🐱 DC's New VP Wants Its Comics to Reflect a Diverse Readership—But It'll Take Some Work

https://io9.gizmodo.com/dcs-new-vp-wants-its-comics-to-reflect-a-diverse-reader-1845025237

In John Ridley’s upcoming DC Black Label seriesThe Other History of the DC Universe, a number of key moments from throughout DC’s comics canon are set to be reexamined from the perspectives of the non-white characters who, traditionally, have taken the back seat to white characters that the publisher’s spent decades elevating to iconic status.

When you look at the flagship books set in DC’s core continuity from the past few years—your Batman, Wonder Woman, and Justice League series come to mind—it’s often been blindingly obvious how those series have only done but so much to make DC’s larger universe feel like a place where superheroes and supervillains of color alike are an integral part of the stories being told. Odd developments like Cyborg becoming a new member of the League while John Stewart’s largely nowhere to be found have made it appear as if, when thinking about character lineups, DC’s fallen into the trap of checking off boxes in pursuit of corporate-approved diversity that really only reads well on paper.

In the ongoing conversations about what work needs to be done to make comics as a whole more inclusive, one of the more important things that tends to get lost in the sauce is people’s understanding of how important it is for publishers to take the time to properly cultivate non-white characters and then put them positions of narrative prominence within books that are actively promoted. All of this similarly applies to the creative teams of artists, writers, and editors bringing these stories, and while the comics space has gotten marginally better at hiring creators from marginalized backgrounds, to say that comics have become properly open and accessible to all people would be a gross overstatement. DC Comics’ newly-minted senior vice president Daniel Cherry III seems to understand all of this, and he would like to do something about it.

In a recent LinkedIn post, Cherry took a moment to express his excitement over coming to DC amid the publisher’s recent upheaval and share a bit about his past as a lifelong lover of comics. But he also took a moment to very diplomatically touch on a number of points that have been the subject of many a heated conversation about the industry.


“While always respecting the past, I also think it’s our responsibility to leverage the cultural power of DC Comics and our characters to entertain and inspire an increasingly diverse global fan base,” Cherry says. “Comics have the unique power to create resonant imagery and narratives that can move the world toward a better, more inclusive version of itself.”

In mentioning respecting the past, Cherry touches on the oft-used argument made against the creation and inclusion of new versions of characters (often people of color) by people who insist that comics and characters can only change but so much lest the publisher somehow “tarnish” their legacy. But it’s Cherry’s point about how the readership for comics is continuously growing and changing that’s important to focus on, because it touches on the future of the larger comics landscape beyond just DC. For years now, it’s been clear that while people’s ideas about the average comic book reader (white, male, young-to-middle aged) have remain somewhat fixed, the reality is that more and more women and young people represent substantial readership growth areas.

Putting more energy into all-age, middle grade, and YA series that feature a diverse array of characters is something DC’s been bullish about in recent years, and the company’s consistently bolstered the presences of its big name women characters like Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn. But on the comics front in particular, it’s been very curious to watch new, Black characters like Naomiand Duke Thomas pop up and then gradually fade into the background of other series in a way that doesn’t exactly engender all that much excitement around them. This is the sort of issue that’s a bit more complicated than it seems, as the common thought here is that a character’s prominence is determined purely by their popularity. But in reality, a character’s resonance with an audience is also the product of how a company handles them in terms of presentation, promotion, and attention.

On the other side of the aisle over at Marvel, characters like Kamala Khan and Miles Morales didn’t become immediate hits overnight; it took the sort of time and resources that a comics publisher has access to, but has to make decisions as to how it wants to dole out those resources out from brand to brand. With the revival of the Dakotaverse finally on the horizon, DC’s actually in an excellent position to follow through on Cherry’s ideas about how the company can push itself into a new era of storytelling that better reflects the lives and experiences of a larger pool of potential readers. The question now is whether DC will properly seize the opportunity and capitalize on its potential in a meaningful way beyond hopeful ideaton and lip service.

