Opinion: The Middle Ground, or Genre Work

In the past I've seen some people wish the comic market reflected other media's. There are those that complain that successful comics are usually either Superheroes, Manga, or the Alt-Lit stuff. But a good ol romance, comedy or crime story just doesn't sell very well, despite those being extremely popular in Film, TV and Prose Novels. That's probably because if people wanted to get that type of storytelling, they don't have to look very hard. Just turn on the TV and it will be beamed to you ever day. What's successful in comics is the very stuff you CAN'T find anywhere else. IE Superhero Line Wide Crossover events. I don't think your going to be able to turn on the TV and see long story about Iron Man and Captain America fighting over revealing secret identities and picking sides on superhuman registration with a ton of other heroes picking sides. I also don't think you'll see something as weird and creative as Black Hole either. Some Manga can be found within Anime, but it's often not a direct translation and the Manga can go into more details then they can fit into a 20 minute cartoon episode or 3 hour movie. It's that unfamiliar to the masses type stuff that makes comic readers flock like a moth to a flame. That's the stuff you can only do (well) in comics and it's what excites us about the medium. This isn't to say that comics can't be more than that. I think there are a few good examples of standard genre's that have done well as comics, by using this very same motif of stuff you won't get on TV. Whiteout was one of them. It being in black and white was perfect for the Antarctica environment. The not that pretty, butch lesbian character who often has her face covered up was another element that made me think "You probably won't see Hollywood doing this, cool." Most of Alan Moore's work fit into this. Some of Frank Miller's work does too, Marsha Washington in particular. Even Sin City that did get turned into a movie had some rough parts of stuff that worked in comics but not on film, and Miller himself tried to change it. If I may digress a bit, something I keep noticing is the same thing that excites us comic readers is also exciting the movie people, which is why they keep trying to adapt these books into movies. And sometimes failing, especially where Alan Moore is concerned. But perhaps it's uniqueness that gets the Hollywood creative juices flowing, somebody must be looking at those books and thinking "This is cool, hmm . . . how would I do that in film?" But back to the topic at hand. I think in order for genre work to be successful in comics, you need to execute the story in a way that takes advantage of the comic medium. I really, really think more creators need to be dissecting the works of Alan Moore, art spiegelman, Neil Gaiman and others to discover *why* their stuff works and *how*. Then perhaps try and create you're own tricks that you can add to the tool shed for future artists to work with.

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