| | operative network | writing archive: columns - reviews - interviews - features
Part One: The Title Menace
Last week, a certain StarWars.com announcement regarding the title of the upcoming Episode II took me completely by surprise.
Attack of the Clones.
I've been a Star Wars fan for 25 of my 28.5 years on this earth. That's "fan," as in "fanatic." I have a set of Star Wars sheets from 1977 that I will never, ever part with. I own three Darth Vader lightsabers and two Darth Maul versions. Watching the films as a child, I was able to believe there was more to life than my hilly little corner of Jeanne Drive in Memphis, more to reach for than pistols or bibles or shitty jobs at corner stores.
 Was I disappointed in The Phantom Menace? Yes. I came to see a reason for it as a strategic maneuver which seems innocuous at first but in time becomes...well, Empire Strikes Back. The Trade Federation and the whole Naboo blockade was a "phantom menace" used to manuever Palpatine closer to his future as emperor. Sneaky, but ultimately tolerable.
But I'm not gonna be able to accept Attack of the Clones. I went to see TPM in the theatres three times on opening day. I just can't see myself doing that for a movie called Attack of the Clones.
My theory? George Lucas, frustrated that his attempts to create art outside the Star Wars Universe (Willow, Radioland Murders, Tucker, Twice Upon A Time and so on), went mad and decided to screw the faithful, the people who have paid for the college educations of generations of Lucas descendants. He'd make us all pay for locking him into one idea for decades. He gave me a sense of wonder when I needed it, and for that I'll always be grateful. But Attack of the Clones?!
F*** Star Wars. My fanaticism will require a film of truly epic grandeur to inspire my returnÑa film I will not be too moral to bootleg.
 Part Two: Distribution is the Problem
I was in Texas when Marvel's Joe Quesada gave his keynote speech in San Diego this year. Excellent intel that man has to know I'd be out of range, so there'd be no way I could have leapt on stage and pistolwhipped that propaganda out of his mouth...
But before I start ranting, let me quote the EIC himself:
We live a myth and we've forgotten who we are. I used to believe a myth. I used to believe that what was solely troubling our industry was a distribution problem. We couldn't get the product into the hands of our customers. Now, yes we have a bit of a problem, but let me give you a small thought. Last year at this time, if I had taken 10 U-Haul trucks filled with boxes of Pokémon cards and parked them in the parking lot of the Meadowlands back in New Jersey, I would be sold out in an hour. I would have had no distribution problem. You know why? Because I would have had a compelling, intriguing product that my customer wanted. Some myth, huh?
Is distribution the sole problem with the comics industry? No. Is it the biggest and most relevant problem? I say yes. And here's why:
Right now, there are arguably more good comic books on the stands than at any point in the art form's history. Off the top of my head I can rattle off a bunch: Black Panther, Transmetropolitan, Lucifer, Top 10, Powers, Red Star, Tom Strong, Rising Stars, Savage Dragon, Captain Marvel, Promethea, Punisher, The Exec, Detective Comics, JLA, Thunderbolts, The Authority, Impulse...that's just from looking at what's on the coffee table in my living room right now. And some of the good books on the market, despite Marvel's X-related myopia, are even published by Marvel Comics.
My little brother is 11 years old. Both of us like Impulse. I can drive the 15 minutes across town to my favorite comics shop, spend the discretionary money I make and buy it. My little brother has no independent mode of transportation, he has no allowance because my mother's not doing all that great financially and he  doesn't know where the nearest comic book store is. I used Mapquest and figured it out: It's a thirty minute drive from his house. Have I forgotten to mention that my mother has no particular love for comic books?
Which of us is the more important customer? If you think I am, that's delusional. I'm well into my twilight years of collecting. My brother has easily four or five decades of consumerism ahead of him.
I've appealed to Marvel before to stop just trying to make more successful comics and to tell better stories. I've had plenty to say about their shoddiness, and I try to hold in my lunch as I read through a stack of their products every week.
 However, for Quesada to say...
I recently got into a discussion with an industry friend of mine, another publisher, who believes that the way to fix our industry is to point out and have us face all of our problems i.e.; lateness, price point, quality, blah, blah, blah and so on. That we need to be accountable. My thought is that these problems have always existed and yes we always need to address them but they will always be there in one form or another. Besides, and here's what's important, all we've been doing for these several dark years is focusing on these problems. Focusing on pointing our fingers at our reflection and saying how ugly we are! And when we're tired of seeing our own blemished complexion in the mirror, we somehow manage enough courage and energy, not to improve things, God forbid, but to point our finger at our neighbor, to point out how much uglier they are than us! It may not fix anything, but heck it sure feels good! Come on, it's just more of the same ugly fan-duckling-boy syndrome we've taught ourselves it's OK to live with. I'm not OK living with that any more and I don't think you are either!
...is simply a base and loathsome brand of cheerleading, and one that serves only to distract us from very real and very powerful issues confronting comics in the 21st century. One that attempts to make people feel good while ignoring the real problems. One that makes me furious. One that fuels the fire that may yet burn the House of Ideas down, despite the partying going on at the highest levels.
Have we forgotten who we are? I don't know. I can only speak for myself, a comics fan of more than two decades, a writer who's struggling towards a vanity press project that will be hard-pressed to make money in the direct market. I don't call myself a "fanboy," Joe. I am proud to tell people I'm gonna do a comic book. I am fully aware of the splendor and possibility that lies in the next page, the next issue. I accept and welcome the challenge to tell better stories, to work towards a better art form.
I didn't need a cheerleader dancing around on a San Diego stage to give that to me. I've had it all my life, high sales or low.
For Quesada to imply otherwise is an insult to Warren Ellis, to Christopher Priest, to Alan Moore, to Steve who runs my local store, Comics Ink, and to Ty Rawls drawing in a studio in Boston. Keep your goddamned cheerleading and get back to goddamned work.
Hannibal Tabu is an angry Black man, a professional Web producer, a writer, a husband, a brother, a son, a friend and, by God, a fan. He shakes his fist at infinity from the heights of his self-indulgence, found at www.operative.net.
|
