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This week’s sermon – “Dreams In Digital”

By Britt Schramm

March 13, 2006

Technology is only as good as the people who use it.

For instance, I have this need to listen to music when I’m in the gym. It’s great to have something that is the size of a credit card which can store literally a couple of hundred CDs on one device so I can listen to them when I’m working out. Back in the day, I just hated it when my CD skipped every single time that I tripped over my clown feet and fell off the treadmill. After the first twenty times, it was becoming frustrating. Now, my feet can flail away like an angry monkey in a cage without interrupting the dulcet tones of “Destroy Rock and Roll” or the latest from Rhett Miller.

My movie watching has also been affected by changes in video playback devices. DVDs have revolutionized not only how the viewer can see and/or hear the movie but whether they would even go to the theaters in the first place. Why would someone take out a second mortgage on their house for the opportunity to go to a 20-screen multiplex, wait in line to pay for a couple tickets, wait in another line to buy some popcorn, a soda and maybe a box of nonpareils and end up sitting next to some idiot talking their fool head off on their cell phone during the entire feature presentation when they can wait for six months and buy the DVD for more than half of the cost? Put in all of the extra crap that DVDs are almost required to have nowadays in addition to the wonderful advances in Home Theater Systems and I’m hard pressed to find a reason why I would even consider leaving my house to go see a movie.

(And don’t try to sell me on the whole crowd experience. If I want to pay an extra $30 to have the crowd experience at the movies, I’ll just take my portable DVD player into the middle of rush hour and sit on the double yellows. Sure, the carbon monoxide might make it a little rough but after being trapped in a car with some of my co-workers who rip them any chance they get, I would welcome the change in fragrance.)

I won’t go into the whole “having the kids’ digital pictures on my BlackBerry” tangent; not because I’m from the Ray Cash School of Child Rearing (which I’m not, in case you had any doubts) but you guys don’t want hear about how cute my kids are and I don’t want to get too far off-subject before this column hits 500 words.

Now, I’m sure at least some of you are wondering (as you usually are about this time), “When the hell are you going to talk about comics, o wise and knowledgeable comic book columnist?” Well, that time is now, my patient ones.

There’s one thing that technology should not be used for – putting any kind of comic books that were originally designed to be printed in a digital format.

There are two reasons that I’ve decided to voice my displeasure this week on, what my opinion is, the complete bastardization of technology.

First was a section in the “Lying in the Gutters” column back on February 20th that highlighted Marvel’s interest in possibly creating a digital comic service. The company that is home to Spidey, Cap, and Wolvie went as far as creating an online survey which asks questions about the reading habits of their readers including such questions as the number of books (theirs and other companies) that are purchased and how they obtained their comics (both illicit and legal). There was even a $500 prize offered as an enticement for people to complete the questionnaire (which unfortunately ended at the end of that month).

The second was an email that I received last week. Here it is below in its entirety as well as my subsquent reply. Only the sender’s names and implicated books have been changed to protect my sorry ass:

A few things that come to mind when you look that those emails above:

#1 – I have a tendency to write emails like I’m doing a mini-column for the reader; even when I only need to send a reply either yes or no to a simple question;

#2 – This whole digital comics thing might be more widespread than originally thought.

Now, I’ve read some of the arguments in favor of making comics a digital medium and initially, those points appear to be valid. But, allow me to let out some of my inner John McLaughlin by offering my two cents on those so-called lines of reasoning:

Digital Fanboy: “The price will be cheaper since there will be fewer print runs.”

PftL: Yes, it would seem to reason that the price of the online comics would be cheaper than their printed versions since the charge to download the comic would not be directly to the fluctuating (unusually increasing) cost of paper stock. Yet, with the increased practice of exclusive talent contracts and the decrease of printed comics, I can’t imagine prices for downloads staying low for long. I mean, I sincerely doubt that the Big Two would just let all of that extra income completely walk away. Big business doesn’t work that way, my friends. If there’s a new technology developed, they make sure to keep the price as high as possible for as long as possible. Sure, there might be some Combo Meal pricing for a certain minimum purchase amount but one thing will be certain. The price for digital comics will still be cheaper than what their regularly printed brethren will end up. And as an admitted old school comic reader, I will be pissed off alone with that fact alone.

Digital Fanboy: “It’s easier to carry a couple weeks’ worth of comics on a laptop for a trip than trying to carry all of those issues to read on the plane.”