 

[XYZpdq]

lol they keep pushing this narrative of comics readership getting bigger and more diverse when really comic sales are so in the toilet that the MCU is the only thing keeping the Marvel brand afloat

I recall around 2012 at a DC panel at some con the then Head Guy said that DC Comics was officially shuffled into TimerWarnerVivendiTurnerUrmom's R&D department, and they were essentially now a test bed for IPs to spin off into the profitable wings like animation and live action and merch, and selling the comics was more part of the beta testing process than any particular requirement.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Coming from a person that owns newspaper comic books and old comic books dating back from the 80’s, today’s DC Comics is losing money and subscribers by injecting hardcore politics and rampant sexual innuendos to keep up with Generation Z.

Thing is, however, they could never replicate something like this:

 

[Cedric_Eff]

If it didn’t work at Marvel, why the fuck do you think it’s gonna work at DC!?

 

[Ineedahero]

Come on, you JUST benched Tom King, you were heading in the right direction.

Fucking Tom King. How did he make The Vision, the only decent marvel comic made in the past 10 years, and then fuck up Batman so bad? It's fucking Batman, even video game writers can get it right.

 

[Robert James]

Got to love D.C. they looked over at Marvel, a company that has the highest grossing movie of all time under their belt and still can't manage to sell comics, and thought they'd get some of that action. I mean they've been doing it for the past decade now but still. Good to know they see their industry burning down and instead of putting out the fire they add fuel.

 

[Red Hood]

Fucking Tom King. How did he make The Vision, the only decent marvel comic made in the past 10 years, and then fuck up Batman so bad? It's fucking Batman, even video game writers can get it right.

Because Tom King has to make everything "muh trauma" or "muh CIA". Him and Tim Seeley sidelining Nightwing to write Grayson (Dick Grayson becomes a secret agent because Tom King has to make everything about himself even though that plot is fucking stupid) was making me wish for a merciful God to give me an aneurysm as early as 2014.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Maybe if they make Bruce and Dick gay

Also I seem to recall DC tanking hard

 

[CarlKingofDucks]

Have these stupid fucks not seen marvels comic sales after they went woke?

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

AT&T, the conglomo who owns DC, is already trying to get profitable. They're shedding excess bagage. I think either this plan gets squashed very quickly because AT&T wants to make money or this plan drives DC into the ground. At that point, AT&T shuts the company down and it only exists as a holding company for the cape shit IPs. I can see them sell off most of the properties if that happens. Except for the major ones, since they can hold them in their back pocket until they can be used to make a profit again.

And this is how Superman dies.

 

[Haramburger]

Good ol’ DC, the company whose editors see nothing wrong with comic panels like:
Ver archivo adjunto 1592062

If not for the wall gag and weird toilet spaces on either side, I could otherwise compliment it for being an unorthodox viewing angle for a mundanely purposed room. This is matched by the fact that someone extraordinary is doing something ordinary with no dialogue or narration cluttering a self-explaining situation. Colors are nice too. I suspect this is another case of "too many cooks," but how can you get the talented folks into comics when people like Zoe Quinn get hired in with no credentials or skills right before you shutter the doors?

 

[CivilianOfTheFandomWars]

If not for the wall gag and weird toilet spaces on either side, I could otherwise compliment it for being an unorthodox viewing angle for a mundanely purposed room. This is matched by the fact that someone extraordinary is doing something ordinary with no dialogue or narration cluttering a self-explaining situation. Colors are nice too. I suspect this is another case of "too many cooks," but how can you get the talented folks into comics when people like Zoe Quinn get hired in with no credentials or skills right before you shutter the doors?

Imagine you’re taking a dump and someone slams the door in your face, so then you move the tub to act as a doorstop with your super strength.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

If not for the wall gag and weird toilet spaces on either side, I could otherwise compliment it for being an unorthodox viewing angle for a mundanely purposed room. This is matched by the fact that someone extraordinary is doing something ordinary with no dialogue or narration cluttering a self-explaining situation. Colors are nice too. I suspect this is another case of "too many cooks," but how can you get the talented folks into comics when people like Zoe Quinn get hired in with no credentials or skills right before you shutter the doors?

It's so strangely incompetent that it has to be intentional, how could you not notice that you drafted a door behind a bath tub? The artist is testing the editor and everyone else around him to see if anyone's paying attention.

 

[Furina]

have taken the back seat to white characters that the publisher’s spent decades elevating to iconic status.

