My idea for more content in comic books... which definitely won't happen
Planeis
Posts: 980
Comics Need More Content
***Bottom Line: Comics need more content. A couple pages of narrative content could fill this need. Comic book creators should experiment more.***
My Struggle
I read a comic book, take for example Justice League #1 from DC’s New 52 reboot, and I see the art by Jim Lee and I’m like “yea… that is some good looking super heroic artwork right there.” Sometimes I LOVE the artwork in comics. Othertimes, not so much, but we’ll get to that later. But the point is, yea the artwork is great, but then you’re done reading it and looking at it after 10 minutes and its just kinda like, “Thats it?” You spent $3,99 on maybe 20 minutes (if you read it twice or really look at the art) worth of stuff. Just doesn’t seem worth it, and so I end up getting my comics at the library. But even then, I want more narrative.
My Solution
Comic book houses, and I’m speaking mostly of DC and Marvel, but the others could stand to try this too (Dark Horse). I’m not suggesting they implement this across their entire line up of comics, but I’m suggesting this as a kind of experiment.
We all like the artwork, but we want more narrative. What I’m suggesting is that in a comic they had 3-5 pages of just narrative. Whaaaaaat? Picture this, you’re reading a Batman comic. There’s a scene in the cave where he’s examining some evidence, he thinks he has a clue, so he leaves. Normally, this would cut to him driving, or maybe smash cut to Batman skulking around some warehouse looking for the bad guy.
I think it would be neat if they add in a page of narrative during that scene jump. It could expand on what Batman is thinking, how he feels emotionally about the case right now, or how he feels about something that is going on in Bruce Waynes life. Like right now the big story in Batman is that someone (I won’t say who incase people are catching up) has died. In the comics, we aren’t getting a whole lot of information about how Bruce feels about this. We’re given some signs of course, but mostly, because of the format… its just moving along with the story.
One page of narrative here, another over there, and one towards the end, would provide more narrative, in depth content in one comic than many comics manage to give you in ten issues. I’m not suggesting the narrative pages be used to drastically advance the storylines. That’s not how comics work now, they have 4-6 issue story arcs and that’s how they do it. Fine. But the narrative could give us deeper information. If Batman, or any character, is going to a specific building in Gotham, the narrative page could give us the background of that building. How long has it been there? Who owns it? Is it still in use? Abandoned? Who does he think he’ll find there?
See what I mean? Or take Supergirl. I was frustrated by her comics because it seemed like it was all action, all the time, and we had no real information about how Supergirl felt about Earth, the people around her, where she was living, what she thought of the food, nothing. We get nothing. A couple pages of narrative per issue would really lend a lot of depth to the universe, at least I think so.
I Know What You’re Thinking
But Pat…. they’ll take away pages to do that. Your probably right. If its a 22 page comic and they decide to have 4 pages of narrative content, that will mean there’s going to be 18 pages of art and 4 pages of purely written content. Frankly, I’d be OK with that. I’m not suggesting they do this in all of their comics. I mean, really they won’t do it at all anyway, its all just an academic exercise.
But would it really be so bad if we had a few less pages of artwork, but dramatically more content? I like to read books. If DC comics had a New 52 line of books or Marvel had a Marvel NOW line of books, I’d totally read them. Instead, what they do is put out books of the major crossovers once every year or two. I’m saying I, and others who read books, like to read them because of how much more in depth they are. You get to read about the characters emotions, you get detailed descriptions of people, places, and events.
I think if they were to try this, which they won’t, but if they did, I think people would like it. A lot. People talk about “reading comic books” but they way most are constructed now there’s frankly not a lot of reading going on. There can’t be more than 1,000 words per comic. Might be less than 500.
*Bonus* When the Artwork is Bad
It’s happened to all of us I’m sure. There’s a book we are digging, except we really don’t care for the art. Maybe its boring, or maybe we seriously don’t like it. But we keep reading because we are interested in the character or because we do, in fact, like the writing.
Wouldn’t it be nice during those runs of 6-12 issues where you don’t like the artist, but do like the writing, to be able to have MORE of that writer? For instance, I like Scott Snyder on Batman, and I feel pretty strongly that when he writes a script for a comic or a set of 6 comics, he has to do a lot more writing than what ends up on the page, because he has to describe a lot of the stuff that ends up becoming artwork. Wouldn’t it be nice to give him some room to talk about things that can’t be described in art, at least not fully? Like emotions, or the history of gotham or a place, or the feel of a suit? I bet Snyder and other writers would like the opportunity as well.
**Bottom Line: Comic Books need more content. A few narrative pages would go a long way towards filling this need.***
What do you think? Am I insane?
