This week I’m going to continue to answer questions posed to me through the “Meet Your Neighborhood Cartoonist” project survey. This particular neighbor had a whole slew of questions! (Love it!)

I’m going to answer all questions posed to me in that survey at a rate of about one per week. Follow me on facebook and twitter for notifications of new posts! 

Hey Neighbor!*
Thanks for all of the questions! It gave me something to dig into today! Here’s my best efforts at providing answers

Illustration by Bob Ray Starker

What did you think about Archie: The Married Life?
I didn’t read it, so I can’t talk at length about it. My understanding is that it features two parallel alternate story lines, one in which he marries Veronica and one where he marries Betty. I guess in my mind’’s eye, they both move on too find somebody more interesting than Archie, but no one asked for my third alternative take. For what its worth and to not so subtly make my answer about Nix Comics, I used a similar but reverse structure with Nix Western Comics. In issue #1 I introduce main characters Sheriff Earl Vance and Outlaw Johnny Skell. (Spoiler alert) That first issue ends up with both characters coming to a fiery demise. I spend the next three issues telling one story each for Vance and Skell, set in a time before their issue #1 showdown. The idea was to use the end to set the context for character development.

What has even been happening since R. Crumb?
Yeesh. Crumb?  I should probably start by fessing up that I’m not a huge fan. I get that he’s an important artist in terms of advancing the artform. I know he can draw like a son of a gun. I just find his narrative style boring at best and offensive at his worst. Maybe it was just all of the times I heard him referred to as “the greatest living cartoonist” while Jack Davis was still alive and at best Crumb was an distant (and arguable) second.

Crumb ain’t no Davis!

Anyways… He’s still doing stuff and still revered by a portion of the comics community, so we aren’t really in a “since R. Crumb” situation yet. I will say, though, that there is always SOMETHING new and interesting going on in comics if you’re willing to go looking for it.

When will everything with boring superheroes finally STOP?
Short answer is when the money runs out. When the paying audience dries up.
The long answer is dependent on whether you mean in comics or the whole transmedia thing including movies, TV, and ads? I have ambivalent feelings about both.

In comic shops, the superhero stuff is still the primary driver of steady sales. That doesn’t bother me as long as any given shop makes room for other reading experiences. Some do and some don’t. Laughing Ogre, who partnered with me on this project does a pretty good job. I do think, to answer your question about when the superhero stuff will go away, that genre has been showing signs of decline for years but somehow manages to keep a core group of fans. I think they’ll be around for a while. If they keep the comic stores open, I guess that’s OK. (And for the record, I’m not without my guilt in superhero fanboy-ism. Just look how many times I go to that well in my sketchbook picture sleeves project!)

I’ll also add that personally, I’ve bought exactly one new superhero comic this year: an issue of “The Thing” limited series written by Walter Mosley. I love Mosely’s novels and hoped he could add some magic to the character and the genre. I’m sorry to say it was disappointing.

The movies, however, I suspect, have less staying power. Like westerns, thrillers, and romcoms, they’ll fade into and out of favor over time. As they do, risk averse film makers will make more and less of them. I kind of suspect that given the general mindset of the country, war and military movies are poised for a comeback. (Bleh. I’d rather have superheroes than that mess, honestly) 

I think it is a nice idea to mail your comics out. I didn’t get it. Will you be resending?
Unfortunately, the post office lost most of the flyers. (Its a long story that I will probably put out in zine form once I’m not mad about it anymore. Maybe 2037?). I did get a refund on my postage, but I don’t have the money to print new flyers. Even if I did, I’m feeling once bitten twice shy on the Every Door Direct Mail service. It’s a real shame, too: my thought going into project this was that I could show people that the USPS was still a valuable tool for community building. It seems that is not the case.  Thanks Mr. DeJoy… You sure have the USPS “running like a business.”

Thanks for taking the survey!
Best,

Ken

*=neighbor identity kept private, cuz that’s what I promised to everybody who took the survey!