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[ Posted by BillNichols on Feb 19th, 2007 2:02 PM ]...
Thanks for the Add!
Bill Nichols
Editor, Sketch Magazine  2 Replies [ Latest posted on February 19th, 2007 3:25 PM ]
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[ Posted by TheCapeSymposium on Feb 19th, 2007 3:19 PM ]...
Hi, Bill.
Please take a look around at The Cape Symposium.
www.thecapesymposium.com
Your perspective on the superhero genre is exactly the kind of thing that will make this forum really start to pop.
Thanks,
Josh Dahl |
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[ Posted by BillNichols on Feb 19th, 2007 3:25 PM ]...
Josh,
Appreciate it. Right back atcha! My thing with Sketch is about doing comics...not just the how but the why. Keep me posted!
Bill |
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[ Posted by illustrate_ed on Feb 18th, 2007 3:41 PM ]...
(I've posted this comment elsewhere in a slightly different form. But it's germane to the subject at hand, so I thought I'd post it here.)
As a genre, super-heroes are best when they address simple "humanity." Super heroes are the foil to our limitations, fragility, morality and mortality. We need them, if only to see ourselves more clearly, especially in the context of large social/political dynamics.
My personal belief is that super heroes are an intrinsic part of the American Mythological Landscape. America, a melting pot nation, went through all kinds of growing pains through the altogether short history that led up to the early 20th century. We're talking about a culture that's so new it didn't have a uniquely attuned mythology to guide it.
Instead, American myth-makers went back--over and over and over again--to Old World myths and recycled those subjects, often lacking a real understanding of what those stories were meant to teach our ancestors. There was nothing original to it. Nothing unique to the evolving idea of what "America" is.
[Today, those old stories lack any social/psychological/spiritual resonance for us. We're in a post-animism, post-theistic, post-modern culture, and so little of what previous generations clung to means much anymore. Chalk it up to an explosion of knowledge about the world and the universe that's taken place throughout the latter half of the 20th century and continues today!]
But when you look at the human psyche and the stages of grief (or stages of healthy emotional development), for example, something interesting emerges. You have some common milestones: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. America, at about the time that super heroes began to emerge in comics, was going through it's own collective "Depression" as it watched Europe begin to darken with the threat of war (again). It isn't hard to imagine that creators at the time (mostly men with responsibilities) were looking for ways to rekindle something like "hope" in themselves, not to mention a renewed sense of justice--that someone was looking out for the average joe.
So, stemming directly from the repercussions of economic collapse and the despair and ennui that spread like a cancer through the nation, we see the emergence of passionate, larger-than-life men and women in comics. America didn't have it's own Olympic or Nordic pantheon or a Round Table of noble knights UNTIL comics created them. I think that's what makes the genre so uniquely American. I think we should be prouder of it.
So that's why I can't understand the glut of zombie, vampire, goth and generally nihilistic subject matter that chokes the industry these days. Talk about a genre that's been beaten to death--in movies, cable, TV, novels, &c and for how many decades?! I can't even suspend my disbelief anymore. What's the appeal? It reflects a psyche that's arrested in an early stage of some process--or, at the very least, not yet emotionally mature. To me, anything nihilistic--that revels in blood, gore, hopelessness, &c for it's own sake--is, at its very core, dishonest. As I get older and get over myself, I see that there's a lot more to be hopeful about in this life than an angry or bitter teen could ever possibly see.
So, why not give the super hero genre its due? Super heroes are a permanent part of our culture, an important lens through which to view our place in history, and the first footsteps along the path toward establishing an uniquely American mythology. Sure, there have been missteps, but the genre, as a whole, continues to dominate the market.
For which I am grateful! |
