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Underground > Comic Books >

Nobody's going to save the medium except us.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

19:09 / 17.12.02

"Maybe we should start some kind of Dogme 95 for comics, because nobody's going to save the medium except us."

Is this for real or are we just stalling before the next trade comes out? I'm not sure if comics are in danger... not if you like Archie and Bendis and Batman... but new stuff, comics that made you get into comics... comics that have LIFE in them are, to my eyes and I think others agree, dying.

I've been hard at work every fucking day on a comic and have three minis in my satchel.

What've you got?

As far as 'making it,' my opinion is that it's pointless. Who wants to 'make it' and write X-Men? Not me anyway. I love reading it, but couldn't be bothered. Nah, I say we each carefully cover our asses with copyright and start swapping our comics. My only suggestion, only original characters. If I offend anyone by saying this I'm sorry, but I hate fanfic to death (even tho I wrote a Shade poem once... go on and laugh).

Possibly we could collect them in a trade as a dream project.

But why don't we, I dunno, entertain ourselves?

... that sounded dirtier than I thought it would.

22:57 / 17.12.02

I'm working on my first comic project right now, with 36 pages of script, and an artist lined up for an original graphic novel. If you've got a project that could get this book in print, I'm defenitely interested.

And, I defenitely think that original graphic novels from independent creators that don't feel like indie books are what's going to change the medium. I want to read comics that are independent, but I'm pretty much exclusively Vertigo, and the other projects from the best Vertigo creators, because what indies I've read don't focus on genres I'm interested in. Anyone have some reccomendations for good sci-fi comics, in the mold of Philip K. Dick not Star Trek.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

12:38 / 18.12.02

You should see the debates over how to get started over in the creation forum!

It's very annoying.

I debate with the best of them, but wouldn't it make more sense to create some damned comics?? I mean, how many times have you sat in on long winded arguments about how great the band's gonna be or if I wrote Wolverine, I'd do... They go nowhere.

At a time when Code Nine (or whatever CrossGen calls it) is about, Oni, Slave Labor (if yer into that), and NBM (I highly reccomend you try them, they experiment a lot) as well as Highwater Press are about, what is the point of a manifesto?

What is important is telling a clear, concise story that affects the reader in some ANY way. Beyond that, I don't think it matters what you do. Christ, how many comics have we all bought leaving us to sigh and toss them in with the others?

To answer the other question you actually asked:

I really wish I could reccomend something for a fan of good sci-fi. Ummm... Heavy Liquid was quite good. Luther Arkwright was nice (though a bit geeky). Read those?

It's really not done, as far as I can see. People like you have to make them, which will involve a lot of lost time and perhaps money, but you'll have done something no one else did.. make a sci-fi comic WORK/Sell.

13:10 / 18.12.02

It's funny.. reading this thread, I've just realised.. I've been drawing comics on and off since I was, I dunno, 5 years old or something (and I haven't got much better at it, imho), but I've only been reading comics since I picked up a Sandman book on a whim about 4 or 5 years ago.. strange.

02:02 / 19.12.02

I debate with the best of them, but wouldn't it make more sense to create some damned comics?? I mean, how many times have you sat in on long winded arguments about how great the band's gonna be or if I wrote Wolverine, I'd do... They go nowhere.

I wouldn't say they go nowhere. I talked about how great the band was gonna be long before we started the band, but we *did* start the band. Similarly, I'm learning how to write by writing, but at the same time, I want to think about what direction to take as my skills improve. Not necessarily because I feel the need to save the medium, but because I want to be influenced by my personal list of comics greats without just going over the ground they've already been over. Zeus killing Chronos, y'know?

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

10:14 / 22.12.02

I can't draw, don't know anyone who can, and have pretty much decided that I don't have any comic writing skillz...

But this debate reminds me of the mini-comics boom of the last 80's, and how much I wished it would have become something. Scott McCloud and Matt Feazel both made it seem like comics could become a wonderfully cheap form of disposable art, but instead it became a fanboy orgy of X-Clones and disposable art styles.

As a READER of comics, I just read them everywhere, talk about them when I can, and don't push them the way a Eltingville Club member would...there's a shitload of stuff out there that can appeal to everyone. It's just a matter of knowing what to give to someone.