Cataract Resin 5

James Asher
First things first. This column concerns comics. If you're not too interested in comics I recommend going and reading some G.K. Chesterton books at www.dur.ac.uk/martin.ward/gkc/books, because that will make you happy. In fact, I recommend going there anyway. There's no excuse for reading this column when you could be reading a Chesterton book. But anyway. Here goes. 
I'm someone who's a bit new to the comics scene. I've been reading comics for years, but it's only in the last year or so that I've started talking online with other comics readers, reading the online comics news, and generally getting a feel for what's going on in the industry. In this time, I have observed that many comics readers are inordinately fond of talking about The Problem(s) with the industry today, in the same manner as taxi drivers are fond of talking politics and football fans are fond of discoursing vociferously on how their local football club should be run. Giving sagacious advice on how to solve problems, real or imaginary, is a good way to get attention. Talk is cheap, especially if you're not in much of a position to actually DO anything about the problems. (Actually, I'd love to live in a country where all the decisions where made by taxi drivers. I think it would be a fascinating and enervating experience. They might even do a good job. But I digress.) 
A year of listening to large numbers of people, of various degrees of intelligence and insanity, bestowing their opinions on The Problem upon comic fandom in general, has (as well as being somewhat irritating at times) enabled me to form some thoughts of my own on the subject, which I'll now share with you - at least, as many of them as I can remember. However, rather than spamming your brain cortices with opinions of dubious worth, I'll make at least a little effort to restrict myself to observations. 
1) The Problem is most acute in America, whatever The Problem is. Europe seems to have a bigger comics market - or, in any case, comics can still be found on the newsstands here. In the UK, my own country, the Beano and Dandy can still be got from newsagents, as can 2000AD, the legendary British sci-fi anthology comic. Marvel UK's compilation publications - Essential X-Men, Wolverine & Gambit (formerly Wolverine Unleashed), and Essential Spiderman, can be found in many newsagents - and seem to be easier to find in newsagents than in comics stores. And then there's Asterix, which has been translated into umpteen different languages and which continues to be popular with kids and adults alike. And there are a host of other comics spun off from videogames, TV shows, movies, etc., mostly aimed at kids. 
All of which is different from America, where (I have been informed) comics are virtually never available in newsagents, and are almost the only (legal) thing you can't buy at Wal-Mart. Why is this so? Perhaps the comics industry in Europe is in better health for not becoming so obsessed with superheroes; possibly it's because in America the effects of advertising on the consumer psyche are greater... which brings me to another point. But I'd be interested to hear opinions on this. And Chevett would probably like to hear from anyone who could write a column about it. 2) I think that a main reason for The Problem is lack of advertising and publicity. As I write this I realise this is a massively obvious point, but I've seen virtually nothing written on it. Perhaps it's so obvious nobody wants to state it. In any case, I doubt it can hurt to state it again. There are millions of people who don't read comics, who would probably find comics they would massively enjoy if they just went into a comics shop and looked. But there are also thousands of books they would probably enjoy if they went into a bookstore, and hundreds of movies they would probably enjoy if they went into a video store. And there's no reason to go flocking to a comics store rather than to the local Blockbusters outlet, because a comics store is a strange environment and has virtually no publicity, whereas Blockbusters advertises itself and is a well-known name. The comics industry is almost invisible to the outside world, and in an advert-saturated culture such as the US, and European cultures to a lesser degree, being invisible is not a good way to pull in consumers. 
It's notable that in recent months, this invisibility curse was temporarily lifted by Marvel's Heroes getting a lot of press. One particular comic became visible, and in people were flocking into American comics stores to buy it - many of which hadn't anticipated the demand. Of course, Heroes being for a good cause was a large part of this, of course. But if you could create and sustain that level of publicity - get a comic, or comics, firmly into the public eye - The Problem would start to rectify itself very quickly, I think. Especially if you were publicizing the fact that comics can be intelligent, gripping, and devoid of people in daft costumes. And the British comic 2000AD does advertise itself, which is probably why it's still available in newsagents rather than relying on direct market sales. To quote Grant Morrison: "Look out of the window at the planet you live on, morons! There are billions of those bipeds and they keep making more of them! How much bigger does the market have to get before we're eating Soylent fucking Green? Get out and sell comics to these people! In the same way some idiot savant managed to convince them they needed Pokemon more than oxygen." And on the subject of money... 3) Comics are expensive. For $20 or however much, you can get a graphic novel/TPB. But unless the storytelling is quite dense, this will easily be read in a single sitting. Or, for $20, you could get a book, which will take over ten times as long to read, although comics tend to bear rereading better. For $20, you could get a couple of videos out. For no extra cost (assuming you've paid TV license, subscription fees etc) you can watch TV. Why would anyone want to read a comic? Come to think of it, why do I? Well, that's an answer for another time - by which I mean, I haven't a clue, so I shall end here, and possibly treat you all with another column when I've actually figured it out... 	Grant Morrison quote from an interview by Warren Ellis, which can be seen at Comic Book Resources.