Showing posts with label Naked Imagination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Naked Imagination. Show all posts

Friday, April 12, 2013

Naked Imagination: Resistance to Change

Warren Ellis once wrote a weekly column about comics that always fascinated me, almost as much as his comics did. I remember devouring those articles, being excited when they appeared, and being one of the many responsible for helping Mr. Ellis achieve Internet Jesus status. I have read many different columns about comics over the years, but that one was always my favorite.

I think my favorite part of his columns was how he was always brainstorming wonderful and experimental ideas into making the comics, and the industry of comics, better. Off of the top of my head I remember Mr. Ellis suggesting that comic book stores should grow up and start separating books not by DC and Marvel, but by writer and artist. He had the crazy notion that the industry would grow again (after the shrinking in the 90s) if it just stopped being so resistant to change. He would envision an industry that was taken as seriously as other literary and artistic industries. And I loved that about him.

In retrospect, his ideas were not necessarily as mad now as they seemed then. I remember when he wrote about the industry switching over more from a single/pamphlet type of comic, to a larger graphic novel. With writers and artists turning out works once a year like a band. The singles have not disappeared, but graphic novels still come out, and singles are collected and sold as complete editions quicker now than they were fifteen years ago. At least, I think they are.