This Alan Moore quote really bugs me

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mercs

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It's verified I believe. Did surprise me but he's hardly taking selfies or mentioning he had toast for breakfast, just loads of bile and spite!

I think things do need a change but that's not going to happen when you have two superhero heavy giants (one now owned by an even bigger firm in Disney!) and they have cash cows that are from the 40s 50s 60s that are guaranteed box office...

A 40 year old nerd has more money than a 12 year old nerd, so sadly that's the way forward...

I don't even think it's the big two's fault. Where's the underground stuff? Where's the distributors wanting to take a chance? We do have occasional spurts of interest such as Viz, Walking Dead/Zombie titles, manga/anime and so forth, but just feel it needs more of a movement...

Also amazed by the lack of online stuff. So easy to get a comic or animation worldwide now, but nothing seems to have gone truly huge to the point that it's a phenomena...

Is that a problem? To Moore it is...
 

Torgo

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It's verified I believe. Did surprise me but he's hardly taking selfies or mentioning he had toast for breakfast, just loads of bile and spite!

It's not verified and there's absolutely no way it's him. Alan Moore on Twitter? The guy would use six thousand words on a Starbucks order.
 

mercs

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if it's a fake, it's not a very good one. the account was only active for about a week and all he did was contact everybody to do with the watchmen film and say the same funny line in pretty much every language. it's sort of OTT and anti-twitter at the same time, especially the five years of subsequent non-interest...
 

GOTHOS

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No, there are different levels of depth writers, etc. go into. Some have simple, dualistic worldviews of good vs evil, while others delve into more ambiguous areas. Some accept the status quo or reinforce stereotypes, others deconstruct them or challenge them head on.

A lot of magic-y stuff in a lot of comics, novels, etc. for instance are cliched rubbish borrowed primarily from whatever the write read elsewhere, or the same tired tropes.
To Moore's credit, he knows his stuff in that regard and his discussions of symbols and their effect on consciousness are worth paying attention to. Others just include things because 'they look cool' or because they're aware of common reader associations with them.

As for fantasy being detrimental, views such as Wertham's have been largely discredited anyway.


There have been a few relatively recent attempts to restore Wertham's tarnished rep, like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578068193/?tag=absowrit-20

What such attempts come down to, IMO, is the elitist idea that fantasy and fantasizing are highly suspect unless they're linked to something that is deemed "literary." I reject that logic; I think there's a level of excellence that applies even to formulaic work. I don't mind someone saying that the best of Robert E Howard is not up to the best of Charles Dickens. But it should be possible to acknowledge that even formula works-- including, obviously, superheroes-- don't have to be "literary" to be good.
 

GOTHOS

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It's verified I believe. Did surprise me but he's hardly taking selfies or mentioning he had toast for breakfast, just loads of bile and spite!

I think things do need a change but that's not going to happen when you have two superhero heavy giants (one now owned by an even bigger firm in Disney!) and they have cash cows that are from the 40s 50s 60s that are guaranteed box office...

A 40 year old nerd has more money than a 12 year old nerd, so sadly that's the way forward...

I don't even think it's the big two's fault. Where's the underground stuff? Where's the distributors wanting to take a chance? We do have occasional spurts of interest such as Viz, Walking Dead/Zombie titles, manga/anime and so forth, but just feel it needs more of a movement...

Also amazed by the lack of online stuff. So easy to get a comic or animation worldwide now, but nothing seems to have gone truly huge to the point that it's a phenomena...

Is that a problem? To Moore it is...

I've heard it said that companies like Image have been making some significant progress, and not only with WD. But the nature of their "tonier" works may not always allow them to get huge, WALKING DEAD notwithstanding.

I don't buy his comment about the older comics "squatting" on the younger ones. IF it's true that the older comics are sustained by older readers, then those readers wouldn't buy WALKING DEAD if DC Comics shut down for some reason. The newer comics appeal to the newer generations, and those features stand or fall on whether or not the newer generations accept them.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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He's a curmudgeon, is all. I don't know why it's any of his concern what adults read. If, at 56, I still enjoy a superhero comic or two, that's my business, not his. Nor is my enjoyment of comic books a reflection on my own tastes, I still enjoy reading novels and short stories, including literary.

He's always seemed to have a bug up his ass.

He also needs to be reminded that at $3 to $4 a pop, not many 12-year-olds can afford to read comics the way we could back in the day.

As one of those kids from fifty years ago, I agree with him.

{runs away}

:p Get your hands off my collection of comics then.
 

GOTHOS

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Under-25s are a minority of comic readers? Really? That's not sarcasm --I'm genuinely confused by this point. From my experience the comic book audience are a massive chunk of the readers. My local comic book shop is kept in business by twenty-something Marvel fans and Magic the Gathering players with a minority of dedicated older comic fans. And I know that's far from a universal way of keeping shop, but every comic shop I've been in across the UK has had mostly younger shoppers and a lot of what I see online supports this appearance of a young, vocal comic reading community.

I had a google for stats and found this survey which found 56% of comic readers are under 25 -- the majority.

(I'm sorry if my tone's not been on form in this thread, everyone -- I'm exhausted and work's been crazy. I really love comics so I can get carried away discussing them and, while I can be critical, I'm optimistic about their future.)

Posts like yours are one of the reasons I question whether the comic-shop audience is uniformly older in all places.
 

AshleyEpidemic

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Under-25s are a minority of comic readers? Really? That's not sarcasm --I'm genuinely confused by this point. From my experience the comic book audience are a massive chunk of the readers. My local comic book shop is kept in business by twenty-something Marvel fans and Magic the Gathering players with a minority of dedicated older comic fans. And I know that's far from a universal way of keeping shop, but every comic shop I've been in across the UK has had mostly younger shoppers and a lot of what I see online supports this appearance of a young, vocal comic reading community.

I had a google for stats and found this survey which found 56% of comic readers are under 25 -- the majority.

(I'm sorry if my tone's not been on form in this thread, everyone -- I'm exhausted and work's been crazy. I really love comics so I can get carried away discussing them and, while I can be critical, I'm optimistic about their future.)

I'm 23, so I fall in the under 25 category (I can do math). Obviously my view of the world is going to be colored by my likes and dislikes and surrounding myself with like-minded people. However, there are the people I work with who I do not relate to on a whole and even among them there is intrigue with various comics.

I know a lot of people who do read comics and love them. Every time I've gone to my local comic shop, it is constantly filled with kids. They are in there. Sure there are older people. If I had to estimate the majority of the people that are in the store they range from 8- early 30s.

I've known a lot of kids when I was one and even now who will only read comics. For that alone I think comics are great because they are keeping kids interested in reading when so many seem to care less.

I read comics because I enjoy them. If Alan Moore or anyone else has an issue with that, they can go fume on their own. I've come to realize recently that my interests don't always align with others and if I spend any of my time worrying about it or trying to please someone else, I'm losing an opportunity to enjoy myself. If I feel like enjoying something someone else thinks is trash, I'll let it bother them rather than me. As long as I'm not hurting anyone what's the problem?
 
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