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Mike Norris Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 4274
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Posted: 10 June 2010 at 11:40am | IP Logged | 1
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Most of the attempts at including "mature" situations have struck me as amatuerish and out of place in the comics I've read lately. They had all the sophistication of a 13 year old giggling about boobies with his buddies at recess. And I know badguys are supposed to be evil, but do they have to call every female super hero they fight a "whore" or a "bitch"? Is that what passes for clever pithy banter these days?
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Jonathan Watkins Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 05 November 2005 Location: United States Posts: 850
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Posted: 10 June 2010 at 11:57am | IP Logged | 2
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I think the shared-monopoly of DC and Marvel, coupled with the Direct Market self-suicide, holds a lot of the blame for the state of today's comics. If we had multiple, viable companies producing all genres and distributed where all age-ranges would see them, then I think a lot of people who are currently trying to shoe-horn their stories into the super-hero genre wouldn't be present. As it is now, I think the industry has far too many people who would rather be writing anything but super-hero stories doing it because its the only way to write comics and still bring in a respectable income. I'm not trying to excuse that kind of opportunism-over-integrity, mind you. Its still indefensible to spoil one of the best, if not the best, forms of reading for young boys-- all for a guaranteed paycheck and a shot at maybe winding up in Hollywood.
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Brian Mays Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 24 January 2005 Location: United States Posts: 142
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Posted: 10 June 2010 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | 3
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Jonathan Watkins wrote: >>As it is now, I think the industry has far too many people who would rather be writing anything but super-hero stories doing it because its the only way to write comics and still bring in a respectable income.<<I wonder who would be writing professionally if they weren't writing super-hero stories?
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Jonathan Watkins Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 05 November 2005 Location: United States Posts: 850
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Posted: 10 June 2010 at 12:28pm | IP Logged | 4
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I wonder who would be writing professionally if they weren't writing super-hero stories? -- To my mind, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Ed Brubaker, and I'm sure others that aren't leaping to mind, are all people who would have varying degrees of success writing in a healthy comics market or in other medias. I think they are each writers who have talent, but who don't belong anywhere near the super-hero genre: because none of them are willing to let the genre be the genre. Instead we get pshycho-babble meta-textualizing, action movie screenplays, psychopathic protagonists, and hard-broiled detective stories...ALL of them cloaked in teh imagery of super-heroes. I can buy into all those things, just not the plugging it into a genre that is for kids. Let the kids read about noble, non-ironic heroes. When they get older, let them read about anti-heroes. Edit to add: I just read THE KILLER INSIDE ME after seeing a trailer for the movie. Loved it. The first person protagonist is a psychopath. Great, great little book. Today, who here would be SHOCKED, SHOCKED I SAY, to find a super-hero comicbook on the same premise?
Edited by Jonathan Watkins on 10 June 2010 at 12:35pm
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Brian Mays Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 24 January 2005 Location: United States Posts: 142
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Posted: 10 June 2010 at 12:44pm | IP Logged | 5
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Interesting thoughts, Jonathan. Reminds me of a discussion I was having regarding Transformers comics. You know, the big giant robots that change into cars, jets, tape recorders, etc. Some fans were crying for mature Transformers stories, stories that examined the culture of Transformers, that showed the harsh nature of civil war and class based warfare.It made me just shake my head in bewilderment. If that's what they're looking for, why not go read some prose like Asimov? Move on and let the kids be kids.
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Jonathan Watkins Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 05 November 2005 Location: United States Posts: 850
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Posted: 10 June 2010 at 12:56pm | IP Logged | 6
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agreed.
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Brian Mays Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 24 January 2005 Location: United States Posts: 142
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Posted: 10 June 2010 at 1:08pm | IP Logged | 7
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Sometimes I wonder if a second version of some stories like Infinite Crisis could be "recut" and made suitable for a 10 year old. In my eyes it seems like it could be done. You could still have the flamboyant superhero violence you like without going over the top.
Edited by Brian Mays on 10 June 2010 at 1:09pm
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Jonathan Watkins Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 05 November 2005 Location: United States Posts: 850
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Posted: 10 June 2010 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | 8
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Well, say what you want about Secret Wars; as an early teen I LOVED it. Big event comics can work really, really well. Unfortunately they've taken the same twisted route as the monthly titles: distorted with hyper-violence, "shocking" deaths and all the rest. SECRET WARS, for me at that time, was nothing more than a big special where all my favorite characters were in the same story. It didn't display the "This is serious business" element the following "events" have tried so desperately to infuse in their narrative.
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Brian Mays Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 24 January 2005 Location: United States Posts: 142
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Posted: 10 June 2010 at 1:39pm | IP Logged | 9
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100% agree with you. But they didn't have to take Secret Wars into R-Rated territory to let you know "we mean business here!"
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Matthew McCallum Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 03 July 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 2711
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Posted: 10 June 2010 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | 10
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The "Mature" label on comics today is directed at readers who desperately want to BE mature, but have no idea what maturity is all about. And, if the contents didn't smack of pandering, I would conclude the same about the creative talent producing them.
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Rick Whiting Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 22 April 2004 Posts: 2198
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Posted: 10 June 2010 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | 11
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Many of today's current pros are trying so hard to make comics (especially Marvel and DC superhero comics) so "mature","sophisticated",and "realistic" that the stories come off looking less mature and looking more silly and immature.
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Robert LaGuardia Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 15 November 2007 Location: United States Posts: 1296
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Posted: 10 June 2010 at 3:06pm | IP Logged | 12
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Mature is definitely not the word I'd use to describe today's shock value comics, unless there was an im at the beginning.
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