According to Dan Didio and his editorial team, DC Comics’ New 52 is here to stay. It is to be the new standard for the brand from here on in.
If this is the case, then Shawn is urging his fellow comic fans to move on. Your money is valuable, but more importantly your TIME is precious.
I know many DC fans are frustrated. I am too. But unfortunately, we the comic fans don’t own the DC Comics superheroes or its catalog of over five thousand characters. Those properties are owned by corporate conglomerate Time Warner. And as owners they can do whatever they want with those properties.
But what we do own is the money in our wallets. Moreover we control how we spend it.
In addition to our money we also own our time. And since time is more valuable than money because you can’t get it back it’s just not a good investment of it hoping, wishing, praying and waiting for DC Comics to change.
That’s giving your power away.
I’m not going to waste any more of my time waiting for an indifferent and hostile editorial team to change its direction. If this is the course Time Warner is allowing Dan Didio and his editorial regime to go in, then let them go in it.
I don’t have to spend my money on it.
Just remember my fellow comic fans, YOU are the customer. You don’t have to buy anything from someone who you think hasn’t earned the right to your money. Moreover, you don’t have to buy anything from someone you believe doesn’t respect or value you as a customer.
When it comes to the storytelling medium of comic books, DC Comics and Marvel Comics aren’t the only game in town. Right now there are lots of great comics currently being published by independent artists who publish their own work. These men and women (Yes women) deserve your money and support.
Over the past few years I’ve been spending most of my money and my time with independent artists and writers. From what I’ve seen on that side of the comic book market writers and artists have been producing some of their best work. There’s a reason why Books like The Walking Dead are building a following, it’s because the books are that good.
And if you’re reading this blog, then you can read comics on your computer. The Webcomics scene has been exploding with some great strips. I can personally recommend several I’ve been following the past couple of years:
Randy Milholland has a great strip called Something*Positive. But in addition to the laughs he provides with the S*P Strip, he self-publishes a great comic called Super Stupor. Having bought all four issues and read them cover to cover multiple times, I can tell you it’s one of the best comics comic fans don’t know about.
Super Stupor #3 is a brilliant commentary on the aftermath of a reboot on comic book characters. It’s a comic I urge every comic fan to read.
Danielle Corsetto draws a strip Called Girls with Slingshots. It features some of the most well-written lesbian characters in comics. In her storylines characters like Thea and are shown as multi-dimensional characters with thoughts and feelings, not cardboard caricatures.
Jeph Jacques has a great strip called Questionable Content. This is a fun one about a group of twentysomethings and robots.
Yale Stewart’s JL8 Captures the heart and soul of DC Comics heroes in fun stories that will put a smile on any comic fan’s face. If you’re a fan of the classic DC Universe, then this is the strip to get behind.
All of these independent creators own their own properties and self-publish their own strips online. Most self-publish trade paperback compilations as well that you can order directly from them. You probably can score an autograph too!
And if you want to branch out of comic books, then try some fantasy fiction. There are dozens of great paperbacks out there with just as much white-knuckle action as a 32-page comic or a TV show like Smallville, Buffy, or Arrow. I self publish several fantasy titles in print and digital format like the Isis, Isis: Trial of the goddess, Isis: Amari’s Revenge, Isis: The Ultimate Fight, and The Temptation of John Haynes and I’ve been told they read just like comic books.
And all of us creators want the support of comic fans. We work hard for it day and night. We’re making our best efforts to serve the reader. If more than a handful of comic book readers threw us one percent of the hundreds of dollars they spent on DC and Marvel comics it’d make a huge difference towards improving our lives and helping us take our craft to the next level.
Long-term your support of independent artists and writers levels the playing field and makes the industry more competitive. When you the comic fan spend money with us it opens the market up and allows it to move forward.
I’m urging everyone to move past complaining about DC’s New 52. Take this time to try out some new forms of entertainment like webcomics, indie comics and self-published independent fiction. If you like what you read and see, bring those creators to the forefront of pop culture and make them the new icons for the new millennium.
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