This is an interesting line. Do you ever notice the incredibly top-down view of the world that progressives often take? Nothing comes from the bottom, from the grassroots, it's always projected downwards by the powerful. In this case the suggestion is that rather than Batman, Superman, et al, being popular, iconic characters because people like them and they've been around for decades, it's because THE CORPORATION selected them and deliberately ignored the others. While it's true that the company does have some control over who it chooses to promote, the public still has to embrace them. It doesn't matter how hard DC pushes a new hero, if the people don't like it, it's going to flop. This has been proven a dozen times and yet they refuse to learn because they genuinely believe that they can force people to love something. And if they can't, they'll just take away all the things you like until the only options left are those pre-approved by the Council of Woke.

 

[Next Task]

Do you ever notice the incredibly top-down view of the world that progressives often take?

It's almost like that's why they constantly try to force feed everyone their policies from a position of authority, because they believe they know better than anyone else how things should be and will use force to make that happen if they can.

But that can't be true, because Trump alt-right GamerGate manbaby chuds are the fascists who are trying to impose their morality on everyone, not them. They're the good guys.

I think in this case it comes from an inherent lack of respect for the format they're dealing with. They think people who like comics are people who don't care about quality, characterisation or anything like that, so if they jam political messages in or change characters to fit with their ideology the fans will keep buying it anyway - and maybe they'll pick up all the people they see online whining about being kept out of comics.

They never learn, though they should, that aside from a few whales that their customer base won't just buy any old shit with their hero in it, especially if the hero is nothing like they used to be. That the people who complain they are being kept out of comics aren't lost customers, because they never cared enough to actually be fans if they could be so easily driven out of the hobby, and only ever are interested in the most mainstream of products, that they then want to change to appeal specifically to them.

And as a side note, they don't realise that all these fanfic writers they've started hiring only care about the characters and stories inasmuch as they can make then reflections of themselves, because true creative talents outgrow fanfic because it stagnates creativity. So much of what's wrong with a lot of current media writing can be traced back to people with strong fandom backgrounds not having grown out of that mindset.

Basically, they cut all the money from the talent portion of creating comics and then blame the audience for not liking the results, because they can't tell the difference between good and bad comics anyway. Add in your usual SJW ideologues who mistake tribalism for empathy and can't actually create anything other than propaganda, and we'll get to see if this is just equivalent to DC putting a rainbow flag behind their icon during Pride month but doing absolutely nothing else, or a virtue-signaling declaration of intent that will inevitably, like all the others, go broke.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Coming from a person that owns newspaper comic books and old comic books dating back from the 80’s, today’s DC Comics is losing money and subscribers by injecting hardcore politics and rampant sexual innuendos to keep up with Generation Z.

Thing is, however, they could never replicate something like this:

Ver archivo adjunto 1592391

That's because Preacher required creativity.

 

[Secret Asshole]

I recall around 2012 at a DC panel at some con the then Head Guy said that DC Comics was officially shuffled into TimerWarnerVivendiTurnerUrmom's R&D department, and they were essentially now a test bed for IPs to spin off into the profitable wings like animation and live action and merch, and selling the comics was more part of the beta testing process than any particular requirement.

That's all comics are to Marvel and DC. Marvel comics would quite literally, not figuratively, cease to exist without the MCU. They're basically print ads for the movies. Western comics as a medium are basically dead creatively, except for the indie side. Nobody is buying them and Manga is taking a bigger stranglehold. This is because of multiple reasons: if I want to pick up, lets say....Goblin Slayer. I just look for the title...Goblin Slayer Volume 1. Dorohedro Volume 1. Berserk Volume 1. Hellsing Volume 1. And so on.

"I heard of this great Manga, One Piece, but its like a thousand chapters."

"Shit, where do I start?"

"Volume 1."

"Oh, uh, that's easy."

If I want to buy Batman, where in the ever-living fuck do I start? How many issues and graphic novels would I have to buy? How many resets would I have to go through? How many alterations of the character would I have to sift through before I found the one I liked? How many artists would I have to comb through as well to find something that is tolerable? Its fucking EXHAUSTING to get into these characters. Ennis' Punisher worked because it was an open and closed version of the character. It eliminated everything and anything superfluous and was his vision. It was essentially a closed story. You had one trail. You pick up Punisher Max and that's it. You don't need to buy 45 issues to figure out what the fuck is going on. Or these idiotic cross-over events. Or having heroes constantly being re-written by people I dislike, constantly trapped with what they want to do, not able to go anywhere else. Its pretty much why Ennis despises superheroes. They're not closed stories. Most of Ennis' work are closed stories.

