posted on April 22nd, 2009 in columns
by Richard Caldwell, Managing Scribbler
One thing that always bugged me about Watchmen, was that in a world where superheroes are real then their presentation in funny books would obviously lose a lot of steam. That makes sense enough, but then which genre would step up to be the main thing in its stead? Pirates? Maybe as metaphor for the heroes of that world, persons doing their own thing in a downward spirally-kinda way. I think realistically though, if comic books were not so grossly dominated by the capes, the genre that would likely play king of the mountain would be straight science-fiction. Arguably, comics were spawned from the sci-fi pulp journals of yesteryear, with writers like HP Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and the like, writing with such imagination that visual representations were inherently demanded.
I wanna talk about genres.
Science Fiction is king in its own way, to be sure, even including a wide, wide array of sub-genres. Of course one does not have to look far to find some good sci-fi on the racks. I thank Warren Ellis for his efforts especially (excepting all of his Marvel work, which is entirely drivel). Radical is kindly exploring this as well.
But what else is out there, insofar as genres other than the tights and lasers? Yes, the superheroes make up for the bulk of today’s publishing gamut, to the point of non-comic readers generally remaining ignorant as to what other types of stories do yet exist, past and present. And of that past- how many different things have been tried over the decades!
Another progenitor to comics were the newspaper strips, the Sunday funnies. The first official comic book was in fact a reprinting of said comic strips, Famous Funnies, published by Eastern Color Printing around 1934.
In truth, comedy also has a strong place in this (or any) medium, also possessing of a variety of sub-genres itself. And again, representation can be found on the stands, from comics specifically for kids to parodies and more culturally aware political humor and even raunchy satire. Comedy is our old faithful. I had a talk with my old professor of philosophy once, with him saying that philosophy is the dead science, that no big names have come from that world in more than fifty years. I told him to check out George Carlin. Check out Bill Hicks. Comedy is the spoonful of sugar to chase the medicine for a reason. It is masked truth. This certainly applies to comics as well. Read Sam Henderson’s ongoing efforts. Read between the lines of Johnny Ryan’s comix.
Horror, the other megalith, has always been a popular set of themes, although admittedly nothing new or original has been offered from that wing of the mansion since Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Everything since is a rehash of previous ideas. The room is comfortable, but the windows seem to be boarded up.
As the larger of the mainstream publishing houses push primarily the supers, the smaller publishers are more prone to exhibiting said tales of sci-fi, comedy and horror.
Genres of fantasy and westerns, also having a long history in comics, seem to run in cycles. The same with biographical comics, currently doing well with BlueWater. The current reprisal of crime fiction also is promising, I just wish more of it were better written.
A personal longing of mine is to see the return of romance comics. Before you question my sentiment on the validity of love as a genre, consider the stone fact that ninety percent of every song ever recorded anywhere preaches for it, begs and screams for it. Jack Kirby himself introduced the genre to comic books, and it had lived on in different ways until the late 80’s I think, when the shear darkness of the epics of the day (Dark Knight Returns, the Sandman, and Watchmen, again) grabbed the reins of the industry with their oh so cool kung fu action death grip insistence. I am not arguing this point. Total sign of the times. Technology was allowing us to see more of the world stage, and things looked uglier than my first girlfriend. Somehow, the creators of romance comics were wrongfully sold on the idea that love must always be idealistic in terms (and so giving up the good fight), which has little place in reality. This remains largely unexplored territory.
The last of our medium of choice’s stalwarts, war comics, also finds itself abiding by unseen rules of industry trends and fluctuating cultural tastes. So many great works of the past here, like Kirby’s run of the Losers in Our Fighting Forces, also Enemy Ace and the Haunted Tank. I would like to point out that since the darkness trend worked its way into our foundation, the majority of war comics since seem more intent on carrying assorted political statements. For good or ill, it is not the whole picture. War is always more than politics.
What I see happening, since the last wave of the visionary neo-romanticists in contemporary writing (from Tom Wolfe on to that Neil Gaiman guy), what is taking hold genre-wise in comics and other mediums is meta-fiction- the blending of forms, if you will. This is another cycle, though in a much larger sense. When the brick wall approaches, when the well of ideas begins to run dry, we look to the past. We re-run, recycle, revive and re-imagine what has been done before. From retro fashions to movie remakes to remixing and sampling from previous music recordings, we are here now. The only “new” we have is the stripping of days gone by, chopping up the bits and restitching the pretty parts like doctor Frankenstein after reading all of Grant Morrison’s run on Doom Patrol. This is not a bad thing at all, indeed it demands a vast imagination and broad intelligence from its authors, as well as demanding the same from perspective readers. The mother cycle will run its course though, when something shockingly new pops out of left field. Like the music scene in Liverpool back when (or Kingston for that matter, or Seattle or New Zealand at the moment). This was the Renaissance, following the Inquisition and the Black Plague; this was the counter-culture boom of the 1960’s, following the claustrophobic post-war greys of the 1950’s. It is soon to happen again, you can almost smell it like coming rains.
Reformulating the old is a necessary thing, it does help define us, to see where we have been and where we are going, creatively and culturally. Until this wonderful impending explosion of whatever surprises us in the years to come, I just ask that we not forget the underscored genres from before.
Let’s think outside the box more often, and maybe people on the street will not immediately get the mental flash of Batman when someone brings up funny books.
as ever, tell me the colour of your panties here:
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