Can We Expect Greatness Multiple Times
Every Month?
Making monthly comics is hard. This thought
recently crossed my mind as I’ve started doing it. However, at Marvel and DC,
some people are doing it multiple times a month. Many of the stable creators at
the Big Two regularly pump out 4 issues a month, or more. It’s a mammoth feat
and one to be respected but how can we expect greatness from every title under
this factory produced mentality. I’m not saying it doesn’t occur, Uncanny
X-Force and Batman recently prove you can make the donuts and have them be
insanely delicious, but I’m asking why we make the hub of comics (in both sales
and stewardship) a production line where creativity cannot be key because the
deadline is always going to crush it.
Let’s chat about why making comics on a
neverending deadline of 30 day periods might not be the best thing for the
industry.
Let me please assure you, I am not here to
bash the Big Two, nor any of their creators. This isn’t a negative post but one
of curiosity. I will also openly state I read plenty of Big Two books, as many
as I read from outside the Big Two. I’m not saying they make terrible books,
but I do think their system lends itself to closer to that than epiphanic
dreams and nightmares on the page which will enlighten and broaden entire
generations.
Hitting deadlines is important. Publishers
often talk of missing deadlines and then losing numbers. If someone expects
your book to be out on Date X then that’s exactly when it should ship. If not,
people will wander away and spend their money on someone else’s tale.
Obviously, deadlines are important. No one wants to wait years for the next
issue because the muse hasn’t struck you yet. That’s just garbage and not to be
tolerated but what we have right now is a culture where creators land on a
title and then stick on it for years at a stretch. And this is quite possibly
because of the audience. Fans want to know how long creators will be on a title
and if they drop off after 6-12 issues then they deride the entire run as being
a flash in the pan and unworthy of their time. Why this is so I cannot fathom
because so many great comics are made in short bursts. In fact, if you pick the
greatest comic stories of all time you’ll find a very large majority of them
came when a creative team hit it and quit it. Frank Miller knew not to overstay
his welcome on Batman and Daredevil after dropping what many believe to be the
best stories for each character.
If someone today of Miller’s calibre circa
the 80s tried to drop in and tell their tale and get out they would find many
harsh calls from the internet. People want Bendis level runs that capture a decade
and define a generation of readers. Look through many interviews and you’ll
find one of the most common questions for a creator is how long they will be on
their latest title. And if it’s a short run those creators rarely talk about
it. They focus on their story.
The opposite is Jonathan Hickman who says
he’s already planned 60+ issues of his forthcoming Avengers run – and I can’t
help but feel that locks me out of trying it because I worry I won’t get great
stories. I’ll get miniscule pieces of this grand operatic drama that I’ll have
to commit hundreds of dollars to if I want to see if I like it. To digress,
when Hickman took over Fantastic Four, he led with a 3 issue storyline. It was
excellent. I loved it. It remains one of my favourite FF stories of all time.
But then his run devolved into this insane tapestry that intrigued me but
didn’t ever grab me in that month with that single issue. However, I am aware,
this could just be me. Plenty of others loved his FF saga and will no doubt
adore his Avengers work, and big ups to them.
Back to the point, if a creator feels they
have to be locked into a title for a run that will cover 50 issues and thus
many plots, how are they expected to hit it out of the park each and every arc?
Making a masterpiece isn’t a science and no one should expect it to happen
every time. Yet fans often do. Rick Remender was the writer and main creative
force between the first year of Uncanny X-Force and in that time he told The
Dark Angel Saga which, for me, is pound for pound the greatest superhero tale
of the past ten years. This is the icon that this era of comics will be hung
from. Yet, with its conclusion, Remender was expected to back it up the next
month (I haven’t checked solicits but it may very well have been the next fortnight
due to UXF being a ‘double-shipped’ title that drops twice a month). Is it
likely that you will tell the greatest story of the year and then start the
next greatest story within 30 days? No, it’s not bloody likely. And so the next
arc of UXF, Otherworld, was good but not on the level of TDAS and so fans
complained. Now, Otherworld was very good, let’s give Remender credit that the
man knows how to do his job, but it wasn’t TDAS. I don’t expect to see the next
TDAS for another decade. And that’s fine.
Creating a masterpiece, especially in
comics, is contingent on so many things occurring. The story must be quality
and still broken up perfectly to match page beats and issue rests. The art must
be grand – in pencils, inks, colours, and the other skills that go into
fantastic arting (composition, storytelling, X factor). When a creator is on a
title for 5 years and 50+ issues, I don’t expect every start from the gate will
be clean. Hell, even Remender wrote one stinker of a UXF issue that I did not
dig at all (sorry, Mr Remender).
I’m happy to accept that a guy writing two
20 page scripts a month for one book (while possibly writing similar copy for
other titles) and doing so for anything more than a year is not going to be
slapping ball after ball into the bleachers so he can round the diamond once
more. In fact, while I’ve adored Remender’s UXF, I found his Venom flat, and
his Secret Avengers fun but also thin. UXF proves to me, alongside
Franken-Castle and Fear Agent to only name a few, that Remender knows how to
play this game of making comics exceptionally well. But I don’t expect him to
do it for every issue of every title he’s writing. He said recently, on Kieron
Gillen’s amazing process podcast DECOMPRESED, that at one time he was writing
UXF, Secret Avengers, Captain America, and Uncanny Avengers all at the same
time. That doesn’t even take into accunt the outside Marvel work he’s been
cooking up. How can someone hit all those marks and think anymore than the odd
one will be a bullseye?