Meanwhile, I can have Manga series I like, wait for it to be completed, and then read the Mangaka's next work. I know the art and the dialogue will be the same, but I'll be getting a wholly different story. Going into Manga, I know what to expect.

This is why the West does NOT understand Manga. It does not comprehend why it is losing so hard to it. Manga is relatively simple, seamless and easy to get into. It has consistent art and writing quality depending on who is making it. They're closed stories, meaning there's nothing else you need. If you want to start Berserk, you simply buy the first volume and go from there. And that Manga has been going on since the 1980s. Its completely sequential. If you're a 13 year old kid interested in comics, what are you going to go for? This confusing mess with all this bullshit and baggage that went on before you were even born? Or something that starts at the number '1' and keeps going without deviation? The choice is simple to me. You don't need to read a 100 page wiki to get into it. You simply buy volume one and go.

Also, name me ONE mainstream comic that is completely linear, that I can start at volume 1 at with a singular story and character, with no reboots, resets, backtracking, different artists or writers with a singular vision that's been going on for 30+ years. You can't. It simply isn't possible.

With the way American comics is structured, around characters rather than stories, it will always build up excess baggage until it is forced to wipe the slate clean. I've given up on Western comics. I legitimately do not care what happens to them. They can go woke, they can go broke, they can make batman into a wheelchair bound tranny who swings from rooftops and fights the Joker by throwing his wheelchair at him at high velocity. I don't care.

The movie 'Joker' made MAD bank because it was basically the comic-book movie equivalent to a Manga. It had a beginning, middle and an end. There was no superfluous shit. You didn't need to understand Batman to get into it. Anyone could just watch it. There was no continuity. There was no excess baggage. You just simply watched and embraced it. There was no need to know who Batman was. Who the Joker was. Everything is self-contained. What did it get (besides a billion dollars)? It was fucking REVILED by the media. Because 'Joker' breaks the super hero genre to its core. People want these unique stories with no baggage. They're tired of these gigantic, convoluted universes. They want a beginning, middle and an end. They want to start at #1 and end at #20 and then get something different. But that's not profitable and requires a ton of creative energy. They want no risk.

They want you to keep eating their gruel. Consume. Don't even fucking bother. Watch and read shit that takes risks.

This is an interesting line. Do you ever notice the incredibly top-down view of the world that progressives often take? Nothing comes from the bottom, from the grassroots, it's always projected downwards by the powerful. In this case the suggestion is that rather than Batman, Superman, et al, being popular, iconic characters because people like them and they've been around for decades, it's because THE CORPORATION selected them and deliberately ignored the others. While it's true that the company does have some control over who it chooses to promote, the public still has to embrace them. It doesn't matter how hard DC pushes a new hero, if the people don't like it, it's going to flop. This has been proven a dozen times and yet they refuse to learn because they genuinely believe that they can force people to love something. And if they can't, they'll just take away all the things you like until the only options left are those pre-approved by the Council of Woke.

Progressivisim is never about raising everyone up. That's very difficult. Its all about tearing things down to the shittiest possible level so even the most fucktarded of people will have a 'chance'. Basically, modern progressivisim is destruction. It is not elevation. It is pulling things down. Because destruction is easier than construction. Hate is easier than love. So instead of elevating everyone, they seek to pull everything down. Its easier to make propaganda than a real story.

It's almost like that's why they constantly try to force feed everyone their policies from a position of authority, because they believe they know better than anyone else how things should be and will use force to make that happen if they can.

But that can't be true, because Trump alt-right GamerGate manbaby chuds are the fascists who are trying to impose their morality on everyone, not them. They're the good guys.

I think in this case it comes from an inherent lack of respect for the format they're dealing with. They think people who like comics are people who don't care about quality, characterisation or anything like that, so if they jam political messages in or change characters to fit with their ideology the fans will keep buying it anyway - and maybe they'll pick up all the people they see online whining about being kept out of comics.

