Jett Rant
You have to understand the nature of the beast. When you do, and you really begin to see it for what it is, you can either accept it or move on. Fight or flight.
I've read a lot of comics. Lots. I own a bunch as well. All that time reading these things, and in some cases writing them and writing about them, has developed my taste to hone in on the good comics from the bad comics. From creators who know what they are doing to creators who are only just beginning but have a lot of promise.
Superhero comics are what I have read the most of, and by a large number. In terms of single issues, they make up the majority of my collection. My bookshelf shows a different side. The vast majority there are creator owned work. And in the center of it all, the most expensive piece that I own, is the Absolute Watchmen book.
I do have a high opinion about the story, and the tattoo on my leg will help clear up any confusion or doubts you may have about it. The story of Watchmen is one that I've talked about before, and in reading and researching about the book you can begin to understand why it was so monumental to creators and to the superhero genre.
Watchmen is, and for the foreseeable future, THE superhero story. It tells the complete picture of a universe where heroes lived, but only one of them had super powers. It made me stop and think about how panels work in comics and how effective the right artist with the right writer will produce some high quality work.
Outside of the work, the creators were promised the rights to the book as soon as sales diminished. It was a strange hybrid of creator owned work but with the publisher retaining all the rights to the characters for a while. Good or bad, the book never fell out of print. Publisher can keep the rights and do with the characters whatever they want. And DC has decided that it needs to produce more Watchmen work, with or without the creators on board.
Yes, Moore and Gibbons were screwed in a sense. But from what they suffered, a whole generation of readers like myself got into comics and could appreciate their work. There is something a little strangely pseudo-ironic about that situation.
If I were to ever make it as a comic writer, I know that I would want to go with an indie publisher like Image. Something were I own the rights to the creations.Once I would be established with that, I would move to the superhero work to whore out my talents for a bit in order to make it big and become a name in the industry. But I would still keep my indie stuff, because that is where I get to play with the toys I created. If I wanted to kill off a character, no editor would stop me. If I wanted to turn everything into a beautiful flower patch, all I would have to do is write it out and have someone draw it. I understand that if I wrote X-men then every page would be triple checked and re-edited to something that fits with how the company sees the characters. I wouldn't be mad, its their toys I'm playing with.
I've read several comics with Batman and Flash, probably my top two favorite superheroes owned by DC. Each creator has their own take on the character, and thus gives each character some small nuances that keep them interesting. But I always know that they will go back to whatever it was they were before. Characters around them grow and change, but it isn't often that the main characters change things up.
Which brings me to Before Watchmen and the DC reboot. In looking back at some of the reviews I've been doing and some of the titles I've been collecting, there has been a steep drop off for me in terms of what I am still reading versus what I first picked up. Looking at all the wasted money that I spent either waiting for a title to get better again or to advance the story really bugs me. So I'm going to start to take a major position with what I read and review from this point on.
First off, I am not going to waste money on titles that have the Combo-Pack that my shop decides to sell instead of the standard edition. I'm looking at Batman, Detective, and Green Lantern as the culprits for this one. I am not, repeat, not going to pick up any Before Watchmen. Maybe, and this is a big maybe, I am going to get it once it either is available cheaply as a digital comic, or I am going to wait for the trade. More on that later.
Batman is good stuff. I like Snyder. So this one may stick around just to keep the collection going and knowing that those issues will probably become hard to find later on down the road. Detective just plan sucks. I've been buying just to keep the collection in tact, but that is wearing extremely thin on me. I'm not paying for a Combo-Pack of it again. Green Lantern is something that I like reading in a trade format anyway, so dropping this in favor of the trade is no issue with me. I am going to finish off the Indigo story line that it is going through right now, but after that I am waiting.
Second point, waiting for the trade. Its a format I like, no ads, and can go on my bookshelf. If I get it off Amazon, then I am saving loads of cash instead of getting the single issues. But there is a trick there, because some comics don't make it to the trades. I'm looking at indie comics with this viewpoint. That's where trying it out digitally will help, or just picking up the first couple of issues in the shop will help me determine what will be the better choice.
The other part of waiting for the trade is obviously the waiting. Patience is not a virtue I have, but it is one that I will need to exercise more. I'm the kinda guy who checks out the newest releases each week, sees what is coming up, checks the digital releases daily on Comixology, so trust me when I say this will be hard to do. But there are plenty of stories out there.
Third point, digital comics. Through some nice happenings, I was able to get a tablet and I tried out the Comixology app. AS a person who reads comics mostly for the story, this works out great for me. There is a small number of titles that I am more about seeing the art for, but damn if the tablet doesn't make the art look good. I'm all about paper and holding the comic in my hands, but when I can go online and buy a comic that I've been pestering my shop to get for me for the past couple of months and it is right there for $2, then I'm sold. Couple that with the free comics they offer and the cheap $1 weekends they will sometimes have for select books and I'm sold.
The downfall to digital is that there is no way for me to view it outside of the app. And it makes me wonder if I will still have access to it if Comixology were to go away. For now though, it does work as an excellent bridge to try out new comics on the cheap, and to see if I would want a collected edition of the book.
So what does that mean for this blog?
I'm still going to do reviews, but I'm looking at other sources for the books. I'll review comics that I bought digitally and the ones I buy in trades. I made a commitment to review every comic that I bought since I started this blog, and outside of a couple of titles, I've stuck to that.
So from here out, you will see some strange titles appear. Some will be digital, some will be a trade of an older story. My formatting of the reviews may change a bit to accommodate this new set up. But since this is my blog, I can do what I want with it. Hopefully you stay around for the changes.
Creator Owned Heroes #1
