Drunken Comics Rage

So here it is kids. The conclusion to the event post! This is where it all goes down and we change the status quo forever! Nothing will ever be the same again!

Can you guess where I'm going next with this?

#5 Forget about the "changing the status quo" bullshit: They say this shit all the time "The status quo is changing!" and "Nothing will ever be the same again!" I mean really, is this necessary? Does anyone even believe in this anymore? For those of us that have read comics for any length of time in our lives, we know absolutely one thing to be true. Nothing is ever permanent. NOTHING. Changing the status quo is sort of like changing your socks. You may pull those bastards off and wear something different tomorrow, but sooner or later you're gonna wear those socks again. You may wear them with different shoes or a different pair of pants, buts those socks are going back on your feet at some point.

You know how permanent status quo changes are in comics? They are so permanent that they are more often than not completely wiped out in the next event comic by some new "status quo". Lets say the event book lasts seven issues (fairly standard these days). And as we all know, whatever the "next event" is almost always starts at the same time of year. That means that at best your new status quo is in place for what, five months? Then it is upended and replaced by the "new, new" status quo. Then again, that one will be replaced by a "new, new, new" status quo the next year, which will be replaced by another status quo the year after which looks oddly like something close to the status quo you started with. It's a big ass multi-year shell game folks, and it needs to go away.

Better yet, think of it this way. Remember those brand spanking new readers I said we were shooting for out of this whole thing? Well odds are they have no fucking clue what your status quo was before you started this big event thing. So why would they care how it changed? How would they even know? Just concentrate on telling really good stories and move on to telling another really good story. Don't worry about reshaping the universe with each and every book that is written.

#6 The event has to have a pay off: This really ties back to #3 because a story ain't a story if it doesn't have an ending. And it really needs to have an ending that makes sense and satisfies the readers. Civil War is probably a great example of an event that either comes really close to missing this mark, or fails miserably at this rule, all depending on who you ask. Marvel had stated even before the book was ending "It isn't the ending you want, but it's the ending you need." Having read it, I somewhat agree with that statement, but I completely understand those who feel like it just didn't have an ending. Like the action just stopped and everyone walked away and we were to accept that. Civil War certainly had it's flaws , but I "got" the ending and accepted it for what it was. But given that I could understand where folks felt a little robbed by it I think they likely needed to come up with something that provided a little more closure for folks.

#7 You have to ship the book on time: Seriously folks, why is this so damned hard? How do the majority of these damn events end up delayed in some shape or form? And I'm not talking about a week here or there, that's almost beneath notice. I'm talking like a month or more in delay. How the hell does this happen? I mean we ain't talking about some minor miniseries or small distribution book that no one is paying attention to, we're talking about the "tent pole title" for your company for the whole fucking summer.

I know, I know. This is going to create a bit of debate here. Primarily because the "Big 2" both seem to address this in a different manner. Marvel will delay as much as needs be in order to keep the same creative team and quality of the book intact. Nothing wrong with that really I suppose as it keeps consistency on the title. The downside? When you delay for a month or more you end up either spoiling events that are talked about in the spinoff titles as well (didn't I say that shit was a bad idea?) or you end up delaying damn near the entire line such as they did during Civil War. 

DC takes a completely different approach. They are of the belief that the event books have to ship on time come hell or high water. When it looks like that is in danger of not occurring, they will throw additional artists at the book just to get it done. The effort at a consistent release is admirable, but in my experience the end product is a complete fucking mess. There are points in Infinite Crisis where the art doesn't just change from page to page, but it changes from panel to panel on a single page. I'm not even in the ballpark of being the art nerd EvilArtist is, but it is distracting as hell. From the looks of the most recent news this week, they'll be going down that same path on Final Crisis.

So I know this last rule is something of a debate amongst fans. Some prefer to deal with delays to have a consistent creative team and look to the work while others want the book out on time even if it means a shift in art. My personal preference? I think I likely lean more towards having the delay and in the consistency in the art.

But you know what I prefer even more?

For the book to have its consistent team and to ship on time. I really don't think it is that much to ask is it? I mean we only announced the book a year ago in most cases, which means it was dreamed up well before that. Is it so hard to clear the plate of your creative team sufficiently to get enough lead time to have the book not fall behind schedule? I'm not an artist (or a professional writer for that matter) but is a year really not sufficient lead time? And if it's not enough time, then perhaps isn't the most prudent course of action for the publisher not to announce the book until they have a majority of it completed? I'm just sayin'.

So there we have it, the key elements to a good event book. It's worth noting that even as I picked on several recent event books, that doesn't mean I didn't like them (okay some of them I didn't like). I'm merely pointing to ways that they might have been better served in the name of drawing in new readers. When the publishers slip a bit or fail at one or two of the above rules, those of us who are regular readers are far more forgiving then the average reader off the street is likely to be. And ultimately I'd like to see every event book be a quality book. Not just for my own selfish enjoyment, but because more quality books potentially means more readers and a healthier industry which in turn should mean more comic goodness for all of us.

Filed under: DVO Reading Rage