They never learn, though they should, that aside from a few whales that their customer base won't just buy any old shit with their hero in it, especially if the hero is nothing like they used to be. That the people who complain they are being kept out of comics aren't lost customers, because they never cared enough to actually be fans if they could be so easily driven out of the hobby, and only ever are interested in the most mainstream of products, that they then want to change to appeal specifically to them.

And as a side note, they don't realise that all these fanfic writers they've started hiring only care about the characters and stories inasmuch as they can make then reflections of themselves, because true creative talents outgrow fanfic because it stagnates creativity. So much of what's wrong with a lot of current media writing can be traced back to people with strong fandom backgrounds not having grown out of that mindset.

Basically, they cut all the money from the talent portion of creating comics and then blame the audience for not liking the results, because they can't tell the difference between good and bad comics anyway. Add in your usual SJW ideologues who mistake tribalism for empathy and can't actually create anything other than propaganda, and we'll get to see if this is just equivalent to DC putting a rainbow flag behind their icon during Pride month but doing absolutely nothing else, or a virtue-signaling declaration of intent that will inevitably, like all the others, go broke.

That's part of the problem. But I think there's just this dearth of creativity. There's massive stagnation and the Western comics industry did nothing to fend off manga. Its only gotten worse as time passes. The medium of Western comics has not evolved creatively to compete. It throws out gluts of books and whatever sticks, sticks. It hasn't really changed all that much, except the messaging and quality have fallen through the floor. The tactic and business principle is still the same. Throw out dozens of titles, see what is bought, everything else goes in the garbage. The problem is most of what Western comics produce is pure and utter trash these days, so there's not even good writing or art to get you hooked into it. The one thing the West had over the East was really sharp art and coloring. It gave this up for disgusting, generic designs while Eastern designs flourished. So basically Western comics are operating the same way they always have been, except they're discarding what made them different from Eastern works. So there's literally no reason to read mainstream Western comics over manga.

Well, Fanfic is a good place to wipe off rust. It gives you a setting and world-building that readers are familiar with. Most creatives basically start writing a fanfic and then just keep adding more and more original content so it no longer even resembles the work it was built off of. But most fanfics are self-insert masturbatory material. Which is ok. But its not a writer you'd want to hire.

 

[Observerer]

What is the difference between comics and graphic novels?

And the only comics I have ever read were my parents old Archie comics. Other than that shit, seems like a 1950s hobby some straight WASP boy scout would be into when he is not getting fondled on the side by his scout leader or priest.

OC Donut Steel
Ver archivo adjunto 1592281

This is exactly how I imagined him. Fucking awesome! Needs bigger tits though...

 

[Pickle Inspector]

That's all comics are to Marvel and DC. Marvel comics would quite literally, not figuratively, cease to exist without the MCU. They're basically print ads for the movies. Western comics as a medium are basically dead creatively, except for the indie side. Nobody is buying them and Manga is taking a bigger stranglehold. This is because of multiple reasons: if I want to pick up, lets say....Goblin Slayer. I just look for the title...Goblin Slayer Volume 1. Dorohedro Volume 1. Berserk Volume 1. Hellsing Volume 1. And so on.

"I heard of this great Manga, One Piece, but its like a thousand chapters."

"Shit, where do I start?"

"Volume 1."

"Oh, uh, that's easy."

If I want to buy Batman, where in the ever-living fuck do I start? How many issues and graphic novels would I have to buy? How many resets would I have to go through? How many alterations of the character would I have to sift through before I found the one I liked? How many artists would I have to comb through as well to find something that is tolerable? Its fucking EXHAUSTING to get into these characters. Ennis' Punisher worked because it was an open and closed version of the character. It eliminated everything and anything superfluous and was his vision. It was essentially a closed story. You had one trail. You pick up Punisher Max and that's it. You don't need to buy 45 issues to figure out what the fuck is going on. Or these idiotic cross-over events. Or having heroes constantly being re-written by people I dislike, constantly trapped with what they want to do, not able to go anywhere else. Its pretty much why Ennis despises superheroes. They're not closed stories. Most of Ennis' work are closed stories.