PftL: Yeah, lugging around all of those comics would be a pain in the ass. And having them all on a single USB drive that goes around your wrist or your portable storage drive could be very handy. But, I spend enough time at a friggin’ computer between my day job, this job, writing my blog and buying/downloading music. I can’t imagine sitting with a tablet or laptop scrolling up and down to read comics. Where’s the fun in that?

Digital Fanboy: “Out-of-print titles will be a thing of the past since you can download any one that you want from an online warehouse.”

PftL: Sure, that’s a good idea for titles that haven’t been collected in either a trade or a archive book. Yet, I can’t imagine that the entire back issue market would go away quietly. There’s just too much money changing hands for it to just go away completely. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a secondary market for digital comics. Plus you’ve go to know that all of the lawyers fees from suing people who try to illegally share their comics through such P2P clients like BitTorrent or Limewire and R&D costs for develop some sort of encoding their comics will be covered by the sale of digital copies of their catalog of older comics.

Digital Fanboy: “You can buy your comics remotely and read them as soon as you finish downloading them without having to physically go to the local comic book shop.”

PftL: Okay, that might good for some people (especially the ones who think that bathing is a once in awhile thing) but overall, that would be truly depressing. One of the things that I look forward to doing when I buy my books is to go in and chat it up with the customers and staff of my local store. It’s nothing against the old Internet as I love hanging out on the MPS board and discussing various topics with its members (spam trolls excluded); but I like chatting with people that I can actually see. Most of the time, my sarcasm works better that way. I would hate to see that type of social interaction to go away. The bigger picture would be that my monetary source to feed my comic book buying habit since my store and about a thousand other stores would go under without their main source of revenue. I can't imagine how good the comic book scene would be if these store owners are put out of business. They are the life blood of the industry; not the message boards or the creator websites or even the columnists (waitaminute, I didn't say that). Without them, there would be no cons or trades shows. It would turn into a very cold, isolated hobby and very sad.

Digital Fanboy: “It can make Rob Liefeld’s artwork leap off right of the screen.”

(Alright, I made the last one up.)

Seriously, technology should be used for making a smaller mp3 file size or speeding up my BlackBerry’s internet browsing speed (ya know when it’s not trying to cure all forms of diseases). But one thing that it should not be used for is to make comic books into a digital format. Besides the fact that it would close a ton of brick-and-mortar stores and leave them homeless, it would make buying comics a very cold and lonely experience. And that would be truly evil.

A PftL Update:

Some extra fallout from the whole Speakeasy debacle – This past week, Image Comics released the first Rocketo trade, which included #0-6 of the original Speakeasy series. Of course, if you collected the individual issues (like I did), you will know that number 5 and 6 never shipped from the bankrupt publisher. Just an FYI on how pissed that I didn’t follow my own “Wait for the Trade” rule. Stoopid, stoopid, stoopid!!!

Also, there’s a solid article by Heidi MacDonald in Publisher’s Weekly about the demise of Speakeasy. What’s really good is that she addresses some stuff that I didn’t even know about like “Fallout”, a backup story in Beowulf by Vito DelSante and Dean Haspiel that was halfway completed before the shutdown of the publisher was done and “The Mercury Chronicles” by DelSante and Mike Lilly. Both titles are still stuck in a holding pattern with one waiting to land a publisher (the latter) and one awaiting to see who actually owns the rights (the former).

PftL Mailbox

Hey, we’ve got two emails in the old inbox this week. Hooray, let’s dive in with both feet.

The first is from Tracy Edmunds from MPS’ All Ages column:

Hey Britt,

Just wanted to throw a couple more Speakeasy titles at you. I’ve been reading Beowulf and The Grimoire. Any word on them?

Nice column this week – thanks for trying to talk some sense into the fanboys, even if it’s probably in vain.

Thanks!

Tracy

PftL: Thanks for the kind words. Rest assured - When my two little ones get old enough to read on their own, I'll be asking you for help.

As far as Beowulf and The Grimoire, I think that they're gonna die with the company as from what I read, they were under contract as Work-For-Hire, which was different than some of the other books. In The Grimoire's case, it appears that their WFH contract wasn't even honored. I found this post by series writer Sebastien Caisse on Ellis' The Engine board, "I created The Grimoire and wrote the first six issues and still haven't received a dime, nor a phone call from Adam, nor any indication that any form of compensation will ever be offered." I would take it that the outlook is not good for either of them to be published again.

Also, I forgot to include "Phantom Jack" under the "No Publisher Yet" category.

And you are right - I have a sneaking suspicion that the fanboys will not listen but I still have to try.