***Bottom Line: Comics need more content. A couple pages of narrative content could fill this need. Comic book creators should experiment more.***
My Struggle
I read a comic book, take for example Justice League #1 from DC’s New 52 reboot, and I see the art by Jim Lee and I’m like “yea… that is some good looking super heroic artwork right there.” Sometimes I LOVE the artwork in comics. Othertimes, not so much, but we’ll get to that later. But the point is, yea the artwork is great, but then you’re done reading it and looking at it after 10 minutes and its just kinda like, “Thats it?” You spent $3,99 on maybe 20 minutes (if you read it twice or really look at the art) worth of stuff. Just doesn’t seem worth it, and so I end up getting my comics at the library. But even then, I want more narrative.
My Solution
Comic book houses, and I’m speaking mostly of DC and Marvel, but the others could stand to try this too (Dark Horse). I’m not suggesting they implement this across their entire line up of comics, but I’m suggesting this as a kind of experiment.
We all like the artwork, but we want more narrative. What I’m suggesting is that in a comic they had 3-5 pages of just narrative. Whaaaaaat? Picture this, you’re reading a Batman comic. There’s a scene in the cave where he’s examining some evidence, he thinks he has a clue, so he leaves. Normally, this would cut to him driving, or maybe smash cut to Batman skulking around some warehouse looking for the bad guy.
I think it would be neat if they add in a page of narrative during that scene jump. It could expand on what Batman is thinking, how he feels emotionally about the case right now, or how he feels about something that is going on in Bruce Waynes life. Like right now the big story in Batman is that someone (I won’t say who incase people are catching up) has died. In the comics, we aren’t getting a whole lot of information about how Bruce feels about this. We’re given some signs of course, but mostly, because of the format… its just moving along with the story.
One page of narrative here, another over there, and one towards the end, would provide more narrative, in depth content in one comic than many comics manage to give you in ten issues. I’m not suggesting the narrative pages be used to drastically advance the storylines. That’s not how comics work now, they have 4-6 issue story arcs and that’s how they do it. Fine. But the narrative could give us deeper information. If Batman, or any character, is going to a specific building in Gotham, the narrative page could give us the background of that building. How long has it been there? Who owns it? Is it still in use? Abandoned? Who does he think he’ll find there?
See what I mean? Or take Supergirl. I was frustrated by her comics because it seemed like it was all action, all the time, and we had no real information about how Supergirl felt about Earth, the people around her, where she was living, what she thought of the food, nothing. We get nothing. A couple pages of narrative per issue would really lend a lot of depth to the universe, at least I think so.
I Know What You’re Thinking
But Pat…. they’ll take away pages to do that. Your probably right. If its a 22 page comic and they decide to have 4 pages of narrative content, that will mean there’s going to be 18 pages of art and 4 pages of purely written content. Frankly, I’d be OK with that. I’m not suggesting they do this in all of their comics. I mean, really they won’t do it at all anyway, its all just an academic exercise.
But would it really be so bad if we had a few less pages of artwork, but dramatically more content? I like to read books. If DC comics had a New 52 line of books or Marvel had a Marvel NOW line of books, I’d totally read them. Instead, what they do is put out books of the major crossovers once every year or two. I’m saying I, and others who read books, like to read them because of how much more in depth they are. You get to read about the characters emotions, you get detailed descriptions of people, places, and events.
I think if they were to try this, which they won’t, but if they did, I think people would like it. A lot. People talk about “reading comic books” but they way most are constructed now there’s frankly not a lot of reading going on. There can’t be more than 1,000 words per comic. Might be less than 500.
*Bonus* When the Artwork is Bad
It’s happened to all of us I’m sure. There’s a book we are digging, except we really don’t care for the art. Maybe its boring, or maybe we seriously don’t like it. But we keep reading because we are interested in the character or because we do, in fact, like the writing.
Wouldn’t it be nice during those runs of 6-12 issues where you don’t like the artist, but do like the writing, to be able to have MORE of that writer? For instance, I like Scott Snyder on Batman, and I feel pretty strongly that when he writes a script for a comic or a set of 6 comics, he has to do a lot more writing than what ends up on the page, because he has to describe a lot of the stuff that ends up becoming artwork. Wouldn’t it be nice to give him some room to talk about things that can’t be described in art, at least not fully? Like emotions, or the history of gotham or a place, or the feel of a suit? I bet Snyder and other writers would like the opportunity as well.
**Bottom Line: Comic Books need more content. A few narrative pages would go a long way towards filling this need.***
What do you think? Am I insane?
Comments
I mostly agree with the bottom line.
However, narrative content is not the same as sections of prose.
Narrative content is what we get in comic-books, i.e. Batman finds a clue, then travels to the warehouse indicated by the clue, and then fights the bad-guy at the warehouse.
This is a narrative: one about a detective finding out where the bad-guy is and confronting him/her.
Prose is a narrative made purely with the medium of printed words.
So although such kind of prose pieces work perfectly at the end of each chapter of The Watchmen, I wouldn't really like to see prose narrative pieces in comic-books.
