The Big Picture: Comics in The 90s: What Happened?

[Riff Moonraker]

Looking back at the speculator boom, it wasn't all bad in concept. Oh, financially it was stupid, but it produced something most people crave for today: creativity. All those number 1s and new characters had to come from somewhere, which lead to new creations, nostalgic revisits, and second stringers getting a fair amount of page time.

Um..... no, just no.

Okay, maybe i need more then no as an answer. Creativity is what you get when you are being creative, its quality over quantity. What it isn't is just copying something your competition is doing & then adding in some spikes, chains, ripped denim, giant guns/swords & the word blood, death, shadow, dark, hell, or some stupid deliberate mispeling to the cover name.

90% of the 90's comics are a creativity wasteland, empty of intelligent life, or anything capable of sustaining intelligent life.

(News flash. The comics industry as we know it is doomed. As the big bookstore chains die so to die the main discoverable courses of their product.

I've said it before, i'll say it again: News Agency Trades. Anthology trades sold on an ongoing monthly basis, containing 1 issue of 5 currently available ongoing books, set 3 months after the single issues. It saves room on news agency shelves, gives them only one product to purchase & they don't need to try to figure out what book they are going to get the most out of.

Until they figure out on how to truly capitalize on digital markets, they are all screwed.

There is no capatlising on the digital market. The digital market is fools gold. Everyone thinks that digital is the way of the future, but more and more its becoming obvious that people do not want, by and large to read their comics on a digital device. It has something to do with the permancy of print over digital.

The only people really getting into digital comics are the people who have 30 long boxes of comics, that they never reread. It just does not bring in a new readership. In fact libraries with graphic novel collecitons do a better job of introducing new readers to the medium then digital does.

Add into that the nonsense we currently have with giving up our doctrine of first sale rights & the trouble that inevitably causes (and has caused, just last week), an its really a bit of a trap. Not to forget the competing & superior black market for digital comics. Digital comics are one of those wierd sectors of the market in which the bootleg pirate version is actually superior to the paid for version of the same product.

I dont need to watch the video to tell you what happened to comics in the '90's. They sucked because all they did was focus on gimmicks and artwork, and forgot what makes them truly great... the story.

*Looks at every comic produced by DC since the reboot & every comic by Marvel for the last 4 years*

Oh god, which one of you arseholes transported me back to 1991?

Oh wait, its still 2013? Dear god, what happened to you Marvel & DC? Why are you so suddenly crap?

Chromium covers, multiple "collectible" covers, bagged comics with cards and such (which, by the way, those baggies they came in are acidic and will eventually destroy your comic.. not that most of those are really worth squat, anyway) and the list goes on. It was a bad time to be a comic collector back then. Anyone remember Valiant? /sigh, my wallet does.

Apparently its not much better a time now: Constant crossovers, chromium covers, multiple "collectible" covers, bagged comics with digital download codes (which, by the way, those baggies they came in are acidic and will eventually destroy your comic.. not that most of those are really worth squat, anyway), augmented reality (that never work right), constant reboots, issue zeroes 6 issues in to a series and the list goes on.

I honestly quit buying comics altogether, except for The Walking Dead. I stopped roughly 3 or 4 years ago, and yeah, I agree with you that it doesnt look like they learned their lesson from the '90's.

 

[Raikas]

And if you grew up as a geek in the 90s this is especially a bad time, as the 90s was not geek friendly as popular culture is now.

How so? Pop culture was certainly still more centralized than it is now, so if you look at the popularity of any single major franchise, you're looking at something that would have been a cultural reference that worked outside of geek circles. To use a single example, look at The X-Files - that was something that had a currency in general culture, and it wasn't alone in that.

 

[darksakul]

And if you grew up as a geek in the 90s this is especially a bad time, as the 90s was not geek friendly as popular culture is now.

How so? Pop culture was certainly still more centralized than it is now, so if you look at the popularity of any single major franchise, you're looking at something that would have been a cultural reference that worked outside of geek circles. To use a single example, look at The X-Files - that was something that had a currency in general culture, and it wasn't alone in that.

X-files, Meh.

Seriously how good the decade is is relevant to your own experiences.

The X-Files was okay but mot nearly as good as other "Actual Sci-Fi" shows. Do not confuse Popular with good.
Any one who grew up in the 80's and when back to watch any old 80's cartoon would have told you that.

If you are a geek and you grew up as a 80's kid the 90s did have much for you other than lame shows and bad memories.
Now if you really wanted for me to change my mind you would have brought up Batman: The Animated Series instead of the X-files.

 

[Raikas]

Do not confuse Popular with good.

No confusion here. You specifically used the words "pop culture" - pop is short for popular, so by definition we'd need to talk about things that were popular.

As I said upthread, some of my favourite comic series (and favourite arcs in ongoing series) came out in the 1990s - but I didn't mention them in response to your comment because they weren't part of the wider culture at the time. Only comic book readers would have understood the references.

If you are a geek and you grew up as a 80's kid the 90s did have much for you other than lame shows and bad memories.

Based on your profile, I'm actually only slightly older than you, so all that says to me is that we have different tastes - are the grand sweeping comments on generation and subculture really necessary?

Now if you really wanted for me to change my mind you would have brought up Batman: The Animated Series instead of the X-files.

I'm not trying to change your mind - I was asking for your perspective, since it's obviously quite different from mine.

Sure, I actually enjoyed X-Files, but that's not really even relevant since I wasn't talking taste as choice of an example was specifically because it's something that had mainstream popularity - taste or quality isn't terribly relevant when we're talking about whatever happens to exist in the popular consciousness.

These days popular culture is much more fractured than it was in the 90s (of course in the 90s it was more fractured than it was in the past as well), so references carried farther in those days than they do now. If you make a reference to a genre show (whether it's one that you think is good or bad) it's just not going to be as widely recognized.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

Can`t agree with Bob here.
If you`re reading only superhero books it`s your own loss. Like others allready pointed out there was alot of genius stuff comming up in the 90s. The best of all "Transmetropolitan" is a 90s release. As for superhero stuff and Image i had lots of fun with "the Darkness" and Erik Larsens Savage Dragon. Sure alot of points are valid if you look only at the superhero stuff in that time period but the ignoring of all other genres besides the hero comics makes it wrong. This market is way bigger than Movie Bob makes it out to be by just saying "90s: What happened?" and then going on a rant about the super heroes.

Otherwise good watch, please make it longer and explore it a bit more. Just because i`m not on your side doesn`t mean i didn`t enjoyed it.