Meanwhile, I can have Manga series I like, wait for it to be completed, and then read the Mangaka's next work. I know the art and the dialogue will be the same, but I'll be getting a wholly different story. Going into Manga, I know what to expect.

This is why the West does NOT understand Manga. It does not comprehend why it is losing so hard to it. Manga is relatively simple, seamless and easy to get into. It has consistent art and writing quality depending on who is making it. They're closed stories, meaning there's nothing else you need. If you want to start Berserk, you simply buy the first volume and go from there. And that Manga has been going on since the 1980s. Its completely sequential. If you're a 13 year old kid interested in comics, what are you going to go for? This confusing mess with all this bullshit and baggage that went on before you were even born? Or something that starts at the number '1' and keeps going without deviation? The choice is simple to me. You don't need to read a 100 page wiki to get into it. You simply buy volume one and go.

Also, name me ONE mainstream comic that is completely linear, that I can start at volume 1 at with a singular story and character, with no reboots, resets, backtracking, different artists or writers with a singular vision that's been going on for 30+ years. You can't. It simply isn't possible.

With the way American comics is structured, around characters rather than stories, it will always build up excess baggage until it is forced to wipe the slate clean. I've given up on Western comics. I legitimately do not care what happens to them. They can go woke, they can go broke, they can make batman into a wheelchair bound tranny who swings from rooftops and fights the Joker by throwing his wheelchair at him at high velocity. I don't care.

The movie 'Joker' made MAD bank because it was basically the comic-book movie equivalent to a Manga. It had a beginning, middle and an end. There was no superfluous shit. You didn't need to understand Batman to get into it. Anyone could just watch it. There was no continuity. There was no excess baggage. You just simply watched and embraced it. There was no need to know who Batman was. Who the Joker was. Everything is self-contained. What did it get (besides a billion dollars)? It was fucking REVILED by the media. Because 'Joker' breaks the super hero genre to its core. People want these unique stories with no baggage. They're tired of these gigantic, convoluted universes. They want a beginning, middle and an end. They want to start at #1 and end at #20 and then get something different. But that's not profitable and requires a ton of creative energy. They want no risk.

They want you to keep eating their gruel. Consume. Don't even fucking bother. Watch and read shit that takes risks.

That’s my problem with superhero comics, you’ll occasionally get a good story but nothing matters since there’s no way for example they’ll kill off a major character permanently.

As for western comics as I say I’ve never really been a superhero fan but sometimes they‘ll be fun new comics, I enjoyed Skottie Young’s I Hate Fairyland for example a few years back and as for a mainstream comic with a single linear story and the same writer/artist throughout the closest I can think of is Usagi Yojimbo, it’s been going since 1984 with around 250 issues.

 

[Leedsotherkid]

So it’s “ Let’s cater to the audience we want, not the one we have.”. That worked out so well in other media. This shit is going to keep happening until they get someone who wants to run a profitable company and not a preachy public service charity. It’ll happen soon, They are shopping DC around, except it won’t come with the movie or merch cash cows. Sell books or die.

 

[Haramburger]

That's all comics are to Marvel and DC. Marvel comics would quite literally, not figuratively, cease to exist without the MCU. They're basically print ads for the movies. Western comics as a medium are basically dead creatively, except for the indie side. Nobody is buying them and Manga is taking a bigger stranglehold. This is because of multiple reasons: if I want to pick up, lets say....Goblin Slayer. I just look for the title...Goblin Slayer Volume 1. Dorohedro Volume 1. Berserk Volume 1. Hellsing Volume 1. And so on.

"I heard of this great Manga, One Piece, but its like a thousand chapters."

"Shit, where do I start?"

"Volume 1."

"Oh, uh, that's easy."

If I want to buy Batman, where in the ever-living fuck do I start? How many issues and graphic novels would I have to buy? How many resets would I have to go through? How many alterations of the character would I have to sift through before I found the one I liked? How many artists would I have to comb through as well to find something that is tolerable? Its fucking EXHAUSTING to get into these characters. Ennis' Punisher worked because it was an open and closed version of the character. It eliminated everything and anything superfluous and was his vision. It was essentially a closed story. You had one trail. You pick up Punisher Max and that's it. You don't need to buy 45 issues to figure out what the fuck is going on. Or these idiotic cross-over events. Or having heroes constantly being re-written by people I dislike, constantly trapped with what they want to do, not able to go anywhere else. Its pretty much why Ennis despises superheroes. They're not closed stories. Most of Ennis' work are closed stories.

