Spyke
lemm.ee

And you constantly see publishers working in the industry being confused at how comics aren't more popular and cancelling series left and right wondering where it all went wrong.

We like comics, but I hate "the canon" and crossovers. Just let writers do what they want and not have to tie in to vastly different works, it's not that hard.

65

Publishers aren't confused about anything. The idea that some readers like clear jumping-on points and isolated cannon isn't news to anyone.

Ultimate Spider-Man proved it a long time ago. Graphic novels have been around forever. Both DC and Marvel published and still publish stand alone works all the time.

It's that they choose to serve two different audiences: the readers that like the shared universe, lose cannon, and rotating writership, because those things aren't that big a deal for them. Then there's the readers that want small, self contained, one author experiences. The mainline comics aren't made for the latter, and in fact they would lose the former if they tried to pivot in that direction.

It just never ceases to amaze me how some people can't wrap their head around the idea others have no problem jumping into a series rather than worrying about starting from issue 1. It's not that bizarre.

17
lemmy.world

But what if I want to read something that doesn’t sexualize children?

25
some_guyreply
lemmy.world

Someone else suggested a long-form serial called “The New York Times”

I am having a hell of a time trying to find issue #1 though so idk if it’s worth starting in the middle somewhere

22
kbin.social

This is why comics aren't more popular in the west, constant rebooting. I get if it happened once or even twice in all the decades, but the reboots are constant.

Catching up on a manga can be a slog, but at least I know what the chronology is without having to consult a wiki, and they basically never reboot so the catching up is actually worthwhile!

24

C'mon, this only happens with super hero comics. Even in DC, if you want to read 100 Bullets you start in chapter one. That ain't a manga exclusive feature

18

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Fate

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

3

I used to read Batman comics, until DC rebooted their universe... again.

Nowadays, I stick with manga.

12

That's the one I was thinking about. They rebooted in the 90s and I dropped out when they rebooted again in 2011.

Tbf, most of the canon was kept intact, but I thought it was a good dropping point for me.

4

This is where I'm at with Comics. I had to look up various sites to understand what the Knight Terrors arc was, or Fall of X, House of M...Hellfire Gala event? I'll probably just give up.

11

Age of Apocalypse did that to me, spans like 10 different series.

*Correction 16 counting a couple of one shots.

1

I grew up on French, British and Italian comics that have a variety of themes and are mostly episodic with contained stories. The shared universe, crossover, retcon nonsense is almost exclusive to the Marvel and DC bubble.

8

Manga is written by one person. Any given mainstream comic character has at least 30 years of history with at least a dozen writers. It isn't a problem with comics but with the continuity being reconned every few years.

The real answer is to start where ever you want with comics because stories are self contained and rarely serialized. Crossover characters will revisit the comic and it's fun but usually comics are easy to get into. It's why trades are so cheap - it's open for anyone to pick up and read.

7
lemmy.world

Good lord...never knew people had such hate for comic books.

Read whatever you want, but damn, maybe appreciate for a second that some people like things for different reasons than you?

-1

You reached the end