Thursday, July 07, 2011

The Art of Protest

Oh, dear.

As reported at Robot 6, a groups of fans are actually going to protest the DC re-launch at the SDCC.

Now, I'm not going to make fun of them for protesting. I've lived my entire adult life in Washington, D.C., whose economy rests squarely on the idea that the self-righteous will pay good money to parade their moral superiority through protests, not because it ever accomplishes anything, but just because it makes them feel good. Enjoy your stay in the nation's capital and remember to re-hydrate!

Nor will I take the easy pot-shots at them for the "trivial" nature of what they are protesting. Yes, they could and perhaps "should" be off protesting "important" things like world hunger, or taxes, or Crocs (lord knows someone should). But there are other people doing that and what difference would they make doing it too? People don't protest things because those things are "important"; they protest them because they are angry. And don't tell me you've never been angry at something that was done in comic book or with a comic book character. Maybe not angry enough to go out and protest publicly... but that's you, and this is them. Television fans 'protest' on behalf of their shows all the time; perhaps they do not take it to the streets, but neither do they generally have a ready-made venue like ComicCon.

However...

I will point out one thing.

As far as I can tell, this protest comes from "art people" not "writer people". There's some pro forma bitching about the reboot, but the genesis of their discontent actually seems to be the costume re-designs. And THAT is amazing to me... yet predictable.

I have always maintained that there are two types of comic book fans: those for whom the art is a means to an end (telling the story) and those for whom the art is an end in itself. As I've written before, DC has always been story-focused and plot-driven, whereas Marvel is more about characterization and art.

As such, writer-types tends to be DC fans and artist-types tend to be Marvel fans. Yes, yes, 'protest' all you want that I'm painting with a broad brush, and you yourself aren't like that, and aren't we all just the same, wanting a Coke and a smile. Fine. But I used to own comic book stores and if there was one constant it was that every customer who was an amateur artist had a sub full of Marvel and every amateur writer had a sub full of DC.

Given that, DC fans, I think, tend to be a more philosophical lot. Writers know that the essence of writing is re-writing, and that the essence of comic book history is being constantly re-written. Every writer does something slightly different with a character, and characters and continually being evolved, their backstories filled in, their interpretations broadened. Writer-ly types know that it doesn't matter whether the frog is boiled slowly through monthly tweaks or all at once with re-launch... it's still gonna get boiled.

But artist-types? I don't think they understand that as easily. Individual artists have their own style, certainly. But they don't get to actually change costume designs. So all these simultaneously costume re-designs come as quite a shock to the art-fans' systems, I think.

Writers (everyone knows, LOL) are Old, World-Worn, and Cynical. Artists are Young, Fresh, and Idealistic. These young artists types are shocked at the lack of exceptionalism in the fandom, completely taken aback that what happened to the comic book fans of Golden Age, and the Silver & Bronze Ages, is now happening... to them.

The writer types? Not so shocked. Not so ready to protest. We're too busy sunning at the sidewalk cafes in San Diego, sipping demitasses of Cuban coffee and clucking at the naivete of the artists marching by with their artfully letter protest signs.

What I find amazing is that there are that many DC fans who care that much about the art...


19 comments:

  1. Spot on. As an amateur fiction writer myself I can't be bothered to get worked up over the trivialities of whether or not Wonder Woman wears silver instead of gold or how many lines the Flash has on his boots.

    And we'll see how many "DC fans" actually show up at the "protest." I'm guessing it won't be that many.

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  2. I'll be dipped. I never really thought about it that much before (I am amazingly uncritical at times) but I do believe you have a valid point.

    And really, you know that eventually...and probably NOT in the too distant future...all the costumes will be restored to the status quo anyway. Because of the licensing, which has Wonder Woman in starspangled shorts, and Superman in red underwear worn on the outside. I can live with the collars.

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  3. Screw the re-launch-boot. When are you holding your anti-Croc rally, Scipio? There's a cause I can get behind.

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  4. Eh. The redesigned costumes are a temporary lapse in judgment, and will be be jettisoned soon enough. Superman will get his red underpants back.

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  5. ^And I suddenly just imagined DC doing an epic 5-issue crossover event to return Superman's underpants and remove everyone's high collars.

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  6. Crisis of Infinite Underpants?

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  7. Actually, during my days in the retail serial art business myself, I found it went about 50/50 for art-fans, I mean, the S%$^ I had to endure across the counter when they *gasp* took the fringe off Nightwing's costume... or that bost of the whining about blue/red superman WASN'T that it was a terrible idea (which it was) but that they made him look all "electric-y". But maybe that's just the midwest, who knows...?

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  8. The only thing I really hate about the DCnU is restarting Action & Detective. That I would protest.

    Oh, and that terrible Red Robin costume with the feathers.

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  9. UNDERPANTS UNLEASHED

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  10. Yes, it's the Action and Detective renumbering! And as a life long Washingtonian- please hydrate!

    And wear sensible shoes, people!

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  11. I know somebody who's planning on flying from Sydney to this protest. She's a Harley Quinn cosplayer who takes Harley very seriously.

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  12. Xanadude28@yahoo.com7/10/2011 9:40 PM

    You nailed it. As a librarian, I guess I'm more oriented to the printed word, and my initial reaction to all this was "Great. As long as the stories are interesting and more people read and buy comics (in whatever form they are offered) the better."
    This whole "I'm throwing out my collection because the stories don't MATTER any more" is just so supremely silly. If you're going to ditch your comics, at least do some good and donate them to your local library.

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  13. Hi, Scipio!

    I don't understand how people can protest before they've even read the comics. The comics haven't even come out! Shouldn't people wait to see the results for themselves before judging everything? It all seems very presumptuous...

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  14. They've seen the costumes, Roel; I'm not sure they care what the stories are like.

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  15. Hahaha. Awesome post, Scip.

    I never thought of it that way, but as I am writer-ly and prefer the DCU to the MU... you've got my number.

    I'm sure there isn't something more important to protest right this minute, right? But I AM enjoying the PR clusterf**k DC has gotten itself into (a professional bias, of course).

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  16. steve mitchell7/13/2011 4:53 PM

    Always with the dualism here at the Absorbascon. . .Scipio, were you raised by Jesuits or Manichaeans?

    Anyway, despite being a writer-ly type myself, I enjoy both DC and Marvel--or at least, I used to, till recently. And while I have parted company with the current books, I still enjoy the archives and masterworks from both companies.

    I wouldn't walk across the street to protest the DC reboot, but it's the writer-ly things that bother me about it, not the costume changes. For example, I hate seeing the Martian Manhunter lose his slot as a founding member of the Justice League--and he's not even being replaced by anyone interesting, like, say, Captain Marvel or Doctor Fate. Instead, he's been deposed by Cyborg, who was a double cliche when he first appeared, and never got better.

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  17. I couldn't agree with you more about Cyborg.

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  18. The minor change in GL appearance is annoying, but no big deal.

    What I loathe--and would be enough to make me join the protest--is the decision to redesign Barry Allen's classic uniform into what is essentially Wally's uniform.

    Stupid and pointless. Now instead of enjoying seeing Barry back we can't because he has pretty much Wally's appearance.

    If DC's going to continue with this wretched "legacy" biz, they should at least take care to keep the VISUALS distinct between the derivatives.

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  19. It cannot really have success, I suppose so.
    CELERY SUKIYAKI

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