Meanwhile, I can have Manga series I like, wait for it to be completed, and then read the Mangaka's next work. I know the art and the dialogue will be the same, but I'll be getting a wholly different story. Going into Manga, I know what to expect.

This is why the West does NOT understand Manga. It does not comprehend why it is losing so hard to it. Manga is relatively simple, seamless and easy to get into. It has consistent art and writing quality depending on who is making it. They're closed stories, meaning there's nothing else you need. If you want to start Berserk, you simply buy the first volume and go from there. And that Manga has been going on since the 1980s. Its completely sequential. If you're a 13 year old kid interested in comics, what are you going to go for? This confusing mess with all this bullshit and baggage that went on before you were even born? Or something that starts at the number '1' and keeps going without deviation? The choice is simple to me. You don't need to read a 100 page wiki to get into it. You simply buy volume one and go.

Also, name me ONE mainstream comic that is completely linear, that I can start at volume 1 at with a singular story and character, with no reboots, resets, backtracking, different artists or writers with a singular vision that's been going on for 30+ years. You can't. It simply isn't possible.

With the way American comics is structured, around characters rather than stories, it will always build up excess baggage until it is forced to wipe the slate clean. I've given up on Western comics. I legitimately do not care what happens to them. They can go woke, they can go broke, they can make batman into a wheelchair bound tranny who swings from rooftops and fights the Joker by throwing his wheelchair at him at high velocity. I don't care.

The movie 'Joker' made MAD bank because it was basically the comic-book movie equivalent to a Manga. It had a beginning, middle and an end. There was no superfluous shit. You didn't need to understand Batman to get into it. Anyone could just watch it. There was no continuity. There was no excess baggage. You just simply watched and embraced it. There was no need to know who Batman was. Who the Joker was. Everything is self-contained. What did it get (besides a billion dollars)? It was fucking REVILED by the media. Because 'Joker' breaks the super hero genre to its core. People want these unique stories with no baggage. They're tired of these gigantic, convoluted universes. They want a beginning, middle and an end. They want to start at #1 and end at #20 and then get something different. But that's not profitable and requires a ton of creative energy. They want no risk.

They want you to keep eating their gruel. Consume. Don't even fucking bother. Watch and read shit that takes risks.



Progressivisim is never about raising everyone up. That's very difficult. Its all about tearing things down to the shittiest possible level so even the most fucktarded of people will have a 'chance'. Basically, modern progressivisim is destruction. It is not elevation. It is pulling things down. Because destruction is easier than construction. Hate is easier than love. So instead of elevating everyone, they seek to pull everything down. Its easier to make propaganda than a real story.



That's part of the problem. But I think there's just this dearth of creativity. There's massive stagnation and the Western comics industry did nothing to fend off manga. Its only gotten worse as time passes. The medium of Western comics has not evolved creatively to compete. It throws out gluts of books and whatever sticks, sticks. It hasn't really changed all that much, except the messaging and quality have fallen through the floor. The tactic and business principle is still the same. Throw out dozens of titles, see what is bought, everything else goes in the garbage. The problem is most of what Western comics produce is pure and utter trash these days, so there's not even good writing or art to get you hooked into it. The one thing the West had over the East was really sharp art and coloring. It gave this up for disgusting, generic designs while Eastern designs flourished. So basically Western comics are operating the same way they always have been, except they're discarding what made them different from Eastern works. So there's literally no reason to read mainstream Western comics over manga.

Well, Fanfic is a good place to wipe off rust. It gives you a setting and world-building that readers are familiar with. Most creatives basically start writing a fanfic and then just keep adding more and more original content so it no longer even resembles the work it was built off of. But most fanfics are self-insert masturbatory material. Which is ok. But its not a writer you'd want to hire.

I don't disagree with your points, but I would argue that Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is probably the closest to western capeshit in that you have a chronology and clear progression, but some folks don't start at the beginning and may enter the series from a later point with Stands, and whatever arc that may be stands alone fairly well.