|
|
Subject: Ramblings About Comics and Stuff #118: Writing For The Trade | Author | Messages | 
Jim Johnson
Posts: 461
 | Posted: 12/17/2008 1:30:29 PM | Last week, as you'll remember, I talked about the accessibility of comic stories, and postulated that this accessibility might mean different things depending upon whether the intended audience was that of individual comic books, or trade paperback collections.
Before the days of continued, multi-issue stories, accessibility meant little more than creating a story that a reader could follow from beginning to end. But with the advent of continued storylines, readers found themselves often coming in not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle. Yet, by nature of the periodical format, were still asked to follow along. And by and large, comic writers in the early days of multi-chapter stories were up to the task. Remember the FF / Hulk / Avengers battle from Fantastic Four #25 & #26 (Apr & May '64)? Those who missed the first part might have been kicking themselves over having not read it, but writer Stan Lee made sure that didn't impact
either their enjoyment or their ability to understand what was going on.
Because there was no "writing for the trade" in those days. Once that or any issue sold out, it was gone. Out of print. Presumably forever, save for periodic reprints in comics like Marvel Tales. But these issues would also quickly in turn be gone forever. Nowadays, writers may indeed write a story with the idea of eventual collection in mind, meaning those who still prefer getting our stories a bite at a time just might not be sure what we're consuming if we miss that first bite or two.
But the underlying assumption in the writing-for-the-trade mindset is that with all chapters of a story collected between two covers, the story is in fact, complete. Or, if it's part of a larger story, ala James Robinson's Starman, at least each volume is a self-contained story within a larger one. And that each volume of a trade paperback is a standalone product, just l
ike any other novel in the adjacent aisle of the bookstore. If you buy one, you will get a fully contained story that will not require you to track down other volumes in order to make sense of it.
Right?
Well, maaaybe.
Let's talk about my favorite current comic that I love to hate, DC's Final Crisis. It's not finished yet, but it's a foregone conclusion that this storyline will be collected as a trade once it is. But it's being maligned by many because of its reliance on obscure characters and tie-in to events in other storylines. Among other things. A lot of the more casual DC fans have never heard of one of the story's main villains (Libra), making understanding the character's motives somewhat difficult. And that story's opening sequence, featuring the death of Orion, was nothing less than confusing to anyone who had not read a previous storyline (Jim Starlin's Death of the New Gods). And there are all ki
nds of C-list characters running around whose obscurity make the overall story all but incomprehensible.
Final Crisis only has two issues to go. So unless writer Grant Morrison pulls Captain Carrot out of a hat and explains all before it's over, this entire story will be nothing less than a quagmire of epic proportions. Actually, I shouldn't say that. Not about the story being a quagmire, because it is. I mean Morrison pulling Captain Carrot out of a hat; he or someone else at DC might have done exactly that, for all I know.
So the Final Crisis TPB will not likely be a collection that's all that understandable on its own. Because there are too many vague references and too little explanation. You're not going to enjoy this book, let alone understand it, without doing some research.
Now, is that a bad thing?
Well, maaaybe.
The best literary works aren't always the ones that are the easiest to read. JRR To
lkien's Lord of the Rings is one example. Frank Herbert's Dune was one I almost put down unfinished before deciding that I should really make an effort to see what everyone had spoken so highly of. Alan Moore's Watchmen, to a lesser extent, falls into this category, although Moore's story was easily read and enjoyed as a mere superhero story, but was far better if one made an effort to pay attention to every last detail.
But all of those were self-contained works. If one could say that these stories were difficult to read, it was only because the authors put such a level of intelligence into it that it required effort on the readers' part to fully understand it. So it might have required re-readings of certain passages, chapters, or even an entire re-reading.
To understand Final Crisis, however, requires a pocketful of cash and a trip to the back issue section of the local comic book store. I'll give the series the
benefit of the doubt and say that it probably would be more easily understood, and maybe even actually enjoyable, if one goes back and reads Jack Kirby's old Fourth World stuff and Death of the New Gods and, ick, the recent maxi-series Countdown.
But, is it worth going through all that trouble?
Well, maaaybe.
The original Crisis on Infinite Earths was my formal introduction to the DC Universe. Prior to that, I was reading one or two of their ongoing titles. But I was somewhat fascinated by the rich if convoluted history of the DCU, and while CoIE was a complex story that didn't require knowledge of past DC history, I found that it made me want to learn more. And in picking up some of the older DC comics, it helped me understand, and enjoy, CoIE that much better.
And that's the difference. The original Crisis was captivating; it instilled a desire to read or reread all of thos
e old DC comics. Whereas Final Crisis just holds the reader captive, locked in a room with an unintelligible story unless you read a bunch of other stuff first. The original was an open hand; an offering. This one is a fist; a punch to the face.
Hopefully, this kind of storytelling doesn't set some kind of precedent, where the writing-for-the-trade mentality gives way to writing-for-the-twenty-volume-set. It would be a shame if a supposedly complete, collected edition in reality just turned out to be an incomprehensible chapter in a larger story. Much like many of today's individual comic books are. Comics have made such strong gains in the mainstream in recent years, and it would be a shame to chase away the casual reader again.
Could that happen?
Well . . .
