how he views the state of the medium. He and Howard Chaykin are rather cut from the same cloth and I think they're what this industry needs more of.
The comic book industry in America is a cottage industry aimed at a very exclusive audience. That's why they don't sell. For 20 years, Hollywood has been making millions off comic properties and the zombies chant about how it will translate in sales... and it never does. Because the comics are cryptic, inaccessible, overpriced and aimed at anything other than a mass market.
Speaking of interviews, I think that anyone who reads any of his titles and doesn't check out Bendis's interview in this month's issue of The Comics Journal is an utter fool. Some cat named Ian Brill does a mighty nice couple of reviews as well and shows up old farts like myself quite handily, too, so maybe that's worth a peek as well. (Ian, seriously, good work.)
1Hi, Jenn.
