Eric Powell on Diversity in Comics

[Doug!]

Well, this outta stir some stuff up.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/gPk6chRXDDg&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/gPk6chRXDDg&rel=1</a>

[BobBretall]

That was pretty F***ing hilarious.....and sadly true......

Had to listen a few times to get these quotes right:

What do you want to do?  A super-hero book or a gritty super-hero book?

I don't think you get it.  We're not a real publishing company that produces original content in a variety of genres.  We're a super-hero licensing & publicity firm.  We only care about the characters we own.  Publishing someone else's content would be counterproductive to our role as a whorehouse of old ideas with a monolithic stranglehold on the comics industry.

[Swany]

kinda like the Kirkman Manifesto but with rectal bleeding. 

that was some seriously funny shit. Very well played mr. powell.   

[judekill]

I wish he had waited at least a week to put this out. It's a little insensitive to all those mourning spoiler alert's death.

[BobBretall]

I wish he had waited at least a week to put this out. It's a little insensitive to all those mourning spoiler alert's death.

No body = no death.

Heck.   Dead gunshot-riddled body - no death.
Spoiler_alert will be back in #600.

[Farrell]

I love Eric Powell and I love his comics.

I'm not sure what the point of this is, though.  He's preaching to the converted. 

[Kenney]

I'm not sure what the point of this is, though.  He's preaching to the converted. 

That was my first thought.

[BobBretall]

I'm not sure what the point of this is, though.  He's preaching to the converted. 

There are PLENTY of people out there who are on boards like this and others who don't buy many (if any) creator-owned comics.

If he was only "preaching to the converted" sales on creator owned books would be WAY higher than they are.

[Jeppe]

Hells yeah   

[Farrell]

There are PLENTY of people out there who are on boards like this and others who don't buy many (if any) creator-owned comics.

If he was only "preaching to the converted" sales on creator owned books would be WAY higher than they are.

No kidding, there are.  But will they care?  What about this video or its message would change that in any way? 

[JimN]

I love Eric Powell and I love his comics.

I'm not sure what the point of this is, though.  He's preaching to the converted.

You're probably right and although I agree with the message, I don't think this was exactly the best way to get it across.

That said, I just "liked" the The Creators Front for Diversity in Comics on Facebook so it worked on me. However, I was already one of the converted...

Jim

[Farrell]

You're probably right and although I agree with the message, I don't think this was exactly the best way to get it across.

That said, I just "liked" the The Creators Front for Diversity in Comics on Facebook so it worked on me. However, I was already one of the converted...

Jim

Yep, me too.  It's an oddly mixed message, the more I think about it.  The "call to arms" here is to creators themselves to produce their own diverse material.  But there's already lots of diverse material out there, some of it by Powell himself.  He alluded to the problem in the beginning of the video: they don't sell. 

[Kenney]

Yeah, the end spoke to that a bit, with the "buy, read, sell, stock..." bit, but you're absolutely right Farrell. The issue isn't that the content isn't out there, it's that people don't buy it. Why that's the case is anyone's guess.

[JimN]

Yep, me too.  It's an oddly mixed message, the more I think about it.  The "call to arms" here is to creators themselves to produce their own diverse material.  But there's already lots of diverse material out there, some of it by Powell himself.  He alluded to the problem in the beginning of the video: they don't sell.

I think the call to arms was to support diversity and creator-owned comics not just to make them. He's asking people to create them, order them, stock them, sell them, etc., to make them vital.

Jim

[Greg Leclair (greg1ca)]

WOW! That was awesome!

[GLewis]

Is there anything to stop these guys from starting another creator owned company like Image? I doubt they would have the same level of success as Image did back in the insane 90's, but it could generate a lot of excitement and possibly improve sales.

I know nothing about the business, so I'm sure someone will have a good reason why this doesn't happen.

[Farrell]

Is there anything to stop these guys from starting another creator owned company like Image? I doubt they would have the same level of success as Image did back in the insane 90's, but it could generate a lot of excitement and possibly improve sales.

I know nothing about the business, so I'm sure someone will have a good reason why this doesn't happen.

Maybe not like Image.  Those guys were known to hundreds of thousands of comics fans already from the work they'd done at Marvel and the market is very different overall than it was then.  But I think we are seeing creators form these artistic think-thank companies with a multi-genre approach already.  Man of Action (Joe Kelly, Joe Casey, Duncan Rouleau, Steven Seagle) of Ben 10 super fame being one example, and another was just announced called Agent of D.A.N.G.E.R. with Phil Hester and others.  It's not all about the comics the way it was with Image (at first, anyway), but comics are still a part of it.

[deadcowaroma]

Well, this outta stir some stuff up.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/gPk6chRXDDg&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/gPk6chRXDDg&rel=1</a>

 

[BobBretall]

Is there anything to stop these guys from starting another creator owned company like Image? I doubt they would have the same level of success as Image did back in the insane 90's, but it could generate a lot of excitement and possibly improve sales.

I don't think it's the lack of a creator-owned company that is the problem.

Image in the 90s was successful because they took guys known (& popular)  to super-hero comics readers and they went off and created their own super-heroes.

It's anyone's guess on how Image would have done had they created mysteries, westerns, comedies, slice of life, horror, etc. instead of more big muscly super-heroes.

[LA Rabbit]

I enjoyed it but I think it doesn't help him to slam super hero books and the big Two.  You have two choices for a new audience: (1) people that don't read comics.  If he can figure out how to do that he can write his own ticket as we have seen sales down almost across the board.  I think it is a tough hobby to get new people into (from my own experience).  The stuff is frequently delayed (which does happen sometimes with movies, TV, books and music but is par for the course in comics), the comics are fairly expensive if you foolishly figure them on a per minute basis¹, and the process can be confusing trying to navigate most of the comic book stores I have been to as there isn't much standard organization.  Most bookstores don't organzie crap by publisher.
 
or (2) people that already buy comics but only get Big 2 books.  Those people probably like capes and cowls.  So trying to pitch them by bagging on their favorite is unlikely to win them over.  Try some other method that does not put them on the defensive².

Like I said, I enjoyed it but I can't honestly believe this was created as anything other than something to have a laugh about.

¹Although a bargin compared to fine art.  A Picasso sold last year at auction for $104 million.  Even if you stare at that thing every day for the rest of your life, that isn't a bargin.

²My old man hated comics so I have understanding to those that get that back up when their hobby is attacked.  It doesn't justify it but if you are trying to convince someone I think you want to win them over.