- JJ
"You can live your life in a thousand ways,
But it all comes down to that single day
When you realize what you regret,
Which you can't reclaim but you can't forget."
www.facebook.com/QuiGonJimm
www.twitter.com/QuiGonJimm |
Jim Johnson
Posts: 461
| Posted: 12/17/2008 1:30:29 PM | Last week, as you'll remember, I talked about the accessibility of comic stories, and postulated that this accessibility might mean different things depending upon whether the intended audience was that of individual comic books, or trade paperback collections.
Before the days of continued, multi-issue stories, accessibility meant little more than creating a story that a reader could follow from beginning to end. But with the advent of continued storylines, readers found themselves often coming in not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle. Yet, by nature of the periodical format, were still asked to follow along. And by and large, comic writers in the early days of multi-chapter stories were up to the task. Remember the FF / Hulk / Avengers battle from Fantastic Four #25 & #26 (Apr & May '64)? Those who missed the first part might have been kicking themselves over having not read it, but writer Stan Lee made sure that didn't impact
either their enjoyment or their ability to understand what was going on.
Because there was no "writing for the trade" in those days. Once that or any issue sold out, it was gone. Out of print. Presumably forever, save for periodic reprints in comics like Marvel Tales. But these issues would also quickly in turn be gone forever. Nowadays, writers may indeed write a story with the idea of eventual collection in mind, meaning those who still prefer getting our stories a bite at a time just might not be sure what we're consuming if we miss that first bite or two.
But the underlying assumption in the writing-for-the-trade mindset is that with all chapters of a story collected between two covers, the story is in fact, complete. Or, if it's part of a larger story, ala James Robinson's Starman, at least each volume is a self-contained story within a larger one. And that each volume of a trade paperback is a standalone product, just l
ike any other novel in the adjacent aisle of the bookstore. If you buy one, you will get a fully contained story that will not require you to track down other volumes in order to make sense of it.
Right?
Well, maaaybe.
Let's talk about my favorite current comic that I love to hate, DC's Final Crisis. It's not finished yet, but it's a foregone conclusion that this storyline will be collected as a trade once it is. But it's being maligned by many because of its reliance on obscure characters and tie-in to events in other storylines. Among other things. A lot of the more casual DC fans have never heard of one of the story's main villains (Libra), making understanding the character's motives somewhat difficult. And that story's opening sequence, featuring the death of Orion, was nothing less than confusing to anyone who had not read a previous storyline (Jim Starlin's Death of the New Gods). And there are all ki
nds of C-list characters running around whose obscurity make the overall story all but incomprehensible.
Final Crisis only has two issues to go. So unless writer Grant Morrison pulls Captain Carrot out of a hat and explains all before it's over, this entire story will be nothing less than a quagmire of epic proportions. Actually, I shouldn't say that. Not about the story being a quagmire, because it is. I mean Morrison pulling Captain Carrot out of a hat; he or someone else at DC might have done exactly that, for all I know.
So the Final Crisis TPB will not likely be a collection that's all that understandable on its own. Because there are too many vague references and too little explanation. You're not going to enjoy this book, let alone understand it, without doing some research.
Now, is that a bad thing?
Well, maaaybe.
The best literary works aren't always the ones that are the easiest to read. JRR To
lkien's Lord of the Rings is one example. Frank Herbert's Dune was one I almost put down unfinished before deciding that I should really make an effort to see what everyone had spoken so highly of. Alan Moore's Watchmen, to a lesser extent, falls into this category, although Moore's story was easily read and enjoyed as a mere superhero story, but was far better if one made an effort to pay attention to every last detail.
But all of those were self-contained works. If one could say that these stories were difficult to read, it was only because the authors put such a level of intelligence into it that it required effort on the readers' part to fully understand it. So it might have required re-readings of certain passages, chapters, or even an entire re-reading.
To understand Final Crisis, however, requires a pocketful of cash and a trip to the back issue section of the local comic book store. I'll give the series the
benefit of the doubt and say that it probably would be more easily understood, and maybe even actually enjoyable, if one goes back and reads Jack Kirby's old Fourth World stuff and Death of the New Gods and, ick, the recent maxi-series Countdown.
But, is it worth going through all that trouble?
Well, maaaybe.
The original Crisis on Infinite Earths was my formal introduction to the DC Universe. Prior to that, I was reading one or two of their ongoing titles. But I was somewhat fascinated by the rich if convoluted history of the DCU, and while CoIE was a complex story that didn't require knowledge of past DC history, I found that it made me want to learn more. And in picking up some of the older DC comics, it helped me understand, and enjoy, CoIE that much better.
And that's the difference. The original Crisis was captivating; it instilled a desire to read or reread all of thos
e old DC comics. Whereas Final Crisis just holds the reader captive, locked in a room with an unintelligible story unless you read a bunch of other stuff first. The original was an open hand; an offering. This one is a fist; a punch to the face.
Hopefully, this kind of storytelling doesn't set some kind of precedent, where the writing-for-the-trade mentality gives way to writing-for-the-twenty-volume-set. It would be a shame if a supposedly complete, collected edition in reality just turned out to be an incomprehensible chapter in a larger story. Much like many of today's individual comic books are. Comics have made such strong gains in the mainstream in recent years, and it would be a shame to chase away the casual reader again.
Could that happen?
Well . . .
- JJ
"You can live your life in a thousand ways,
But it all comes down to that single day
When you realize what you regret,
Which you can't reclaim but you can't forget."
www.facebook.com/QuiGonJimm
www.twitter.com/QuiGonJimm |
|
|
|