Eric Stephenson Nails It

[Flightpath07]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=51172

Link to a speech given recently by Image Comics' Eric Stephenson, on the state of comic books, comic book companies, comic book stores, creativity, and the direct sales market.

It's sort of long. Many of you won't read it.

You'll be missing out.

Eric not only sounds like a smart man, but a man who cares. And he's not only smart, but he has a plan for the future.

[Le Messor]

He makes some interesting points, but one of his main arguments is probably why I'm having such a hard time finding anything I want to read now.

Y'see, he's saying they should be getting away from superheroes and targetting comics at 'new readers'; but what I've been seeing is lots and lots of comics that are aimed at people who don't like comics. Especially people who don't like superheroes.

I DO like comics, I DO like superheroes, I DO like superhero comics. So, I don't want another wave of comics deliberately trying to be what I don't like. And attracting new reader by ditching the old. And, as an old-school reader, I'm more and more marginalised.

(NB: I can read non-superhero stuff; I read Fables and Hyperkind, for one thing. I steer clear of the more unpleasant side of things, though, like most of what he cited as good.)

~ Le Messor
"Mediocrity has no greater consolation than in the thought that genius is not immortal."
~ Johann Wolfgang Goethe

[Flightpath07]

I hear ya. I'm old-school, I tend to like mainly super-hero genre.

Unfortunately, many people still see super-heroes as being rather juvenile. I think the point he was trying to make, as I read it, is that comics book are about more than super heroes (didn't they start as horror comics and war comics and detective comics, etc, long before superheros really took off?); they are their own literary art form not limited to just the one genre. More and more, people are telling all sorts of stories using this form of publishing, as it is, by its very nature, visual, having both words and pictures (and lots of 'em!). Therefore, tell people that they can publish more than just superhero stories in comic book form, and tell people that they can buy more than just super-hero stories in this form.

I guess he is talking about the comic and graphic-novel media as a whole. When it comes down to it, i agree with him about the super-ends of comic industry failing right now. Sounds like Eric just wants people to think outside the box. And, if it has worked so very well (and it has) for his company in the last few years, why wouldn't he be a little biased away from the failing medium and toward what seems to currently be working?

[Le Messor]

Unfortunately, many people still see super-heroes as being rather juvenile. I think the point he was trying to make, as I read it, is that comics book are about more than super heroes (didn't they start as horror comics and war comics and detective comics, etc, long before superheros really took off?); they are their own literary art form not limited to just the one genre. More and more, people are telling all sorts of stories using this form of publishing, as it is, by its very nature, visual, having both words and pictures (and lots of 'em!). Therefore, tell people that they can publish more than just superhero stories in comic book form, and tell people that they can buy more than just super-hero stories in this form.

That's mostly true. Though not quite with the history - I understand that comics have always been about superheroes equally with those other things; then superheroes dominated. Then they took a downswing, and the rest dominated. Then superheroes began to dominate again.

The problem I have isn't with what he's saying - that comics can be so much more than one genre. I support that.
The problem is, history shows again and again that people take something like this and run with it; and they run too far. So far that, if you want traditional superheroes now that romance comics are fashionable, you won't find them. At all.

That's what scares me.

~ Le Messor
"Megahertz: (n.) a way of measuring how well your computer matches the frequency of your local television channels."
~ Tonkin's First Computer Dictionary

[Phil]

I read this the other day and while I'm usually with Eric on pretty much everything he says as the man definitely knows his stuff business wise, creative wise and comic wise (Although his Snowbird story in Wolverine #143 wasn't the best...) and is a really nice guy, I do think that it's slightly wrong to insult Transformers, GI Joe and Star Wars comics, (especially when Image have published GI Joe comics in the past) as comics are comics; If they get people reading then what's the harm.
Everyone needs a gateway comic and even licensed properties can be dear to someone's heart years on.
Many top creators, including those working at Image now, have broken-into the industry on licensed properties.

