Four color musings.

The ugly truth is, I kicked the habit and joined the unhooked generation.

What it means is 7 months into 2008, I’ve stuck to one of my New Year’s resolutions. The resolution to kick the weekly comic book fix. Funny thing is, today, comics are more a part of the mainstream than probably any time since the forties or the mid sixties.

The big difference?

When I first started buying comics, their cover price was 10¢. While, I’m sounding like one of those guys I used to hear growing up... ‘Back when I was a kid blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,’ today a comic book starts at a cover price of $2.99 and climbs from there. When I was six or thereabouts, had a dollar gave me the incredible booty of 10 comics - the same haul today would set me back almost $30.00. It’s a big change!

In addition, I’m finding even though a lot of good material is out there, I find myself less attached to old favorites as time goes on.

Maybe the events in comics are a reflection of what happens in our world at large. I know the world is a smaller place than it was when I was a kid but, I don’t think of it being a darker place. Somehow though, comics have become much, much darker than they were when I was a youngster.

I was going to put the blame at the feet of this generation of writers but, I can’t say that is entirely the case. Some writers in the field ‘get it’ and manage to tell a story without going for the lowest common denominator for dramatic effect. Unfortunately, those scribes number among a select few and the remainder are pretenders at best. Maybe that’s because this generation grew up reading comics and little else and it shows.

Looking back, there was a time when comics were about science, math or exploration. Nowadays, they seem to be more about violence alone. I can’t say that it’s a good thing either. Comics have taken on characteristics I just don’t find appealing.

Back on Free Comic Book Day I started to write a post:

I might’ve posted this image once before, I can’t really tell if I did or not and I’m not going to spend the time going back to look.

Anyway, I scanned this in awhile back because sometimes over on the StatueForum sculptors will ask for reference images of characters they are planning to sculpt. Randy Bowen was getting ready to do an Ultron statue.

...and I just petered out because when Free Comic Book Day rolled around even that was no longer enough to get me to set foot in the local store and that’s a bad thing.

The industry wide event that I used to spread word about doesn’t even garner the slightest bit of excitement for me. While it brings to mind the quote from Paul of Tarsus there is something more than that to it. I never considered Comics childish but something in them has become banal (for lack of a better word).

I even went to this year’s NY Comicon and started writing about that too:

The Comicon wrap-up.

Rather than make life sound like all gloom and doom, I should say aside from the stuff with the cat I had a really terrific weekend at NYCC a few weeks back, something I needed desperately.

I managed to spend a little bit of time at the NY Comicon on both Saturday and Sunday. Sat in on a few panels. Saw and met bunches of people.

Got a chance to thank Erik Larsen in person for the wonderful columns he’s written of late up on CBR, especially the one about taking the time out to appreciate people while you can.

Finally met Steve Rude in person! After years of communicating with him and the ever-gracious Gino via email. All I came away thinking was how the phrase gentle giant really applies to the man. What was also kind of funny was watching him get as much fanboy as anyone else over Joe Sinnott who was part of a panel Steve and I had attended.

I had a long chat with Kevin McGuire and got pointed over to the great comedic films he has been working on. I will never forget the moment when one anxious fan came up to him during the course of our conversation and said to him, ‘I never got a chance to see your stuff when you were big!’ Sideways compliment to say the least handled with grace by the aforementioned Mr. McGuire.

I finally got a chance to see Keith Williams! I think it was the first time in almost 20 years! Keith is someone who worked the stacks at Barnes and Noble many, many years ago. Funny thing is he was working almost side by side with later DC editor Joey Cavalieri.

Met and had a good long chat with Bob Almond

Finally met Dave Simons who I had heard a lot about.

It was fun but...

I have to say I can see where these things are well into the point of getting played out. New York Comicon is a good thing for the industry without a doubt but, the thing I was reminded of was how just by no longer indulging in that weekly fix since January I had grown entirely disconnected from the world of comics. It happened that fast.

You would think it would take a lot longer but, it didn’t.

I just didn’t have the excitement within me about the latest news regarding character Z.

The pros I chatted with are entirely another matter.

In large part because my view of them is dramatically different than it once was. These are guys who struggle to get by. Not a few of them either. Taking a walk down Artist’s Alley is a reminder of just how tough a business comics really is.

The odd thing is that while it’s good for the pros to get that kind of feedback, it leads to odd moments on the part of both pro and fan alike.

Comics are so very insular in some ways as an industry and also as an art form. The convention was a big reminder of that for me and while I continue to want to write something in the field, I no longer have the need or compulsion to read stuff the way I once did. Nobody is more surprised than I am by that development.