Jack Kirby is Not Coming through that Door

12134081290?profile=originalIt’s no secret that comic book sales are in trouble.  After a high in 2007, sales have been slumping for several years.  And practically everyone seems to have noticed.  You don’t have to travel very far on the internet to come across a discussion about the state of the slump, the cause or the cure.  Of course, having some interest in the topic, I haven’t exactly attempted to avoid such discussions.  However, one comment in particular caught my eye: “Comic books have been in trouble since Jack Kirby left Marvel.”

            I could give the commenter the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe he was making fun of the predictions of the death of the industry that have been around almost as long as the industry.  But I don’t think that was the case.  Based on the tone of the discussion, the commenter seemed to seriously suggest that comic books have been on the verge of death for 40 years, or longer than I’ve been alive.

            Now, I have a few quibbles with that offhand comment. 

            First, while noticing the valleys and slumps that have periodically plagued comic book sales, it fails to recognize the peaks and successes that have also been a part of the cycle.  Comics sold well in the 1980s, in the early ‘90s and in this past decade.  The claim that our current problems began in 1970 betrays a false belief that comic book sales have seen a straight line down from 1970 to the present day.  They haven’t.  The past 40 years have seen a cycle of both rises and falls.  Notably, the more recent peaks have taken place without Jack Kirby. 

            More importantly, the comment places an unwarranted faith in the past.  Those who look to the past to save the present or the future are bound to be disappointed.  I’m reminded of an excellent rant by Rick Pitino when he was coach of the Boston Celtics:

Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door. And if you expect them to walk through that door, they're going to be gray and old.”

            The superstars of the past, whether in comic books or basketball, can not save the present or the future. 

            Comic book fans, Jack Kirby is not walking through that door.  Julius Schwartz is not walking through that door, and Mort Weisinger is not walking through that door.  Even if they were somehow still alive, they still wouldn’t be able to save comic books.  They would be old.  They would be out of touch.  We wouldn’t be getting the Jack Kirby of 1967 who was at the top of his form.  Remember that Jack Kirby kept working for 15 years after he left Marvel.  Remember that he even came back to Marvel for a time.  While some of his later work was worthwhile, it wasn’t enough to spark new heights for the industry.

         12134082094?profile=original   Consider the former superstars who have made recent forays into comic books.  Stan Lee contributed several superhero ideas to Boom Studios and those series aren’t exactly burning up the charts.  Stan Lee helped create modern comic books in 1961, but he can’t be the one to save them in 2011.  Neal Adams is another former superstar producing current work.  Unfortunately, his Batman: Odyssey series has been widely panned (even by Neal Adams fans) and is sinking swiftly down the sales charts.

            I don’t mean to point my finger only at other people.  I have to remind myself that the industry won’t be saved by the series, styles or writers that captivated me when I was younger.  Paul Levitz is back on the Legion of Superheroes, but with little impact on sales.  Jim Shooter is once again working on characters that he revived for Valiant, but the new titles are tanking on the sales charts.  What worked in the mid-‘80s or the early ‘90s is unlikely to be the solution for today. 

             What is the solution?  I don’t know.  I’ve always been a better cheerleader than prognosticator.  Like many, I expect that the next peak will be driven in major part by digital sales.  But I don’t know what series or creative star will lead the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Comments

  • My observation was that they weren't viewed as threatening or damaging the way that E.C. comics were in the 50s, thanks to Dr. Wertham!  There were active campaigns to eliminate comics from young people's collections, libraries, bookstores, and newsstands.  But by the 60s, more sane heads ruled, and the panic of the 50s was somewhat forgotten.  Parents, families and kids had all grown up.

  • I think comics have enjoyed a resurgence when two or three things happened.

    1) Media paid attention to them.  This is true when Batman (gulp!) appeared on network TV in the 60s. It also happens each time a superhero movie is released THAT IS GOOD.  Favorable reviews lead to more people sampling the industry... but it requires something more....

    2) Parental support for reading of comics.   In the 60s, parents weren't overly concerned that comic books might harm kids. Therefore, the collecting, swapping or reading of comic books was not discouraged.

    3) A regularly available source is available.  This was true of the newstands in the 40s...the Spinner racks of the 60s... and the comic book shops of the 80s.  But with the decline of the specialty comic shops, we are left needing another avenue...

