| Posted: 05 December 2011 at 11:19am | IP Logged | 1
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The issue of fictional time passing reminds me of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories -- another example of it being done right. Stout wrote those stories from 1934 to 1975; the main characters never really aged, the world just progressed "around" them.•• This used to be one of the simplest and most hallowed traditions of comics -- especially superhero comics. The characters are fictional, they don't age. Ever once in a while, someone would chirp up about how it would be "more realistic" if the characters "aged in real time" -- realism being such a key part of superhero comics, of course! And, too, what the chirper usually meant by "real time" was "since I started reading". I've lost count of the number of times people have pointed out to me that the FF and Spider-Man aged in something close to real time in their early issues -- conveniently ignoring, of course, that it was in the EARLY issues, and when Stan and Jack realized the books were going to be around for a while, they hit the brakes. And Steve Ditko, famously, did not want Peter Parker ever to leave high school! Unfortunately, as the market, and therefore the audience, shrank, the chirping got proportionately louder, and matters were not at all improved when some people who were doing the chirping actually started working on the books! It's so bizarre when we contrast this to other media. Like, Roger Moore as James Bond, for instance. ACTOR growing constantly older -- age spots on his hands in close-ups!! -- while the CHARACTER ages not at all!
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