We resumed our regular twice-weekly posting this Monday, the 16th, in the wake of the San Diego ComicCon International. Chapter Six is really not a chapter at all, in my opinion, but rather an entr’acte. Chapter Seven will follow, and we’ll be back to the normal schedule after this much-needed hiatus. You have been very patient in waiting for us to resume, and believe me, it has been noted. We are grateful. We thank you.
It was, roughly, just over a year ago that Eric, Rick, and I debuted our flight of fancy here, and, yes, a whole lot has happened, and a whole lot has been learned, and a whole lot has been observed. We’ve discovered just how difficult it is to work in this medium, and with this schedule; we’ve made many mistakes, and struggled to correct them as they arose; we’ve learned that the Beast must be Fed, and that our fan-base is our greatest strength; we’ve learned that there are more of you out there than we thought. We’ve learned a lot about loyalty, too.
I’m feeling introspective right now. This is the first time in over two decades that I’ve passed on attending SDCC, and even with that decision, I still found myself there for six hours on Saturday. It’s like the much-parodied Michael Corleone line from The Godfather, part III – every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in – but that’s not entirely fair, nor entirely honest; this time, I was there because I wanted to be. This time, I attended on my own terms.
A lot of what Lady Sabre is about, what this site and this comic was born of, is much the same. Rick and I have known each other for almost 15 years now, and yet I can count the number of projects we’ve actually worked on together with both hands and fingers left over. This isn’t due to lack of desire on either of our parts, but rather a concerted effort on the parts of the “Big Two” Publishers to keep us from collaborating. The arguments were always the same, to be brutally honest: they didn’t like Rick’s work as a companion to my own. Either it wasn’t in keeping with the house style, or it wasn’t slick enough or “mainstream” enough or popular enough or sexy enough or whatever they needed as an excuse. Flash won over substance almost every time, and artistic skill and strength of storytelling could be damned.
So we said enough was enough, and that’s how we came to be here. Eric, Rick, and I, what we want is to tell the best stories we can, have the most fun we can while doing it, and to entertain those of you who’ve come to take part in our tale. This is our profession, and we take pride in our work. We want to make a living doing it, and thus the questions surrounding the trade are of incredible importance to us.
That’s how this happened. That is why it will continue. On our terms, a collective “us” that grows as more and more readers discover Lady S. The poll about our first trade was especially telling to me, not solely for the vociferous support the crowd-funding option drew, but because of how many of you spoke so articulately about what you wanted the trade to be, your reasons for doing so, and your confidence in our ability to succeed.
(I expect we’ll be making a definitive announcement about the trade before the end of the month. We’ve still some options to explore and questions to get answered…)
It means a lot. We are more grateful than you can imagine for all the time and thought you put into your responses.
I’m thinking all of this, and I’m thinking about a lot of the news I saw coming out of the convention this past weekend, especially in regards to comics. I read a lot of tweets and reports and comments about various announcements, and I’ve seen a lot of gnashing of teeth and wailing in anguish. And it occurs to me that it’s time to say, clearly, something that I’ve been feeling for a very long time, now. Something so straightforward and so simple that one would think it could go unsaid. Yet comics, so unique in its relation to its audience, perhaps demands the stating of the obvious.
Some of you are continuing to buy books you don’t like. Some of you, I would venture, have been doing this for years. I direct this, with all the lovingkindness in my soul, to you:
The time has come to stop doing that.
Seriously.
Stop playing on their terms.
Because they’ve got you, and they know they do, because they’ve had you for years in some cases. They’re holding you by the short-and-curlies, because they know, they absolutely know that if they publish something with “Bat” in the title, or the letter “X,” or the word “Spider” you will buy it, and you will keep on buying it no matter its quality. No matter if they’re ignoring you, or if – in some instances – they’ve even gone so far as to outright insult and dismiss you.
This isn’t an indictment of any particular story or event or character or creative team or anything like that. For every story that someone loves, there’s someone who’s going to hate it. That’s not the point. Nor is this an argument of “creator-ownership vs. work-for-hire.” I’ve lived in both camps, and both camps have their merits, and the arguments in support of one or the other are for a different time.
This is about getting out of, to use a very poor analogy, the abusive relationships you’ve been living in for years, now. This is about you realizing that the love of a character does not require you to be abused every time you pay for the privilege of spending time with said character. This is about you realizing that, until you stand up for yourselves and walk away, nothing is ever going to change. This is about you realizing that, after month after month after month of hoping and praying that it’s going to get better and instead seeing it get steadily worse, it’s time to call it quits.