    4) The internet supports individual buying and reselling of comics to those who can afford issues AND SHIPPING.  Think how little it cost for mailing back in the 60s, but now a $4 shipping fee is standard for Amazon, ebay and others.  That's at least the cost of a new comic book.

    To state that the industry has been in trouble since WWII or since Kirby left Marvel, is to ignor the favorable conditions that have come together at times and created fertile ground for the seeds of the next generation of comic readers/collectors.

    I'd be interested to see a chart that shows the rise and fall of readership/participate in the comic's retail industry over the last seven decades.  Does anyone know if that exists?

     

  • Throw us a bone -- can you name any titles that even come close?
  • "What are the few comics from Marvel or DC you would describe as "adult"? And how does Vertigo's fare miss the mark?"

     

    Milton Caniff, Will Eisner, Johnny Craig, Bill Gaines and Harvey Kurtzmann were producing work 60 years ago that was more adult than anything I see today from Marvel or DC -- including Max and Vertigo. Eisner, etc., weren't in the business of retailing adolescent (or frat boy) power fantasies.

  • That's amusing. Last night, I read a 1989 editorial by Denny O'Neil in which he commented that he and the other pros of the early '70s thought at the time that they would lucky if the industry would be around even ten more years.
  • As someone who sometimes uses the handle "Mr. Vertigo," I have to add my voice to the chorus. Which Vertigo books are you talking about? I can think of a few, but it's far from the majority. And for the record I'm well past college age, and was never a Goth.
  • ... and while you're at it, George, please answer this question:

    George said:
    There are few comics from Marvel or DC that I'd describe as "adult." Is DC's Vertigo line adult? The target audience for Vertigo was college kids who dressed in black and listened to Goth music (the natural audience for Sandman, Hellblazer, etc.) Vertigo appeals to people who think graphic gore, boob shots and lots of gratuitous profanity is "cool."
    What are the few comics from Marvel or DC you would describe as "adult"? And how does Vertigo's fare miss the mark?
  • Vertigo appeals to people who think graphic gore, boob shots and lots of gratuitous profanity is "cool."


    George, do you read Vertigo books? Because this is so off-base, I have to assume you've only heard about them third-hand. Which Vertigo books appeal to this demographic?

  • Before signing off for a while, I'll say that I see parallels between comic books and jazz and bluegrass -- once-popular forms of music that are now kept alive by intensely devoted fans and collectors. Jazz and bluegrass haven't died; they're very much alive. But they no longer command a large mainstream audience. Ditto for comic books.
  • If I had the fix, Cap, I'd probably be CEO of a major comic book company. ;)

     

    I think U.S. publishers decided early on that comic books were going to be a children's medium. Publishers who tried to push the boundaries (like EC and Lev Gleason) got their comeuppance in the Wertham witch hunt. This wasn't the case in other countries, where comic books were produced for all age groups.

     

    I don't think the other genres died a natural death. The fans who went into the industry were almost all superhero fanatics who wanted to write Spider-Man, Batman and the rest. They had no interest in writing Sgt. Rock or Our Love Story. They just wanted to write superheroes. (There were a few exceptions, such as Bruce Jones, who wanted nothing to do with superheroes.) The other genres died from neglect.

     

    Marv Wolfman has lamented that he felt miscast as a superhero writer. He felt more comfortable writing humor or horror. But when those genres died, he became a superhero writer by default. What else was he going to do? Go into self-publishing?

     

    There are few comics from Marvel or DC that I'd describe as "adult." Is DC's Vertigo line adult? The target audience for Vertigo was college kids who dressed in black and listened to Goth music (the natural audience for Sandman, Hellblazer, etc.) Vertigo appeals to people who think graphic gore, boob shots and lots of gratuitous profanity is "cool."

     

    I'm afraid mainstream comic books in America will always be part of youth culture. The superheroes are kept alive, even as sales dwindle, by movie and TV sales  and other forms of merchandising.

     

    There are fantastic comics waiting to be discovered, in all genres (including superheroes): new comics, old comics; American comics, European and Asian and South American comics. I don't know whether a large audience will ever discover them. Maybe we should stop worrying about that, and just enjoy the good comics we find.

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