Links and thoughts before a short holiday.

I'll be out of town from tonight through Sunday celebrating an early Christmas with half of my family, so I get a nice little break from work, responsibility and internerdery. There's a couple things I wanted to link to before I leave:

• A. David Lewis talks with Danielle Corsetto at The Pulse in a Pro-on-Pro interview. I don't have much to say about it, other than it's done well, they make interesting comics, and you should go and read it.

• Chris Tamarri, one of my favoritest bloggers ever, responds to a Slate column on Watchmen.

• Guy LeCharles Gonzales and I don't always see eye to eye on comics-related issues, but I can totally get behind his comments regarding the comics industry, comic book websites and comic book fandom in his latest column at Buzzscope:

I love comic books, both as an artistic medium and a source of entertainment. Comic books are perhaps the most potentially diverse artistic outlet there is as the barriers to entry are relatively low compared to that of film, music or even traditional publishing. (Only poetry is easier to break in to, but it pays even less!) Anyone can publish a comic book, and a glance at the back of any recent issue of Previews or a stroll down any conventions' Artist's Alley suggests many of them are, in fact, giving it a shot!

Unfortunately, it’s the “potentially diverse” aspect that’s the hook. Click around the major comic book web sites; flip through the most well known print magazines dedicated to comics; look around at your next comics convention…and you’ll typically find a whole lot of unrealized “potential.” In an industry that’s only recently stopped hemorrhaging readership, it still amazes me how little outreach is done to expand beyond the direct market’s core audience of twenty- and thirty-something white boys and their myopic fixation on superheroes. Manga publishers figured it out, and pretty much own the mainstream “graphic novel” market as a result.

(Even McDonald’s and Burger King realized they needed to sell more than hamburgers to stay viable, and not just to expand their offerings, but also promote the hell out of them to make sure people who didn’t normally eat at their restaurants knew they offered more than hamburgers.)

Lots more at the link--I also give Guy big ups for pointing out the lily-white elephant in the room regarding comics coverage.

• Here's the big one that's been brewing inside me for a while. At The Comic Asylum, James Meeley turns again to his idea that fans are the face of the industry. Prompted by some anti-Kyle Rayner discussion from somewhere, James goes on to discuss comics fandom:

It astonishs me how little comic fans think of how they behave as a detriment to comics. We are the "face" of the industry to those not into it. We represent, to them, the type of people who read comics. When they see displays of personal insults slung at creators and other fans, over something as insignificant as a work of fiction, it lessens us all. It hurts the industry. It makes it look undesirable and a haven for the intellectually and emotionally stunted. And who'd rationally want to be a part of that? Can you blame potential new readers for not wanting to be a part of comics, knowing that's the behavior they'll deal with if they want to talk about the work?

There is certainly things in the industry that deserve to be looked at harshly and need to be changed. But that doesn't give fans the right to let their anger overtake their better judgement. I'd be willing to bet, dollars to donuts, that the people at So So Silver Age would never say the kind of things they said there to Ron Marz in person. Just as a vast majority of the insults comic fans sling at others every day would never be uttered publicly in the real world. So, why is it okay to type it out for all to see? Despite the old rhymn, words CAN hurt you. Not only the one receiving them, but the one delivering them and pretty much anyone within earshot.

Personally, I don't see how the comics internet is the thing that keeps people away from the medium, or give the medium a bad name. It's one of those things I just don't get--we're not emissaries for a medium, we're fans of it (or fans of certain things in it). Perhaps it's got something to do with the marginalization of the comics industry that makes people think the fans should be responsible for it. I take the other side of that argument--people don't look down on movies because there are some seriously disturbed people that post on the IMDB message boards, and no one's running from libraries or bookstores in fear of catching something from rabid bibliophiles.

You see, readers don't have to be a part of comics--it's entirely possible to like something without being wholly invested in it. In the pulling-random-figures-straight-from-my-ass department, I'd estimate that, at most, 25% of the people buying comics regularly are actively involved in the comics internet (a guess based on the number of posters at comics message boards, the amount of comics-related blogs pinging the update-a-tron thingy, and taking those rough numbers against the rough sales figures for the industry). It's typical of any kind of devotee, though, that the kind taking to message boards to discuss things are likely to be the most passionate, opinionated and invested members of any fandom, be it comics, television, or football.

This is kind of dovetailing in my head with people who don't like how people want to discuss things they don't like. You see it at message boards--some people will say, "well, if you don't like something, why bother discussing it?" Some of us (myself included, obviously) find the discussion, alternate viewpoints, and disagreements to be part of the fun. I think there's room for positivity. I'll even go as far as to say there's room for rampant negativity--people will gravitate to what works for them.

Now, just saying "OMG thss fUcKingg suxx"--that's not criticism. The snob in me says that's not even English. But part of the ebb and flow of any conversation requires opposing viewpoints or, at the very least, differing interpretations.

Ed Blue: Dude, All-Star Superman? Awesome.
Ed Red: Totally. Totally awesome.
Ed Blue: Yeah.
Ed Red: Yeah.
Ed Blue: ...

I'm of the belief that the fans only obligation is to buy what they want to buy, for whatever reason. I might not like what people buy, but I'm not the one paying for their comics. Sure, I'd like to point books out to people if I think there's something worth checking out, but I'm not going try to force someone to share my love of Optic Nerve (well, unless we're talking about Graeme) because I know I don't want someone to try and make me enjoy something like Infinite Crisis.

That said, though... going back to Guy's point in the preceding bulletpoint, if there was a stronger effort for diversity in comics publishing, retail and fandom, perhaps comics wouldn't need ambassadors at all.

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I'd sign off by saying "don't expect any posts from me for a few days until I get back," but, shit, I barely post anyway, so no one's expecting that.