misapear:
"although I'm sure you'd agree that the rack after rack of manga appearing at your local bookstore is not the answer ..... (and) ... will not continue to be as faddish as it is now"
I'll only say that manga, for the most part, doesn't interest me. I do have to admit there is one exception, Rurouni Kenshin, which if I ever find all of those books together at a reasonable price, I will buy them (loved the cartoon series). And no fad lasts forever, but obviously manga has found an audience. Judging by how much space they take-up in regular bookstores (usually equal to if not larger than the space allotted to comics and graphic novels/tpb), I'ld say that audience was a fairly large one, too, it's just not the same group of people that read comics. To dismiss manga simply because I don't like it as a whole is narrow-minded.
"As far as your laugh at my prediction of an end to the comics market: I think I stated badly that the profile of the readership will change (just as the profile of music and cinema fans has changed.)"
I meant no disrespect to you, it's just that so many people for so long have declared "THE END OF COMICS" that's it's laughable at this point. This industry needs a major shake-up, and I honestly don't see it coming from any of the current publishers as the industry currently operates (from developement to distribution). Unfortunately, the people in charge of comics as they are now won't think in a different way and so they continue to do business as usual, meaning things won't change from within.
As to "The Phantom Fiasco", I think King Features is taking advantage of the fact that two seperate companies want to create comics based on one character. For the regular comic shop customer, I don't think they'll get overly confused, since most people know what company (or companies, if you're like me) produces the comics they regularly read. The casual comic buyer (the really young ones starting-out or the people that visit shops about once a year) may get a little confused if they read both books and try to figure-out how they fit together. I would imagine though that the logos/titles will different enough that it won't be much of a problem. Remember, too, that "The Ghost Who Walks" is a legacy, with generations of Phantoms, each one a different character than the next. Why not capitalize on that fact by allowing Moonstone to do one version of The Phantom and Dynamite Ent to do another? From King Features stand-point, it's good business since they make money off of two series and not just one. To think that the two titles will be competing with each other for readership is to say that only Spider-Man, Batman and Superman can carry more than one title. I say "let's wait and see about that".
On the "Minority Issue", maybe I wasn't clear. I'm not saying that minority characters are, by default, second-tier characters or that fandom won't embrace them, just that, for the most part, that's how the creators and the companies treat them (remember I pointed-out Icon and Static as exceptions!). Yes, we can both state hundreds (or at least dozens) of examples of how a second, third or fourth-rate character became the next hot thing, most of who have been your typical superhero. I look at characters like The Falcon who has never had his own series (aside from one mini-series) because he's very "street-level" and community-oriented, and that part of his character is always written into nearly every appearance. Not to say that characters like that stink out-loud, but it .... searching for the right phrase, I can only think of .... makes him annoying after a while, just as I would get annoyed with Captain America if all he ever did was cry about how he's a man from a different era and all his friends are old and/or dead. It's like the writers/companies think that simply because a character is a minority that that part of their character needs to be the focus and the "superhero" aspect should take a back-seat.
That's what I see, at least. It's why I won't read a story with Black Lightning or Luke Cage or The Black Crow or American Eagle or a ton of other minority characters because I don't want to be beat over the head with the fact that they are a minority .... I can SEE that when I look at the pictures!
By the way, I'm part American-Indian, and while I would love to read about Native-American superheroes, I haven't seen one that hasn't come across as a sterotype. I mean, I don't go running around with feathers in my head and calling myself some variation of a bird (eagle, crow, hawk, etc), why is it that every comic company that's done a Native-American hero thinks that that's the way to go? Why has every single character of that group of people always had a love of the land? It's insulting! They might as well make them own a casino and get drunk all the time while their at it.
(deep breaths ... calm down .... they'll only comics ....)
"Most importantly to me is the overbearing hand of the fanboy stamped on so much of the releases from the major publishers. "
I totally agree with you here. I believe that part of the problem is, and has been for decades, that "The Vocal Minority" has taken the wheel and driven comics down the wrong road by constantly alienating anyone who wasn't already reading comics. It's kind of fitting to have this conversation on a site devoted to comics that could tell a story in 8-16 pages by creators who, for the most part, treated comics like a job and were paid peanuts, yet the books themselves sold in numbers that are nearly impossible for today's comics to match.
I overheard a conversation at a comic store between the owner and an artist (nobody important except in his own mind). The artist complained that he was only getting paid $200 per page (this was years ago, too, so I'm guessing he was a "bottom of the barrel" artist) and that simply wasn't enough for him to devote himself full-time to comics. I'm sorry, but if I was getting paid anywhere near $4000 to draw a monthly comic, I'ld skip sleeping and eating for that kind of money! I just kept thinking to myself "what other kind of job can you do what you love, set your own hours and make that kind of money?" It's not like drawing what someone tells you to draw is all that hard.
Point is, the creators have put themselves before the comics they create, and the fans whole-heartedly accept it, and worst of all, encourage it.
Oops ... I rambled a little bit there, didn't I?
