Direct Current 2.0
Week of August 18, 2013
Something not so funny happened on the way to reading my comics.
By Jim Durdan
His is an opinion piece, and as such it is MY opinion, not Sean’s, not Jim’s, mine. Some of you are going to read this and probably not be happy with me, others are going to read and say who cares. Hopefully one of you will read this and say, your right. If the hobby we are passionate about is to grow and survive deep into this century and the next, we NEED to re-evaluate why young readers aren’t attracted to comics. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Captain America, The Hulk and a whole encyclopedia of others are the modern equivalent to the tales of Homer; they are our Iliad and Beowulf. If people 100 years from now still care about them as we do today, we need to make sure that others that come after us love them as we do. Right now that is doubtful………….
When I was a kid nothing would irk me as much as my Dad calling my comics, funny books. I was never sure if he was deriding my interest in them, or if he really called them funny books. It was only later in life, that I realized that when my dad was a young child, there were no “comic” books as we know them today, (Dad was born in 1917), but that era’s equivalent to our comics was indeed funny books. They were magazines that simply reprinted the “funny” pages of newspapers, therefore funny books. I am sure there are those today who cringe when we call them Comic Books, the new, stylish term is Graphic Novel. But be they “Funny Books”. “Comic Books” or “Graphic Novels” they are a unique American art form that has survived for almost 100 years. However, unless things begin to change, at least somewhat, the longevity of Comics as a story telling form has to be in question.
In the mid to late 30’s the modern comic was born, featuring new materiel, which lead to the rise of the modern superhero books. But somewhere since then, something has gone wrong, very wrong. Comics of yore clear cut, with no grey. Right always won, and we always knew who was right. There was never a question as to if Superman or Batman were wrong. It just wasn’t going to happen.
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