I have been contemplating exiting getting comic books for awhile. There will be exceptions and the occasional Omnibus or what not, but essentially saying goodbye to comic books once and for all.
My passion for collecting original art is one part of the equation. With comics at $5 bucks a pop, that adds up quickly and leaves a lot more money for buying original art.
Next up is that I left Marvel years ago and can no longer even recognize their Universe. I picked up Dark Ages which is fun and Death of Doctor Strange which has been a decent read. Anything else I have tried from Marvel has left me cold. They missed out on doing legacy material years ago. They could have had the characters age slowly. This could have given us a Fantastic Four with Reed and Sue's kids, Johnny could have married Crystal and had a child, Ben could be still the muscle for the group. Instead we are left with the 400th iteration of "new" stories from Spider-Man on whomever. From afar it seems they also went go for broke or woke. So Clea being new Dr. Strange isn't a natural evolution of the character - but of course Dr. Strange is now a woman. I guess the Ancient One could be Stephen or he will be dead for a year or two. Daredevil is now Electra? No matter, Marvel comics is what made me fall in love with comics. That love for Marvel is gone.
DC I was still getting a few stories and loved the DCeased stuff and Knights of Steel has been fun, but in continuity looks like woke virtue signaling to the nth degree. Gay Superman, Robin, Gay young Aquaman and who knows what else is just too much. Heck I don't really care who the characters are sleeping but it is more like LBQT etc romance comics. The heroic story is missing. So my love for DC has been lost.
Really I'm okay with all of it as these are the characters owned by the corporations. The printed comic book has been circling the drain for decades and are really the vinyl records of today. Maybe this gets to a new market looking for this material and in a digital format. And as a 66 year old white heterosexual male I should not be your target audience long term anyway. Still I wouldn't mind a few books that harken back to a different era. I mean I loved Morrison's run on Batman and was disappointment when it was thrown in the trash immediately (actually during his run). I also would love DC to publish Space Ranger, later Challenger of the Unknown runs and that type of stuff. It appears that material has to await public domain status.
All is this is outlining why I have decided to end getting comics by year-end. It is without animosity or any hue and cry of this is wrong, it is this is no longer for me. Not a good thing, not a bad thing. It is hard to leave behind getting new comics as it has been part of my life for 60 years plus and I even had a comic book store for 4 years in the 90's.
I'm a little sad, but I prefer to look forward to getting new art, finding those special projects in comics that I will still want to get and read. I hope the industry survives with not just TV and movies as reading a story is still a great experience and is more engaging then any show or movie.
I think you're making a great decision. Hopefully, I can succeed in a modified version sometime soon by really scaling back the new material while still reading up on the old classics. There's a lot of stuff "not for me" out there now, and a lot of entertaining books too. But way more than I can read or keep up with long-term. So much of today's books are driven by speculation via the variant covers or the next "hot" characters that people want to cash in on. I want a nice ongoing story that I can follow with a solid creative team and characters that I care about. Otherwise, it's an ephemeral read, never to be remembered again (and taking up storage space and cash for other things (LEGOS)). I do agree that Death of Doctor Strange was a fun read, really liked the story twists. I read INFERNO in one afternoon yesterday and it was so much poorer than the House/Power of X mini-series. To tell the truth I only like the X-Men pre-Bishop era and mostly pre-#200. "Cutting the cord" is hard and I've yet to do it to any meaningful degree. But I admire your decisiveness. Life's too short to expend so much mental and financial energy on something that isn't really working for you anymore. However, I still suspect there could be things worth writing about here . . . once in a blue moon.
ReplyDeleteYeah, today's comics are not up to the majesty of those of yesteryear. Gone are the all ages tales of good vs evil, wrong vs right. Now everything has to have a political point of view. As Howard Chaykin says, today's superhero comics are liberal indoctrination by fascist methods. Outside of the Big Two there are still some great works. BWS' Monsters is a masterwork! Reckless by Brubaker and Phillips is the team at the top of their game. And Ultramega proves that James Harren is one of today's best artists in terms of storytelling. I've been getting fewer comics but am enjoying them more as I only get what I truly love. And now that I've caught the original art bug I can't justify buying a $8-$10 comic. That money could better go towards a one of a kind piece of original comic book art. The superhero genre's best days are long gone. Very little worth rereading from 1992 forward. Good luck with your new plan! You are on a happier path for sure.
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