At the risk of causing offense, you who have waited for months, years, to see your beloved character “return” to quality, you have become part of the problem. The only language the publisher speaks fluently is Money. When you buy books you do not enjoy, you are sending a mixed message, and it’s not getting through.
I say it again: set your own terms.
They need you. We need you, all of us who create stories and art and try to make a living in doing so, we need you.
You don’t need us.
Don’t forget that. Don’t let the publishers forget that.
Hold fast.
Greg
You have crystallized here something I’ve been realizing over a much longer time than I think it should have taken. It took me a few years but last year, especially, brought it home that these companies, generally, don’t care about me and my opinions. It was sort of like being guy punched after the DC panels last year and there was more of that this year, though nowhere near the same level (at least not that I saw this year.)
I like liking things, I like being a fan but it has come to a point where I need to enjoy comics more if I’m going to be spending this much money on them. I need to stop buying comics that I’m indifferent toward. I need to stop buying comics that I don’t care about. It wears me down and frustrates me and makes me wonder why I’m still buying comics at all. There were a number of announcements this weekend at SDCC that made me happy and made me curious. Image and IDW and Archaia and Oni are all doing some interesting things and I need to be better about supporting those efforts than continuing to mindlessly buy certain titles.
It hurt with some and I think, I think, I’m about ready to walk away from the others that have that hold on me.
For my part, I generally stopped buying based on the character years ago. I buy based on the writer and the artist. I look at who is doing the work on it and that drives whether I will get into it. My money is not flowing great these days so I have to be a lot more picky in my comic buying. Obviously I am a fan of your work, or I might have missed this series. Ellis, Abnett and Lanning, Cornell, and a few others will always get my interest at least. There are others I do that with.
There are some characters that I will investigate what people are doing with, but the days of an automatic sale based on a character are long gone.
Amen, brother.
I kind of take the same approach as Jeremiah -certain writers I don’t like have come on a title and boom, watch that title fall from my pull-list. Other writers have jumped on a title and wham (I’m all about the sound effects today) that title flies onto my pull-list. That said, this has also caused me to spend money on books I wasn’t actually enjoying. Some writers go stale, and I’ll be honest, it wasn’t until I *had* to suddenly stop collecting that I realized how many books I wasn’t actually enjoying.
When I do return to collecting, my new rule shall be thus: If I’m not excited to get that book, I’m not buying it. It’s far, far too easy to get caught in the habit of just buying books every week. Then you get home and go “Well that was crap.” And then buy it again next month.
You hit the nail on the head Greg (may I call you Greg?) and it’s refreshing to see so many pros within the comic book industry speaking openly about these kinds of things. It’s becoming a lot more frequent and can only lead to better things. Hopefully more and more fans follow suit.
Incidentally, while I’m not collecting tangible comics I am extremely grateful for all the quality webcomics out there.
Couldn’t agree more ! Thanks Greg for having the courage to break out and do your own thing. I stopped “collecting” comics a few years back after DC decided they had to return to the 1970s and bring back Hal Jordan and Barry Allen and Hawkman and…and….and……
Since then I have enjoyed comics in a way I hadn’t since those early days where everything was fresh and new and exciting. I have checked out webcomics like American Barbarian and Battle Pug, caught up with some great runs on Hellblazer and Savage Dragon, fell in love with new works like Brubaker’s Criminal, Who Is Jake Ellis ? and The Unwritten. I have even had the cash to grab some amazing books by local Aussie artists like Bruce Mutard, Tom Taylor and Luke Wilson & Grug. Oh, and I have finally been able to complete my collection of Love & Rockets, which I started reading with issue 22 oh so many years ago !!
(hmmm, that does contradict my message a little, but come on, it is LOVE & ROCKETS we’re talking about here !!!)
This is not to say I have completely abandoned the Big Two (and other mainstream publishers like Boom! and Dark Horse), but I only read those books by writers and artists I enjoy, like Brubaker, Mark Waid (the end of Irredeemable was beautiful and inspiring, and the last page alone shows how much he deserved the Eisner for Best Writer – sorry Greg !), David Mack and…oh….what is the name of that guy currently writing The Punisher ? (rhymes with “trucker” ?).
Wow, this screed is becoming babble, so let me end by echoing your thoughts Mr Rucka: Fans, buy ONLY those books you are enjoying the hell out of, and when you do not enjoy them anymore, drop them for something new which does excite you ! My suggestion is you grab something that looks good from a local artist. I have found by doing that you not only get a great story, you also have the chance to talk comics with the book’s creator !
