What is the Role of the Comic Book CREATOR?
CageNarleigh
Posts: 729
My favorite Comic Geek Speak episodes of all time (no I'm serious) are the "What is the Role of the Comic Book ______?" episodes. Today I was just listening to them for about the eight billionth time and I got to thinking two things:
1) Where on earth is the "What is the Role of the Comic Book Distributor?" episode? (and PLEASE tell me someone from DCBS will be on there)
2) I thought I'd introduce a new angle to the "What is the Role of the Comic Book Creator?" conversation.
So, along those lines, I have a point to make.
If you remember, there was a moment when we once thought "Choose your own adventure" books were amazing. The idea that a choice we made would effect the story of the book in our hand seemed AWESOME. It made you feel important.
Well, with the advent of social media, our sense of self importance has rapidly grown. We get a kick if a celebrity re-tweets us. We hunt for new blog readers and new podcast listeners. 'Hawaii Five-O' recently had an episode where the viewers could choose the ending. There was a coca-cola commercial during the Superbowl where the viewers got to choose the ending. Beyonce's Halftime show had a fan contributed opening.
Now those are a few select examples and I'm sort of burnt out after a long day at work, but go with me on this. You can see what I'm saying.
Back when CGS was airing those episodes, Deemer said something like, "Is it REALLY the role of the publisher to put out content we WANT and NEED? Or is it just their job to put out content they believe will sell to the best of their ability?" (or something along those lines) I'm starting to get the impression that those two are no longer exclusive.
Maybe it's becoming, "the content a fan wants or needs is the only content that WILL sell, so we need to create that."
Now I know that putting out content that a public WANTS is the only way you're actually going to sell any product. I get that, but at a certain point, a wide variety of creative ideas has to become what you publish. Hence you have to start making your own creative decisions...
Look, like I said, I'm a little exhausted, but the point I'm trying to make (and maybe contradicting myself in making) is that: Perhaps its time for publishers and creators to begin listening to what the fans want to see and CREATING that content, rather than just doing whatever they want.
There, I'm spent. You guys run with it, or tear me a new butthole...w/e ....lol
1) Where on earth is the "What is the Role of the Comic Book Distributor?" episode? (and PLEASE tell me someone from DCBS will be on there)
2) I thought I'd introduce a new angle to the "What is the Role of the Comic Book Creator?" conversation.
So, along those lines, I have a point to make.
If you remember, there was a moment when we once thought "Choose your own adventure" books were amazing. The idea that a choice we made would effect the story of the book in our hand seemed AWESOME. It made you feel important.
Well, with the advent of social media, our sense of self importance has rapidly grown. We get a kick if a celebrity re-tweets us. We hunt for new blog readers and new podcast listeners. 'Hawaii Five-O' recently had an episode where the viewers could choose the ending. There was a coca-cola commercial during the Superbowl where the viewers got to choose the ending. Beyonce's Halftime show had a fan contributed opening.
Now those are a few select examples and I'm sort of burnt out after a long day at work, but go with me on this. You can see what I'm saying.
Back when CGS was airing those episodes, Deemer said something like, "Is it REALLY the role of the publisher to put out content we WANT and NEED? Or is it just their job to put out content they believe will sell to the best of their ability?" (or something along those lines) I'm starting to get the impression that those two are no longer exclusive.
Maybe it's becoming, "the content a fan wants or needs is the only content that WILL sell, so we need to create that."
Now I know that putting out content that a public WANTS is the only way you're actually going to sell any product. I get that, but at a certain point, a wide variety of creative ideas has to become what you publish. Hence you have to start making your own creative decisions...
Look, like I said, I'm a little exhausted, but the point I'm trying to make (and maybe contradicting myself in making) is that: Perhaps its time for publishers and creators to begin listening to what the fans want to see and CREATING that content, rather than just doing whatever they want.
