Episode 1484 Talkback - Comic Talk
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
We find time in this episode for a 'Jamie's Avengers' 10K race update, a few thoughts about current Avengers comics, and a Peter Rios soapbox speech or two, but our main focus is movies, and in particular a SPOILER-laden look at that sensational '70s period piece, 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'. (1:35:04)
Listen here.
Listen here.
Comments
Jason
The latter three are the incorporation of original ideas that are appropriate to the story. The formerseem to be a sub-classification of the new reader. This subclassification being the new reader that is reading specifically because of what they've seen on screen and that is unwilling to accept that people don't look exactly the same in the comics as they do on film and that they don't dress quite the same either.
Keep up the great work guys!
As for comic movies "moving the needle" for comic book sales, it's happening. Just not at your local comic shop. Digital comics now make up 15% of sales. Years ago it used to be ~5%. You can also actually track digital comic sales. That Rocket Raccoon #1 number is retailers estimating the popularity of the character after Guardians.
And the comic book media bust? It's coming. May not be in the near future, but it's coming:
http://grantland.com/features/comic-book-movies-marvel-x-men-batman-dc-comics/
FYI: For more Days of Future Past: Check out the Empire Magazine podcast. They did an episode with Hugh Jackman & Ian McKellan and another full episode of spoilers.
It all probably has a lot to do with the movies, but I also think that just the IDEA of comics characters (if not actual comic books) is getting extremely popular among the general public. I say it isn't just movies because of characters like Deadpool and Harley Quinn, who I'm starting to see ALL OVER the place now. In every store from Walmart to Hot Topic, there are as many or more Deadpool and Harley t-shirts as there are Captain America, or Iron Man, or Wonder Woman, and yet those two characters have never been on the big screen or had a live-action version (at least, not in any recognizable way; blocking out the "Deadpool" from X-Men Origins: Wolverine).
As far as actual comic sales go, I am one to be very skeptical of how many digital comics are actually being sold to new readers, especially when it comes to FULL PRICE day-and-date releases, but I think that there HAS to have been something of an uptick there based specifically on people who have seen the movies. We have to be getting SOME traction there.
I think it comes down to technology and social trends, and the reason why people who have seen the movies over the past decade and a half have NOT poured into comic shops (or descended upon spinner racks in Barnes & Noble or whatever, or devoured the graphic novel section of Books-A-Million) is because the very idea of a physical comic book is an old-fashioned commodity. As a medium, it seems old-fashioned now, no matter how slick the artwork or how decompressed the storytelling. I LOVE comics, but I think there's something about the actual medium itself that seems inherently old-hat in the 21st century. At least, that's how the public at large would perceive it. And that's why we have hundreds of millions of people who'd be up for seeing ANY superhero movie but would NEVER be inclined to pick up a comic book.
It's sort of like how people will love the orchestral scores to blockbuster movies, but they'll never actually get into classical music. At MOST they MIGHT buy one Hans Zimmer soundtrack in their life. Do fans of classical music sit around wondering "How can the latest Batman and X-Men films have done so well, with their scores being lauded in every review -- and the first thing my spouse told me when we were walking out of the theater was 'Wow that had great music!' -- and yet none of these movie-goers are seeking out more classical music to buy?! How can that be?!" To me, our situation feels like that. So when we wonder why more movie-goers don't buy the comics, the answer lies in the same reason why we ourselves have not gotten into classical music even though we love Hans Zimmer scores. It's the same kinda thing.
I think digital comics can make the comics medium seem a bit slicker or sexier or up-to-date to potential new readers, but I think the bigger problem (if you want to call it a "problem") is in the medium itself. I have friends -- we ALL have friends -- who love these characters and will see all the movies but would never pick up a comic, and their reasoning is along the lines of "I wouldn't know the order to read the panels in. I wouldn't even know where to start, like with what issue number or title or... It's all too confusing." You give them simple explanations, recommend titles, or tell them to just "jump right in" and don't worry about it, but you can tell that they really don't want to try and it's not their thing.
Overall, I think it's a lack of curiosity or whatever. I think for better or worse (mostly worse, to be honest) people just aren't as curious and don't have it in them to WANT to put in the effort it would take to get into something strange and foreign to them. I often think about how when we were little kids we LOVED rerereading the same issues of comics, grasping at straws and trying to figure out the continuity. We had to rely on oblique references and maybe what was said on the back of trading cards, trying to understand it all. These days, it's a LOT easier -- people can just go online or to Wikipedia and it's ALL laid out for them -- but there's a lack of curiosity on the part of the potential audience. Twenty or thirty years ago, we used to be totally fine with not understanding all that much of what was going on, and we would still pick up random issues, and we ENJOYED trying to learn about the history and continuity. Somewhere along the line that enjoyment evaporated and turned to trepidation and feeling scared and overwhelmed whenever we didn't already understand 90% of things right from the get-go. I don't know why exactly this happened, but it's a big phenomenon and probably says something about our general culture, not just about comics.
M
Here's the Quicksilver scene:
Adding a weakness or bitchin' pad isn't (potentially) going to bring in new readers. Imagine someone saying "hey, I heard Batman has this cave in the comics like he did in that serial."
Now, writing (or at least trying to) Stark like RDJ, making John Stewart more military based, or establishing Nick Fury now like SLJ is different. I can imagine (potentially) new readers saying "this Iron Man series is great. It's just like watching RDJ."
M
Only Hickman's Avengers books go eight months forward. All of the other Marvel books will stay in their normal time lines and will catch up to the Avengers books in April.
Introduce kryptonite - add a new story hook
Introduce the bat cave - add a cool new set piece
Introduce Harley Quinn - add a fun new character
None of those things are likely have a negative impact on readership, but something like Harley Quinn might boost readership.
Change Tony Stark to be more RDJ-ish - maybe pick up some sales, probably make for a sudden change in the way that the character is written and drawn.
Same for the leather uniforms and SLJ as 616 Nick Fury.
Any of those may pull in new readers from the movies, but they all may also result in drops in existing readers... Could end up being net gain, loss or neutral.
Having spent years watching movies adapted from books to differing levels of success, it seems to me that just accepting that they're different things is better. Taken as a piece of satire, the Starship Troopers movie may have some good qualities and certainly has a following, but that doesn't suggest that the Heinlein trust should, if they were to determine to put out a sequel to the novel, drop the concept of power armor, add a psychic Gestapo or spend time focusing on neon acrylic fiddle playing troops and their antics.
I'm sure that there are other examples as well.
http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/en/alter-ego
http://www.theqandapodcast.com/
M
LOL
Despite some changes to their world, Mystique may not have reformed. We don't see anything of her in the future to give us any indication one way or the other. And even though things are better for Xavier's students, that doesn't mean that things go well for everyone in the world. Changing the future can change things for different people in different ways.