Thanks again for the inspiring words, Mr Rucka. I hope many more take up the call.
It has been a great couple of weeks, IMHO, for prominent people in their areas of expertise speaking out against the developing trends and issues of political correctness. Add to this Gregg’s excellent advice about the comic industry and I’m starting to regain faith in the belief that the majority may actually start to stand up against the controlling minority.
I used to buy comics because of the characters. Last year that ended and I suddenly found I was hardly buying any comics at all (great way to save money). As others have stated, it is now more important to see who is involved in the project than to worry about the subject of said project.
That is why I got hooked on Lady Sabre and have gotten a bunch of my friends hooked as well.
Keep up the good work guys and we will keep spreading the good word
Perhaps stating the obvious, but if there is a character/storyline you feel you must follow, but can’t stomach buying, visit your local library! Chances are very good they’ll have it. If they don’t, they can request it for you via interlibrary loan.
There is that!
I think both companies made it easy for me when the canceled and renumbered all of their core titles.
I had very long unbroken runs of pretty much every marvel book. It would be hard for me to have ended them from a mental standpoint. But, they did it for me. So, now I am mainly a back issue buyer as I fill in those runs and only have 4 books on my print pull list and another 7 or so digital.
Marvel specifically is off the deep end. I was looking at a book I bought in a dollar bin for my son (Marvel Adventures #16 featuring the Silver Surfer I think). I got to the subscription page:
Avengers
Captain America
Iron Man
Hulk
Thor
Fantastic Four
Amazing SPider-man
Spider-man
about 8 X-books
and maybe 3 or 4 others I’m forgeting.
Thats it. Less than 25 books total.
Now they but out 25 Avengers books, 2 or 3 Iron Man, 2 or 3 Captain America, 2 Hulk. It needs to stop.
I want to buy a book and have some idea what is going on. I was interested in picking up The Avengers but could not figure out which one to buy (or if in buying one I would even get a complete story) so I said Fuck It and bought none.
I can’t be alone in this. Sorry for the ramble. You rule Greg! I’ll follow you to hades!
Daredevil. I forgot that for sure.
So well said!
Honestly, I love visual story-telling and the options available in that medium that aren’t there in text (which I love for wholly different reasons). And I love the idea of loving comics, but these days there is just so little for me to love and so much that rates ‘meh’ from the big two that I barely buy anything from them.
I sincerely desire good stories (with a diversity of viewpoints) and a range of characters and I just can’t get that from mainstream comics any more. I never really made a conscious decision to stop buying mainstream books, it just happened because I can’t get stories and characters I enjoy from them; ultimately, these companies made the decision for me when they decided flash was more important than substance (over and over and over).
There are still plenty of characters that I love, but it’s not because of what’s going on in their books currently; it’s memories of stories and moments that I read a while ago and will always cherish, but that’s not enough for me to pay money for the mediocre work going on right now just because a book has a character I like/liked in it.
So, yeah, I totally agree with everything you’ve said here and I appreciate you and Rick and Eric committing to making something this cool and enjoyable and entertaining for those of us who like great stories and characters in our comics.
I agree. I have always agreed.
That’s why my partner and I formed GENRE 19 and began making awesome comics. We weren’t being served so we had to make our own.
There are an army of us out here. The fans need to know it.
Back around late 2001, I fell out of comics when I lost my job. It was an expense I couldn’t justify. By early 2003, I was fully employed again, but I didn’t return to comics. I might occasionally pick up a trade, but regular purchasing didn’t happen. I missed the rise of the ‘events’, starting with Civil War. Then, over time, I got interested. I saw some interesting stuff come out. It took several years, but I got back on the merry-go-round.
And then I burned out again. And every time I tried to get back on, I felt like the Big Two just wanted to throw me off and wouldn’t stop the merry-go-round from spinning. Like the new Thor? Too bad, we’re rebooting him before the new movie/killing him off/interfering with the current writer’s plotline for an event.
When I was a kid, creative teams might stay on a title for years. Now? They rarely stay for any length of time. Big character changes are routinely undone. Decompressed storytelling means that what once might be done in one or two issues takes SIX. Crossovers routinely make it so you have to do high math to figure out which comics to buy. Beloved characters are ruined or cancelled when they don’t sell well. New readers are not attracted in. so the death-spiral of catering/abusing the same shrinking clientelle continues.