There, I'm spent. You guys run with it, or tear me a new butthole...w/e ....lol
Comments
First, and I know you yourself said you got a little tired at the end, so it may be I am not understanding your final point, but it sounds like the binary being offered is:
Begin listening to what the fans want to see and create that
vs.
Just do whatever you want
I wonder whether the second part of that binary (and the one you are not siding with) sells short the choice of 'doing whatever you want' as if it completely disregards the desire of the audience. That, to tell the story you want to tell, basically to do what you feel is RIGHT is somehow the same thing as knowing what your audience wants and ignoring it. I know that rephrasing might not be what you meant, but I feel like it sounds like two extremes. And I wanted to suggest something that might be a little in the middle--
My hope is that storytellers, whether in comics or really any media, are going to tell the best story they can given whatever limitations they are up against (and those can be the limitations of time, space, money, community standards, etc.). I want their main indicators of quality not to be 'is this what THEY want' but rather 'is this the best we can do? Am I proud of this?'
Because I worry that when a storyteller gets into the mindset of 'giving them what they want' you replace instinct and your own tastes with pandering and customer service. You start trying to see your work through the lens of what you think is wanted, will sell, will be liked. It is a process of stepping outside yourself and trying to see it through someone else's tastes or wants. It is effort on second-guessing. It is a step away from your own instincts as a storyteller.
Simply put, I want them to do the best work they can, and hope that there is an audience for that. And, if they don't find an audience for it in the medium or marketplace they are in, that they go find that audience. I think to doubt your own instincts and tastes and just do what you think is wanted and expected of you is a road to conventional thinking and stereotype. To the hack and the general. To the mediocre.
Sure, try to look at it through the audience lens and you will likely have less spectacular failures. But there is also far less chance of being brilliant.
I think the role of the comic creator is to go big. Comics, from what I understand, are very hard, time consuming things to make. Hard things to get people to read. There is not enough time or space for the mediocre.
But, I'm just wondering that, with recent trends, does it make more sense for publishers and creators to INCORPORATE the collective fan desire now?
They've done it before (I'm looking at you 'Death in the Family') but does it make sense to kick it up a notch?
I may not be sitting around desperate for a Jack the Ripper story, but thank goodness Alan Moore wanted to tell such a story, because From Hell is one of the best things I've read. I suppose if Moore was responding to "what the fans want" he'd be doing a never ending loop of Watchmen-esque tales, with Killing Joke sequels thrown in. The best artists take fans into directions they didn't know about, and gives them something they never knew they wanted.
No matter how much input you get from your readers, you’ll never be able to please everyone. Going back to “Death in the Family,” only 51% of the votes were for Jason Todd to be killed. So 49% of the readers who cared enough to call in and vote didn’t get the story they wanted.
To go along with what Rick said, if creators constantly tried to pander to what they thought the fans wanted, do you think there would Cerebus, or Bone, or Chew, or any number of other great series would ever have existed? Those books exist because their creators believed in them, invested their time and energy in them, and told the stories they felt compelled to tell. And comic fans are the better for that.
If I wanted to make money off this, I'd hire a local artist and colorist to give me a really nice cheesecakey cover in the Zenescope style, market it as an exclusive, and probably pay for my booth in about the first two hours of the con. I'd rather just create to the best of my ability, talk with people who are there because they genuinely like what I've done, and know I've done it right when they come back asking where issue #2 is.
However, I'm indie. I'm so indie it's not even funny. When you bring in corporate-driven books with a need for profit, the dynamics change, but not much. Think about it...were we as fans clamoring for Peter Parker to get replaced by Otto Octavius? Did we demand a new Superman outfit? Did we want Babs back in the suit if it meant sacrificing Stephanie? So creatively I don't know that the big companies let fans dictate directly what they create...but they do react to low sales, usually with cancellations but sometimes with change.
Frankly, there were a lot of fans out there who wanted Babs back in the suit. Personally, I preferred her as Oracle, and I wanted Cassandra back in the suit.