Let’s look at another Marvel stalwart (and
university accredited architect) Matt Fraction. I am a massive Fraction fan but
not every single issue from Marvel has been genius, which can be heartbreaking
because we know he is capable of genius, many times over (see: Casanova,
Immortal Iron Fist, some of Punisher: War Journal), but do we really expect him
to write 46 issues of Thor (I think he said it was 46, I can’t find his tweet
now – and be damned if I’m digging through wikipedia to navigate the many
number changes and minis he done to verify it, what am I, a journalist?) and
every single one of them will be gold dust? I cannot fathom how it is possible
to churn out scripts for Fear Itself, Invincible Iron Man, The Mighty Thor, and
possibly Casanova at the same time and expect all of those title to be
masterpieces. This all probably came while he was planning out Hawkeye,
Fantastic Four, FF, and his new Image books. Again, I’m not saying they all have
to be winners, but wouldn’t it be nice if they had the chance? Under the
pressures of doing so much, they cannot. I know comic creators need to survive,
and feed families, etc, but at what point does a comic creator break?
I find it interesting to see that the point
in which a comic creator breaks appears to be 2012. You’ve all seen the recent
Image news of multiple Big Two creators running to the ‘independent’ scene to
just make great comics. I feel like Vaughan and Kirkman did it long ago, but
now we see Brubaker, Fraction, Morrison, Rucka, et al all heading off into the
rosy sunset of Image Comics to hopefully make the same bang for their buck
(easier to do with smaller sales if you are reaping a higher percentage) and also
ensure the highest quality of their work by not needing to do four titles a
month, with extra shipping on some of them. Little editorial fiddling with
things, no continuity or crossover to align with, and the ability to paint with
the widest and most durable canvas possible.
The exodus of Big Two creators intrigues me
because it finally proves a point I had worried about, how good can your work
be when it’s manufactured and not created? Ed Brubaker was the first crack I
truly studied (and he’s a guy whose Marvel output was pretty spectacular at
times).He churned out an intense amount of product for Marvel and while some
was spectacular other stuff would only be okay. It’s the nature of the game.
Now Brubaker is off to the golden lands of creator owned comics and film script
work based off his own IP (wink).
It seems like Brubaker is now looking at a
future of writing what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants. Hell, he’d
already been doing that with Criminal and Incognito and look at the great
results there. Some of the best comics from the past decade, without a doubt.
It surely has to be easier to find greatness through your own creative process
rather than doing it on a timed schedule like a caged egg farm. I mean,
Brubaker even started alternating between writing Criminal and Incognito, and
now Fatale, just to switch it up and keep himself (and always amazing amigo
Sean Phillips) fresh. That seems like a smart move and the product supports
this statement. If you are stuck on Uncanny X-Men for 3 years then you don’t
get to walk away and refresh yourself. You just keep faking it until you make it.
Now Matt Fraction says he’s written [insert
large number mentioned on Word Balloon here] issues since last January and he’s
burnt out. He wants a break. He’s going to pick up the FF duo on the Marvel NOW!
initiative, he’ll have Hawkeye (which is sublimely stellar), and he’ll do his weird
tales over at Image. That just about seems manageable. I think over the next
12-24 months, you’ll see many more creators realising their best creations
don’t come from being poked monthly (and twice monthly) and be expected to hand
it over.
Look at BKV with Saga. I’m a massive fan
and I’m content with just this series for now because he’s got all the time in
the world to make each issue’s script sing. Admittedly, he’s also got the
fanbase and sales to back up only doing this book and still paying the bills,
but it shows that making the golden egg come out of the goose takes care and
effort, it doesn’t just happen.
Who knows, maybe runs will become shorter?
Maybe creators will move more. Maybe. But I doubt it. Fans don’t want that, it
would often appear, and the companies like a good brand behind and for the
title. It isn’t just the Avengers, it’s Bendis’ Avengers and there has to be
something said for the power of such a claim to hold over a title. But who
reading this can tell me the perfect Avengers story that Bendis told? Which
tale will stand the test of time as the pinnacle that title, and those
characters, have to offer? And don’t think I’m being a dick, I think Bendis
wrote one of the most solid runs in the history of comics. The quality didn’t
often dip below the dreaded ‘drop this title’ line but it never seemed to soar
above the clouds and look down as a titanic classic. Bendis’ Avengers is like
the John Hughes best friend who will not and cannot and should not ever be the
boyfriend. He’s just there for a hug and some quality time, he won’t rock your
socks off at 2am after too many tequila slammers. His Daredevil, however, will
crush you and leave you breathless in the back of his car.
My final question is; we all want the best
comics we can possibly buy, so why do we currently have a system where some of
our favourite characters are rushed into hands each month without the greatest
care being that of quality? Is there a better way? If there is, I’m sure only
Chad Nevett has it…
[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]
[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]
