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...