posted on July 29th, 2009 in columns
Being not at all an account of boobies…
In deconstructing the machineworks of the almighty creative effort, I am beginning to see more of its hidden workings. I see the skeleton.
What I need personally and impersonally, what my creative yearnings need, hell- what the whole industry needs, is the step back warranted so as to grasp more of the bigger picture. In doing so, I can see the roads travelled. Yea, they may not have gone anywhere good before, but who is to say the same results would still apply? We crave survival like mother’s milk. We need alternatives, other possibilities to insure survival- the more the merrier, right?
With regards to the industry, fans are griping increasingly about pricing to the deaf ears of publishers, creative folks are hunting better day jobs to stay afloat of the economic beast of the apocalypse, retailers are dying off while distribution is operating with the megalomaniacally capitalistic sentimentalities of a crack dealer. Get us all hooked on what you give us, Diamond, but what happens when you fall below the weight of your own bloated ineptitude? You have spent years killing the competition, so where else do we turn? So many problems, all linked together. And none of this is news, to be sure.
Obviously, if the game is not working, if the girl is sick on so many levels, then maybe it’s time to get checked for VD? Maybe a new girl entirely? If the system is not working, then let’s just change the system, easy as pie.
Problem solved.
Of course, semantics beseech more. So I propose that all angles be explored more openly, no stone left unturned. Innovation is NOT costly, and right now everyone’s wallet is skinnier than a Jeph Loeb plot.
But this compelling surge to take everything online, to embrace technologies as though that alone might validate our medium…
In all honesty, it will only ever work for the big boys. The total sales of comic books are only a fraction of the total revenue from both Marvel and DC. Their parent companies will only keep the shop open strictly as an idea house. Though the million dollar movies could not exist without the printed source materials, all the money men know and likely despise that. The big two are not looking ahead to the extended health of the comic book business, they are looking to take your money and validate their investors, same with Diamond, or any collective entity of such girth. Which means, as their very individualized best interests do not match with the well-being of the industry proper, then we should stop looking to them to set the standards for everyone else. They can afford to spend money. They can afford the egos of big names and production values.
And realistically…it works for them.
Of course they are the giants, they get the job done no matter the moral costs of turning a dime. Damn you Bendis for making the Avengers cooler than ever. Damn you Morrison for shoving the creative stick up mainstream DC’s arse and giving it a spine again. It works for them, and even with the insane cover prices, even with the burning out of so many spirits, their sales stay strong enough to purport survival. So everyone piles in step to mimic the best they can.
Which is the heart of this problematic nexus, I think. We need publishers willing to take chances. Everyone needs to take chances, creators and retailers and distributors too. Screw marketing agendas, why not devote effort into outright survival at a level beyond the next sales quarter, the next voucher period? Why not show some real creative innovation and fill that void? Try. New. Things.
And now I get to the point of this and explain myself a bit.
In pursuing alternative directions, one big trend I am predicting for the next couple of years in small press will be a cheapening of production expenditures at every link in the chain. Cheaper books means more books sold, and more books sold means more jobs. I can imagine it all, from certain publishers exploring less pricey printing methods to certain creators exploring less pricey tools for their trades. For example, a decent colorist needs around six grand for the necessary software to do what they do. A Doctor Martins watercolour kit costs a world of a difference less. The very same logic applies to digital inking as well.
Still, we all have heard the argument calling for lower grade paper stock, thinking that will equate to cheaper comics. I have used that argument myself, but it is not really so easy a thing. Paper stocks evolved over the past twenty or twenty-five years, primarily to match pace with the then fervently expansive evolution of the colorist’s craft. Coloring does dictate to a large degree, the quality of the paper to be used. Which translates in that reducing of grades would decisively require a falling back to more primitive coloring techniques. Lest we forget, uber-colorist Steve Oliff thrived on the challenges back when though- his own experimentations prompting a number of forced evolutions in the comic-making process, so I believe it can be done again if necessary by those color artists up for new challenges.
However, as the grades of paper have evolved, so too have the printing methods used. This is the point many people miss.
Certainly, Baxter and newsprint would be dramatically less expensive to use, but then the methods to do it, the actual presses necessary for the production process, have themselves become archaic and outdated. Cheap paper is one thing, but to change an entire process is a very expensive venture. Unless of course, some enterprising publisher has the fundage to buy up any of the prematurely retired printing presses from one of the many newspapers going out of operation across the country, or maybe cut some manner of subletting deal with an extant newspaper publisher…then newsprint comics might again be feasible for some. I imagine there could well be some middle ground there, as there are so many papers to choose from. And if the larger publishers would like to continue blaming their own damn gouging on paper costs, then let’s see them bloody well do something about it. Their blame game of fingerpointing resolves nothing. Obviously, as has been stated and proven elsewhere many a time, prices are raised because a large percentage of fandom will shell out no matter what. Fans are greasing their own arses and have no right to blame pubs as long as they continue to pass their dollars into the same damn grimy hands.
And in similar vein, I have tried to insert into countless conversations the idea that retailers should step up and challenge the distribution gambit head on. Like a union. Online sales will need to happen as well, regardless; but for everyone to get by, then all paths must be tread. There is room for everyone and we cannot rule out anything. This also means that more persons elsewhere in the food chain need to realize the importance of the comic book store. How many creators got their start in retail? How beneficial are instore signings, for fans as well as creators who may not otherwise have the time or money for all out conventions? Yet still, retailers need to grow balls. There are other distributors, but unless you make use of their services you have no earthly right to wax irked over the state of things. Stop being lazy and find resolution.
So that’s my suggestion/prediction. For artists who cannot possibly afford the thousands of dollars in equipment needed to consider a renaissance of going back to older ways of plying their trade. Different strokes for different folks indeed. For retailers to step up and defend themselves in unison as opposed to crying foul or just closing their doors forever. For other avenues of distribution to not only be explored, but for every avenue of distribution to be embraced equally, or at least given a seat at the same table. Hence, no more exclusive contracts. And for publishers to take the biggest leaps of faith, and see that the framework needs to be hammered into a completely different structure if it is to survive the storm.
Is this THE magical cure all? Hell no it’s not. It’s only yet another perspective. As with the trying economic glory of our current days, there is no single solution. No one solution that will resolve all woes wholly and in a way that will appease everybody. But it is a solution nonetheless. And it may well work for some. What might not work for someone else may damn well be what you have been looking for all along.
And no matter what, if we want something, whether personal creative fulfillment or the continued livelihood of an industry we love, we have to earn it. We have to work for it. And just maybe step back and strip it down to basics til we remember it again, for what it always was.
by Richard Caldwell, Managing M@#$%@ F@#$%@
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