The other email comes from PftL stalwart Chet K., who offers his opinion on the whole sexism in comic books debate.

LB Preacher,

Your comments about the comments on Ms. Geerlings' appearance as part of the announcement of her new position in the comics industry sparked some thoughts on my part. I decided that since your mailbox has been so woefully empty I might send you a few of my socio/political ramblings. So, here goes...

PftL: Thanks for the pity email, Chet. You know how to find that sore spot and drop kick it some more. Thanks.

I agree with you that any comments about Geerlings' appearance are irrelevant to what kind of job she will do as Editor-in-Chief of Top Cow, and that those comments betray a patriachal and paternalistic ideology which ultimately functions to undermine and degrade the accomplishments and abilities of women by concentrating on looks over talent. However, I think that any discussion of that particular problem, particularly in the venue of the comics industry, should include at least a mention of the way women's bodies are portrayed in comics generally across the genre. With the exception of a few independent publications comics generally portray women's bodies in an exaggerated form that emphasizes the features that straight men find attractive. Most forms of entertainment are guilty of this same form of, jeez, I don't know, is exploitation the right word? However, you could say that comics are a worse offender in this realm than other mediums because they create these unrealistic women from whole cloth. T.V. and movies only have the real world actors/models (along with lighting, makeup and airbrushing) to work with.

PftL: You bring up a good point about the disproportionate figures that most super- heroines are sporting (although some newer characters like Speedy in Green Arrow/Teen Titans and Batgirl have a more natural feminine figure). However, I would disagree with your view that comics are a worse offender in creating unrealistic female figures. I mean, have you seen any women’s fashion magazines? Or the way that both Lindsay Lohan and Courtney Cox Arquette have gone all Kate Moss to the point of looking emaciated? That’s more unrealistic than some tart in spandex. And what’s worse, even though everybody know that models are airbrushed to the point of being almost a caricature, they’re still more real to most people than comic books ever will be.

So, what's the point? The point is that these unrealistic images in all forms of entertainment media create an unrealistic image of what a woman should be. It sends the message that this is what they should be and everything else becomes less important. So, what should be reformed first? Cheeky and inappropriate press releases? Or widespread publication and promotion of images of the female form that emphasize unrealistic standards of "beauty"?

PftL: That’s an easy one. The former can be easily done away with since it’s unprofessional for any company to send out PRs like those you mention. Plus, who would want to work for a company that treats their employees like a piece of pretty meat? The latter, unfortunately, is must more ingrained with the medium and thus would require more changes within the system before a change in that paradigm can be fully realized.

However, in any conversation like this it is easy to get carried away. I am attempting to draw lines as to what is right and what is wrong. Or more accurately what is wrong and what is MORE wrong. What's the next step in this line of logic that i'm laying out? No more hot women in comics. Also no more violence. No more swearing or depictions of use of intoxicating substances. We can jump on the new up and coming band wagon, no more depictions of ingesting fast food! What would that comic look like? I have no idea. It would be frigging weird and boring as hell at the same time. The truth is attractive women, violence, swearing and substance abuse ENTERTAIN me. Which leaves us with an interesting dichotomy. Encouraging "bad" things in our entertainment media, while discouraging much tamer versions of the same behavior amongst the people who create that media.

Well, time to get back to work. Thanks for reading.

PftL: Are there comics without violence, swearing, substance abuse and curvaceous ladies in costumes? That’s just crazy talk. Seriously, there’s a treasure trove of books out there that don’t have any of those characteristics. Solid books like Tom Beland’s “True Story Swear to God” \ (AiT/Planet LAR), Scott Kurtz’s “PvP” (Image), Andi Watson’s “Slow News Day” ( SLG Publishing), and the hidden gem “Copybook Tales” \ by J. Torres and Tim Levins (Oni Press) are just a few examples that come to mind. And since there is a rating system (albeit not standardized and faulty), introducing those more adult-oriented themes in comics is just another great selling point about comics – there’s something out there for everyone to read. And no, thank you for reading.

Uncensored Reactions to this Week’s Comics

Due to my overall wordiness this week, this section will be picked up next week.

I’m off the longbox for this week. See ya next time. Don’t forget to keep your bags and boards together and your continuity straight.

Send column-specific e-mail using the link below. If you want to read my thoughts on the possible dismantling of a football dynasty, the CDs that I’m rotating in the car player right now, and my continued weight loss, please visit brittschramm.com. Also, check out my views of anything and everything that has to do with Pop Culture at Kung Fu Rodeo.

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