I'd just prefer more pages in a comic-book in general, but given that producing 22 pages of sequential storytelling a month is not easy, for either the writer, artist, inkers, colourists, etcetera, I don't expect that to happen.
I posted this on reddit as well and have so far gotten a lot of comments like "well, that's a bad idea, but we do need more content" and then they go on to say they should cram the art with more text, more descriptions, more words, like they use to do.
Ok but... those days are over and they arent coming back. They aren't going to pay superstar artists and then cover up all their art with all this prose. This would be a compromise. Just because its prose doesn't mean it couldn't be artistic. Maybe there is some background art. I'm not really suggesting that it just be one white page with black type.
It's not gonna happen either way anyway. I just think it would be interesting for them, them being the big two, to try something a little different instead of the path their on which seems to be "more decompression, less storytelling, more splash pages, fewer pages per book, higher prices".
It can be done, and done well, but it has to fit the story. Actually, there are several hybrid books that play with this concept in the children’s market. The Dragonbreath series mixes sections of prose with sections of traditional comic book storytelling, as does the Abadazad book series that followed the comic series. There’s also Diary of a Teenage Girl and The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, both of which mix prose, illustration, and comic book storytelling, but they're much longer works and have much more breathing room than a 22-page comic.
One other thing to consider: A friend of mine who writes and draws comics—mostly kid-friendly comics—for a living saw a kid just blaze through one of his comics. He asked the kid, “Did you just read that whole comic?” The kid says, “Yeah.” The kid proceeded to describe his favorite part, making it clear he did actually read the whole book. When asked how he read it so fast, the kid said, “I don’t read the boxes. They just slow me down.” That got him thinking, and he asked a bunch of other kids at the different cons he attended that summer. It turned out that most of them didn’t read the captions either. So he stopped writing captions in his books.
Now, if most kids aren’t reading the caption boxes, do you think they’ll take the time to read a solid page of text? And for that matter, I don’t think many adult readers want to read big blocks of text either.
As for the pacing, it could be up to the writer. I don't think it would disrupt it anymore than those times where a long conversation is in panel and they are forced to that thing where the words are wrapped around the art in sometimes weird ways. Reading 2 pages for most people, depending on how its spaced obviously, might only be three minutes.
You brought up the example of children. I wasn't thinking this would be for children's books. I mean, it could be used, nothing wrong with that. But I wasn't really thinking of the Superman Adventures type book here. I was really thinking more of the mainline, which of course some kids do read, but the vast majority of the readers are adults.
Imagine this, I used Batman a lot as an example just because I do read him and to give it a proper frame of reference. But what about those times DC or Marvel introduces a new book with an all new character. I think it'd be nice to get a little more about those characters that we don't know anything about. Often I think I and others feel like even after months of trying a new book, they don't know the character and end up not reading it, and then the book gets canceled.
And I wouldn’t see a text page as a disruption per se if it made sense in the framework of the story. Again, it’s all about the pacing of the story. A block of text, whether two pages or only one page, would dramatically slow down the story. If that’s the effect the writer wants for that scene, then I would have no problem with it. However, if the story he wants to tell would be ill-served by that slowing of the pace, then having a mandated block of prose would hinder his ability to tell that story. Not everyone writes in as decompressed a manner as Brian Bendis—though at times it feels that way. Not every comic story has a long conversation. And sometimes the story demands a frantic pace.
I should have mentioned that the kids I was referring to were mostly in the 8-12 age group, the age most kids start reading the mainstream titles. (I won’t bother getting into how all—not just a handful—of the mainstream titles were accessible to every age not all that long ago.) And, as I said, I think a lot of adult readers would be turned off by text pages as well. And, as much as I love prose, I might be turned off too if the guy I liked as comic book writer turned out to be a lousy prose writer. Yeah, Neil Gaiman is great at both, but have you ever read John Byrne’s novels? Mediocre at best.
Another thing that must be considered is the artist, who get paid by the page, and would get less money per issue. For some slower artists this might work out fine, but for others it could give them reason to leave the company and find work elsewhere. By the same token, the writers would expect more money for a page of text than for a page of script. And a lot of writers might be opposed to the whole concept and might choose to not work for the company.
I'm not saying the idea is without merit, but it has to fit within the framework of the story, not vice versa. I would go as far as allowing writers the ability to experiment with it from time to time, but I would never dictate it as a company policy.
The only exception to this are ads that are done in comic strip format, done in a similar style as the story -- I have been tripped up on those a couple of times. But those are few and exceptional.
Imagine you're reading the latest issue of something insanely literate, like Red Hood and the Outlaws, and there's a 4 page interlude, entirely in text.
Now, I'm not saying I would chew my own arm off in order to, not only A) escape from having to read it, but also to B) cope with the very affront to reality that there are 4 pages of text about Red Hood and the Outlaws, but... well, yes I would. Chew it right off.
I admire your moxie, kid. Now, let's not ever speak of this again.