Right now, my son only actively demands to read one comic when I buy it….Atomic Robo. My daughter has shown interest in the Adventure Time comic. My wife (once a dedicated Sandman/Vertigo reader) hasn’t even shown an interest in reading Unwritten….by an author whose books she’s enjoyed.
I want to love comics, but more and more often it seems like comics don’t want to love me back. I can’t wait until Lady Sabre is collected. I bought Freak Angels for the same reason; it’s the loving work of unfettered creators doing what they love and respecting their audience while doing it.
So wait, is this Marvel relaunches everything in October what you were referring to? How many times have we gone thru “52″ relaunches? Or just total revamping of characters? Hell two of your Punisher predecessors: one rewrites the character’s storyline so Kingpin is his primary antagonist — the other does the Frank-n-stein. There are much bigger crimes, of course. The Adam Strange with emptied eye sockets irritated the hell out of me. Aquaman with the harpoon…
I personally look at these characters like I look at Tintin. An old, established character. Would you suddenly make him a black American (he’s Belgian,) a-a-and, for the shear fun of it, gay? Hell, no. Whatever made that character work, whatever ‘stuck to the wall’, you don’t mess with. I’m a continuity freak as it relates to what the characters ARE — storyline continuity is not that big a deal to me. But geez, how many times have we relaunched Avengers since Marvel’s bankruptcy? Are we at 3 now?
No, I’m not referring to anything specifically. I’m referring to the fan relationship to the publishers generally.
Ah. As long as publishers own characters, and/or publishers wrap themselves in reputations earned in the 1960s, you’ll be getting that. You could follow creators, but frankly there’s a lot of title jumping, especially in the Big Two.
Either road, that a publisher might get lazy, rest on their laurels for years-on-end, shouldn’t surprise. I think that these Webcomics is a great way to circumvent a lot of that crap.
I dunno. A black Tintin might have made Tintin in the Congo more interesting (and less cringe-worthy).
Yes! An abusive relationship indeed.
It’s hard. I know that. My dad bought me first comic book in 1969 (Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane), I was 5 years old. I used to go with him to the drug store every Sunday to pick up the paper and he’d buy me comic books. Back in the day I bought both Marvel & DC, though mostly DC. I stayed with DC through the bronze age, the crisis, and the crazed event driven culture post Death of Superman.
While I wasn’t happy with this current reboot I was going to give it a chance but then SDCC 2011 happened. I was appalled how the “batgirl” of the con was treated. How she was heckled and the publishers who were in charge of the panel didn’t stand up for her and shut down the audience. I was also appalled how questions about women in the industry were dismissed.
Clearly the company knew they had a PR disaster on their hands because they then had to release a “We hear you” press release.
I dropped my DC pull list the next day. It wasn’t easy. It was a 40+ year relationship. I wasn’t going to buy DC until things improved, but Smallville Season 11 changed my mind. So right now, this is the only DC I’m buying. I’m buying one Marvel. The rest are various publishers.
I have a 20 plus year relationship with my LCS, and the owner was kidding with me that it was if I was coming off a bad divorce and now playing the field with all the other comic books out there. I think he makes a good point.
Once I stepped away from the big two, I discovered a lot of variety out there. The budget that was eaten up by my DC pull is now free and I’m enjoying spreading my wings.
The advice here is spot on. The bottom line is what matters. I can complain all I want about stories I don’t like but it’s going to last as long as sales sustain it.
So for example, I can complain about the recent Wonder Woman/Superman hook up until I’m blue in the face. It’s not going to change one thing. The only thing that matters is if it sells. It will in the short term but I chose not to rubberneck.
Love it. The habit/trap I had to break out of was the notion that I couldn’t drop a book that I’d made an investment in as a series. Clearest example: I loved so much of what the Green Lantern book/franchise did during Sinestro Corps War. I started buying it, and everything around it. Yet within a year or so it started (for me) a gradual (and continuous) slide into less engaging character work and predictable, repetitive plotting. Yet I kept buying. And buying. Because I felt like there was never a moment when I could disembark and not feel like I was going to miss that moment, just one more issue down the road, that everything was finally going to turn around.
What I’ve found in the past year (and the New 52 has been a surprisingly effective catalyst here) is that I can drop an unsatisfying book–abruptly, sometimes in the middle of a multi-issue arc–and not miss it. Because once I set myself free from the habit of an unsatisfying reading experience, I stop being unsatisfied.