Losing Track of What You Love
I love comics. I love them because anyone can make them and do anything they want with them. There's room for super-hero books, action books, biographies, auto-biographies, dramas, serials, one-shot tales, they can do or be about anything. They can inspire, they can make you laugh, they can even make you cry.
What I don't get is when people want them to be one thing and not the other. Why can't comics be all that they can be? Why can't comics be campy stories that don't always make a lot of sense and be, to borrow from Dave Eggers, "a heartbreaking work of staggering genius"?
I'm a fan of a medium, not a genre. People confuse the two a lot. Not realizing that they are different is what is bad for comics, not the fact that one genre is more prevalent than another.
I don't think we give people enough credit either. People can think for themselves. They know what they like and don't like. If someone likes the Spider-man movie that doesn't mean that they'll like the comic and vice-versa. If comics aren't for them is it right for us to push them on someone just because it's what we love? I don't think so, but that doesn't mean that I'm against activism either. It's perfectly fine when you say, "Hey X comic is good you should give it a try. I heard you like Y. You should take a look at Q it's in the same vein." The problem is when you start pushing things on people that don't have a desire for them. That's when negative reactions about comics are formed. So take it easy if you want to spread your love of comics around to others.
I'm a collector of comics as well. I'm not a collector of comics for money, but a collector of stories. There is a difference. Nothing irritates me more than when I say I collect comics and someone asks what my most expensive comic is worth. I have no idea. I've never really looked. I try to give them an idea of what I might have spent on one, then I get looks like I'm crazy. When getting my homeowners insurance I was asked to give a value for all my belongings. How do you do that? How do you set a value for something that is more personal than monetary? I'm the same way about CD's and movies, but my prize belongings are always my comics. I had no idea what to put down. In the end I just estimated cover price. They wouldn't insure me for what I wanted to put down on that paper.
A 12 year old boy saw me reading a comic the other day and asked how old I was. I said that I was 27 and the next words out of his mouth kind of irked me a bit, but I let them slide. He said, "Aren't you a little old to be reading comics." and rolled his eyes and walked off. I was reading a Sandman tpb at the time. I realize that this isn't necessarily the perception that everyone has of the medium I love. He just wanted to "act" older than he was. Why do we want to grow up so fast, but when we're grown we want to be young again? Is that why I read comics? Yes and no. Sometimes I read for nostalgia, sometimes I read because I just want a good action story, sometimes I want something that makes me think, sometimes I read a book just to say I read a book and give my thoughts on it. It changes with my mood. This 12 year old kid went on to call a grown man an idiot so I don't place much stock in his manners or his opinion. Hopefully he'll wise up as he grows older.
In conclusion (This is all over the place I know. I wrote it from the hip.) don't get so riled up by the latest event, occurrence, or others opinions about whatever you love. Something may make you want to debate an issue and that's fine, but when you get so excited that you lose track of the things you love about it, then what good are you doing for yourself, or the thing you love so much.
Peace.
What I don't get is when people want them to be one thing and not the other. Why can't comics be all that they can be? Why can't comics be campy stories that don't always make a lot of sense and be, to borrow from Dave Eggers, "a heartbreaking work of staggering genius"?
I'm a fan of a medium, not a genre. People confuse the two a lot. Not realizing that they are different is what is bad for comics, not the fact that one genre is more prevalent than another.
I don't think we give people enough credit either. People can think for themselves. They know what they like and don't like. If someone likes the Spider-man movie that doesn't mean that they'll like the comic and vice-versa. If comics aren't for them is it right for us to push them on someone just because it's what we love? I don't think so, but that doesn't mean that I'm against activism either. It's perfectly fine when you say, "Hey X comic is good you should give it a try. I heard you like Y. You should take a look at Q it's in the same vein." The problem is when you start pushing things on people that don't have a desire for them. That's when negative reactions about comics are formed. So take it easy if you want to spread your love of comics around to others.
I'm a collector of comics as well. I'm not a collector of comics for money, but a collector of stories. There is a difference. Nothing irritates me more than when I say I collect comics and someone asks what my most expensive comic is worth. I have no idea. I've never really looked. I try to give them an idea of what I might have spent on one, then I get looks like I'm crazy. When getting my homeowners insurance I was asked to give a value for all my belongings. How do you do that? How do you set a value for something that is more personal than monetary? I'm the same way about CD's and movies, but my prize belongings are always my comics. I had no idea what to put down. In the end I just estimated cover price. They wouldn't insure me for what I wanted to put down on that paper.
A 12 year old boy saw me reading a comic the other day and asked how old I was. I said that I was 27 and the next words out of his mouth kind of irked me a bit, but I let them slide. He said, "Aren't you a little old to be reading comics." and rolled his eyes and walked off. I was reading a Sandman tpb at the time. I realize that this isn't necessarily the perception that everyone has of the medium I love. He just wanted to "act" older than he was. Why do we want to grow up so fast, but when we're grown we want to be young again? Is that why I read comics? Yes and no. Sometimes I read for nostalgia, sometimes I read because I just want a good action story, sometimes I want something that makes me think, sometimes I read a book just to say I read a book and give my thoughts on it. It changes with my mood. This 12 year old kid went on to call a grown man an idiot so I don't place much stock in his manners or his opinion. Hopefully he'll wise up as he grows older.
In conclusion (This is all over the place I know. I wrote it from the hip.) don't get so riled up by the latest event, occurrence, or others opinions about whatever you love. Something may make you want to debate an issue and that's fine, but when you get so excited that you lose track of the things you love about it, then what good are you doing for yourself, or the thing you love so much.
Peace.