[Flightpath07]

I read this the other day and while I'm usually with Eric on pretty much everything he says as the man definitely knows his stuff business wise, creative wise and comic wise (Although his Snowbird story in Wolverine #143 wasn't the best...) and is a really nice guy, I do think that it's slightly wrong to insult Transformers, GI Joe and Star Wars comics, (especially when Image have published GI Joe comics in the past) as comics are comics; If they get people reading then what's the harm.
Everyone needs a gateway comic and even licensed properties can be dear to someone's heart years on.
Many top creators, including those working at Image now, have broken-into the industry on licensed properties.

He also insulted The Beatles. Actually, he didn't, he just insulted those who take the consumers' money by re-issuing The Beatles' back catalogue.

And that is where his point on GI Joe, etc, is coming from, I believe (if I am interpreting him correctly).

As he says,

"That type of marketing is built on short-term sales goals that do little to grow and sustain readership, and it’s a trick that’s been done to death in other industries, to diminishing returns... Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Beatlemania is only going to line their pockets for so long...We can do better than that... the number one priority of every single person in this room should be the sustainability of this medium and the vitality of the marketplace. Constantly re-launching, re-numbering, and re-booting series after series, staging contrived events designed to appeal to a demographic destined only to a slow march toward attrition, and pretending that endless waves of nostalgia for old movies, old toys, old cartoons, and old video games somehow equals ideas or innovation will not make us stronger. Nostalgia has its place, and I’ll admit, there can be a certain sepia-toned appeal to fondly looking back on our younger, more innocent days, but if we want this industry to outlive us, we have to start looking at things like grown ups.Superheroes are great...This is the comic book industry, not the superhero industry, and if we want to stick around for the long haul, we need to recognize that and capitalize on that. We still cling to the shortsighted and mistaken notion that presenting ourselves to the world as Marvel and DC, as superhero movies, is the key to reaching a wider audience, and it’s just not. The world has stayed away. We need to fix that. If publishing lesser versions of people’s favorite cartoons, toys, and TV shows is the best we can do, then we are doomed to failure. Simply reframing work from other media as comic books is the absolute worst representation of comics. We can invite readers to innovate with us, but repurposing someone else’s ideas as comic books isn’t innovation – at best, it’s imitation, and we are all so much better than that."

Sorry, that was a long quote. But I thought it was needed.

I don't think he was insulting GI Joe comics, as much as just saying that publishing them is all well and good but it only caters to those fans of the original Gi Joe stuff, it isn't bringing any new readers to comic book stores due to new innovations and new ideas.

I see this as a plea to writers to consider the comics medium, no matter what your genre of writing may be. He is trying to broaden the reach of comics beyond what it is today, which is still mainly 30 and 40 something year old men who grew up with superhero pajamas (guilty, as charged).

I don't have a problem with what he is saying. I don't feel insulted by it. People can read any dang thing they choose to. I happen to like comics, and superhero comics, but that isn't all I read, either in the comics medium or elsewhere. I don't think this is a call to abandon superhero comics, but maybe he is suggesting that "the big two" (and others) should branch out a little more.

[Phil]

I don't think he was insulting GI Joe comics, as much as just saying that publishing them is all well and good but it only caters to those fans of the original Gi Joe stuff, it isn't bringing any new readers to comic book stores due to new innovations and new ideas.

But that's where I disagree with him and ergo with you.
I came to comics because of the X-Men cartoon.
I then 'graduated' from superhero comics to other genres.

The same principle applies with people whose first taste of the comic medium, not genre, is a licensed property.
A GI Joe comic will help them learn how panels work, how to read a comic and give them a taste for it.

I understand what he is saying; licensed comics do not fully convey the potential, scope and possibilities that comics have, especially when owned by a major corporation who have editorial control and only use the comics to sell toys, but to say

TRANSFORMERS comics will never be the real thing.
GI JOE comics will never be the real thing.
STAR WARS comics will never be the real thing.

is IMO wrong.

I don't feel insulted by it.

Nor do I.
However if I were a creator on a GI Joe or Transformers, or Star Wars comic I would be.

I don't think this is a call to abandon superhero comics, but maybe he is suggesting that "the big two" (and others) should branch out a little more.

Which I agree, subscribe to and support. I just don't think it's been handled 100% correctly here.