Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, star

Why Are There No Superstar Artists? Or, Comic News Sites Are Eating Their Own Tails By David Doub

David Doub writes for Bleeding Cool;

So I was reading several articles on various comic book websites and the question came up of why there are no Superstar Artists like we used to have back in the day with folks like say Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld, and I found this humorous considering the very people asking the question are part of the reason why there are no Superstar Artists. Comic "news" (and I use that term loosely) has devolved into a very fast moving "news" cycle because of the internet. So what we end up with is people talking about characters being gay and old characters being brought back that no one really asked for. If we're so drowned in the various minutiae of the comic book world (Oh my god, Daughtry did a sketch with Jim Lee) if there is any press about an artist or a new book, that news is going to get cycled out pretty quick.

In pre-internet days of comics you only had so much to go on about comics, and a lot of that was the comic books themselves. And since comics are very much a visual medium, of course the artists stood out more because it's all you "saw" of the comic book industry. But now, in the rapidly consumed world of comics on the internet (Wee, Obama is in a comic), the more important details of comics, like the creators, get lost in the shuffle of comic silliness (Yes, brokeback pose is silly, got it).

So when I read about comic news sites musing over why known creators can't seems to get traction on new projects, I have to laugh because they're some of the ones who helped to obscure these projects and push them out of any potential spotlight they might have had.

And I'm speaking from a position I know well. I'm a comic book writer and publisher and I'm working every day to promote great books that have no known creators or characters on or in them. I hear plenty people say "well if it's good, people will get to it," and I call foul on that. How can I get attention about a book when people are talking about mundane press releases about characters coming back that no one asked for. I'm specifically referring to Peter Cannon/Thunderbolt. The only reason that book is being made is because Peter Cannon was the template for Ozymandias of the Watchmen. Who cares?

First off everyone's favorite character of Watchmen is Rorschach (which in itself is messed up because sociopaths shouldn't be considered cool) and second this is an obvious cash/market share grab after DC's whole 'Before Watchmen'.

Yes Dynamite does have a track record of getting old properties and redoing them so it's probably coincidence with Peter Cannon and Ozymandias. What is not coincidence is they did a PR on this around the same time the Before Watchman books were hitting the shelves. They totally are using DC's promotion to promote their own book. So it's Dynamite who started the comparison, so I'm going with it like they wanted the news sites too. I'm not rewarding them for being "clever".

We instead should be talking about how Renae De Liz, creator of Womanthology needs our help, or about the fact that people have to use Kickstarter to fund comics because the money in the comic industry doesn't go where it really needs to go (People think Kickstarter is cool; I think it's sad that it has to exist).

So when I see an article on Bleeding Cool that wonders why Bryan Hitch can't move copies of a book, I say "Welcome to what the rest of comic creators have to contend with every day."

And I'm not saying Bleeding Cool didn't do their part to promote America's Got Powers. I'm saying the way the news cycle is, those types of articles just aren't going to cut it anymore. When the industry is so backwards that the sexual preference of characters and funny looking possess is a weeklong news event, just saying "Hey here is a cool book" is not going to cut it anymore. You have to say "Hey is here a cool book where the lead is into bestiality, raised enough money on Kickstarter to fix Greece, has 32 variant covers (which are just different pages of the book), and will be picketed by the Wesboro Church at San Diego Comic Con." Then you'll be able to make enough noise to be heard over all the rest.

I just used Bleeding Cool as an easy example of how "sensationalism" and "hype" drive a lot of the comic news cycle. I know that "sexy" stories can more easily grab more eyeballs than a boring dissertation on say the different qualities of comic paper, but there becomes a point where the system is working against comic promotions than for it.

Hell I know I would much rather spend my time writing comics than writing ABOUT comics, but that's the way it currently works.

We need to focus more content and what really matters and ignore all the flash and hype. The only reason a company uses flash and hype is because we fall for it, so we're only doing this to ourselves. Readers forget that in the end, they have all the control and they honestly need to start using it more.

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