Four Color Hell likes a challenge
Todd at Four Color Hell, a group comics-blog, mentions in passing that he’ll be posting a defense of Dave Sim later this week. For those of you who don’t know who Sim is, trust me; casually mentioning you’re going to defend Sim is a bit like saying “and later this week, I’m going to pop over to the Atlantic and swim it.”
Digby on Affirmative Action
Digby states well something I was attempting to say in comments earlier this week:
We don’t hate Thomas because he’s black or because he was a recipient of affirmative action. We hate him because he’s an extreme right wing radical who nonetheless claims the mantle of racial victimhood and uses it dishonestly in the service of bigotry.
The difference between Dean and Kucinich
Kevin Moore says he sees “little daylight” between Dean and Kucinich’s positions on the issues. I wonder if Kevin has seen this handy table prepared by Bob Harris, comparing the two issue by issue. (Via Red Onion).
Long story; short pier on Why You Don’t Read Comics
If you’re at all interested in comic books, this essay by Kip – about everything that keeps comics and readers apart – is a must-read.
Pedantry on replacing Affirmative Action
Scott M. argues that we should replace Affirmative Action with a peerlessly fair and unbiased system: admission to college by lottery.
Fatshadow on fat politics as entitlement politics
Just a cool post taking on an ignorant editorial.
Half the Sins of Mankind on Incest
An interesting attempt to distinguish between incest and homosexuality for legal/moral purposes. An argument that I found interesting, and haven’t heard before, is that incest laws cause much less of a burden than anti-gay laws do.
Not Geniuses on the politics of mediocrity
An excellent post on what’s wrong with our electoral system. Our system is, in effect, designed to reward candidates for being the best fundraisers and the best soundbiters. If we assume that the best fundraiser/soundbiters are always the best leaders, then great; otherwise, we’re in trouble..
Actually I always figured that when the last Cerebus came out, I would have to blog some thoughts on it. It should be fairly soon, I think, but I’m a bit out of touch with American comics.
And since I live in a town – in the only nation in the world that takes patriotic pride in its comics – with a statue of Too Much Coffee Man in the town square, and I have a brother who made several grand dealing in comics out of his basement in the 90’s, I can hardly say that I don’t read comics.
I don’t read enough of them, and it’s because I can’t afford the good stuff. I buy a Cerebus phone book every other year, a handful of translation from Japanese comics, and two or three English language graphic novels annually. This last year, all I’ve bought is a few Suske and Wiske (a.k.a. “Bob et Bobette” and “Spike and Suzy”) and that was because they are dirt cheap and I can practice my Dutch with them.
The problem is that given a fixed level of funding for my many literate addictions, I get a better rate of return on novels than on comics. I am constantly finding myself in comic book stores, asking myself, do I really want to pay $20 for this?
I know that comics artists (authors? Is there a designated term?) are not on the whole raking it in. I certainly don’t claim that the reading audience is being overcharged. But it’s very difficult to build an audience when prices are high, and it’s difficult to lower prices unless there is more volume. That is what has happened in Japan and to some extent in Europe, although in Europe, a lot of comics really are all about T&A, which always sells well.
Perhaps that is what the anglophone comics industry needs. As Kip Manley points out, yes, we all know there are good comics out there, that the best comics can hold their own with the best of any other medium. Maybe a little T&A on the shelves would get people used to the idea of buying comics? Or some cheap, quickly made, phone book-sized novels like the cheaper stuff in Japan? Something you can buy at the airport just before you get on the plane that will keep you busy for a few hours.
It’s a lot easier for me to spend $20 on a 200-page comic that at least promises to be titilating than $2.50 on something I’ll read in 10 minutes and may only be somebody’s idea of a prologue, or worse, the middle chapter of a story whose beginning I haven’t got.
There’s about a year until the final Cerebus. And I’ll be blogging thoughts on it, too – despite what I’ve said here, I do think Sim is one of the best cartoonists (“cartoonist” is my term of choice, by the way) alive.
I wonder if you wrote this comment before or after I posted about The Right Number?
I hadn’t seen your post when I commented. Well… we’ll see if I’m willing to pay $0.25. When I can get in on the ground floor – e.g. the first issue or at least the ability to read back issues, the odds are a lot better. I used to have all 80 issues of The Transformers – not because I liked it, but because I was there for issue 1 and I had to keep reading.