How Alan Moore Almost Destroyed the Comic Industry

Yep, you read the title correctly. And before you start thinking I don’t like Alan Moore…I do. In fact, I think he’s one of the most influential, if not THE most influential, comic writers of all time. But because of Mr. moore, the comic industry has suffered for years.

Sure, there were the horribly written and drawn comics from the early to mid 90’s. All the hype, special covers, overprinting, and over-speculating also almost killed the industry. But that’s another blog for another day.

Now back to Alan Moore. In the mid-eighties, Alan moore took over writing a failing Swamp Thing. Along with Steve Bissette and John Totleben, Moore crafted more mature stories and turned the comics industry on its ears. DC Comics even took the Comics Code off the covers and added “Suggested for mature readers”. No other comic writer was writing stories like these. Frank Miller started it a few years before on his Daredevil run. But nothing compared to Moore’s adult-oriented writing. Swamp Thing’s origin was re-tooled in an “everything you thought you knew is wrong” type of story. Iconic character Batman got his butt handed to him when Swamp Thing turned Gotham City into a new Garden of Eden. The Floronic Man became a psychotic murderer. And then Moore did the unthinkable. He shot Swampy out into space.

And that’s not all. Soon after, DC reprinted V For Vendetta. Miracle Man was reprinted and continued by Moore. And Watchmen showed us a more realistic, bleak look at superheroes. Watchmen is also considered by many to be the best comic story of all time. ALL TIME! How could other creators and companies possibly hope to top that? Well, they couldn’t. But soon after, DC created the Vertigo line. Amazing writers (mainly British) like Grant Morrison (Doom Patrol and Animal Man), Jamie Delano (Hellblazer), Neil Gaiman (Sandman), Peter Milligan (Shade the Changing Man) and so on, paved the way for comics to be better written and more mature in content. After a few years, gone were the days of fun, all-ages comics with fun writing and art. (Again, I’m not going into the 90’s at this time.)

Now, it’s the norm to expect great writing and phenomenal art. The second a fun, old-school superhero comic comes out, fans cry out their negative opinions online. Why? Because we as readers expect more. Comic companies can’t put out simple comics stories like they used to. Humor is considered a no-no these days. Smiling, heroic, goody-two-shoes heroes are a thing of the past. And since comics are more adult oriented, guess what? Kids lose interest. Daredevil’s one of the very best comics out there. But if I were a kid, I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. Same thing with Captain America. DC’s trying to bring back the fun of comics. Geoff Johns is probably the best superhero writer of this generation. But who actually buys comics? Adults. Not kids. Is it all just video games and bad parenting that prevent kids from reading? Of course not (although it’s a big part of it). But as a kid, comics just aren’t for them anymore. Comic companies, in an effort to be more mature in content, have eliminated the need for continuity, colorful costumes, and cosmic stories. Does any kid actually think Marvel Adventures books feature the real characters? Why do companies feel the need to dumb-down their younger readers? When I was a kid, I knew that Spidey Super Stories wasn’t in continuity. And I LOVED flashbacks and references to previous issues. It made me want to read them. And if I started reading a comic in the middle of a story, with references to a few sub plots going on, I was smart enough as a first or second grader to realize that the more issues I read, the more I’d figure out what was going on.

In a world where comic stories are written based on the plan for collecting the story in trade paperback, creators aren’t allowed to actually create. Readers now expect adult stories where the six-part arc is groundbreaking and shatters the world of the main character, even if what happens is out of character and will eventually destroy the character’s fanbase (anyone remember Civil War and it’s embarrassing renditions of Spider-Man and Iron Man?).

 Although sales are slowing climbing, they still don’t compare to sales in the 80’s and before. Most readers can’t simply enjoy a fun comic. Spider-Girl is really the only “old-school” comic out there. Since it’s just one book, it’s managed to attract enough “old-School” fans to keep it going, barely.

Thanks, Alan moore. We love ya, but still…

Brubaker + Epting – Cap = Totally Cool

Ed Brubaker continues to amaze me with his writing on this book. I mean, who else could get away with producing a completely riveting (and complicated) story arc without the title character? There just doesn’t seem to be any lame concept in Captain America’s past that Brubaker cannot infuse with total cool. This issue featured a newly-restored Serpent Society, and again Brubaker took these fairly useless villains and made them ruthless and horrifying.

Steve Epting’s gritty, realistic art hearkens back to even the legendary Steranko, and coupled with the fantastic storytelling there are really few negatives I can find.

I was a latecomer to this newest Cap series, but I’m glad I’ve finally caught up.

Overall Rating (out of 10): 9

All-Flash: When Just One Flash Won’t Do

There’s nothing quite like the return of an old friend – and by this, I mean Mark Waid as much as I mean Wally West.  It’s clear from the very start of All-Flash that this is the character Mark Waid was born to write.  There’s a fluidity of language here that is missing in so much of his other work (though that “other work” ain’t shabby either). 

If there are any quibbles about the book, it’s that the art (handled by a cadre of very talented artists) is inconsistent. That’s not to say that it’s poor – rather that one artist’s idea of what a character looks like might be radically different from another’s.  This lends the issue a disjointed visual element, which fortunately Waid makes up for with a superb script and an excellent revenge against the man (boy?) ultimately responsible for Bart’s death.

Overall Rating (out of 10): 8