Newsletter #168: The Comic Book Palace

Hey guys, it's Scott.

It is Wednesday, December 6th. Jeez, we're getting so close to Christmas and the end of the year, I can't even believe it! I am going down to sign your books, if you were a Black Jackett member, in just like, 10 days. So please, please send them (and send them express) to the address listed here by the best assistant, Ty.

Ship books to: 

Comic Sketch Art 
c/o Best Jackett
5438 Lockwood Ridge Rd. #173 
Bradenton FL 34203 

Please put the following information on the back of each backer board: 

• Your name 

• Your address 

• Your cell phone number 

• Your email address (associated with PayPal) for return shipping charge

• Make note if you would like the book CGC’d. CGC fees will be charged at the same rate as listed on the CGC site (currently it is $45 for modern comic books).

• Add a number "out of" to the back (ex. 1 of 4) so we can make sure to account for all books before I submit or return.

Please enclose a prepped bag and board with your raw or graded book. To do this, draw a box on the bag where you would like the creator to sign on the book. Cut out the square and place your book back in the bag/board or include the bag and board with the slabbed CGC book if the book needs to be cracked. 

We will send you an invoice, via PayPal, after we receive your items. Please let us know if you have any further questions.

And again, if you are a paid Best Jackett subscriber, just the $7 a month tier, I am going down to sign your books after you send them in in the new year. So that's coming very soon. Black Jackett subscribers get 10 books of their choice, Best Jackett subscribers get two books of their choice. I do it once a year. If you're not a paid subscriber, you can sign up right now, do it, and then cancel your subscription after I sign your books and send them back to you if you want. But you get all of the classes we’ve done.

And speaking of classes, next week on Thursday (I’ll confirm this later in the week) I’d like to do a class on horror. We’ll call it ‘the Nightmare Before Christmas’ and we’ll look at some horror comics and talk about what makes a great horror comic, how to build a monster, dread, characters that reflect the fears and hopes that you’re trying to bring to the story. It’s something I’ve been really thinking about a lot and am very excited to do.

So I wanted to just do a very brief post today, I’ll do something else on Friday. We're going to begin a series where some of my wonderful co-creators on books over the last couple of years, Hayden Sherman and Dan Panosian, and others are going to record their own segments about their process, their origin, and what the book that we worked on together or means to them, how they approach their style, really give them a chance to speak and to give you access to that as paid subscribers. So we're going to have those segments posted on some Fridays coming up. We’re going to do a few more interviews as well, but we’re going to try and have exclusive content for paid subscribers on Fridays.

I was gonna do a Two Question Tuesday (or Wednesday), but instead there's this video that's been making the rounds. It's a retailer named Glenn and it's a very short video. It's like, a minute-long clip in which he is talking about the state of comics but mostly about his dislike for new writers who come in and do self inserts, who write the superheroes as though they're writing themselves. And his point is “we're not interested in you, we're interested in the heroes. So take the money and write a good story.” And it's become like, a really strange flashpoint for people. It's garnered a lot of anger from people on the more progressive side of the industry criticizing him in all kinds of ways, criticizing his point and then sometimes criticizing him. And then it's also been lionized by people on the right and also people who just straight up troll people a lot of the time. It's interesting to me because I think maybe one of the reasons it's causing such a stir is because it's a confusing clip, and this is why. First of all, please, if you're watching the clip, don't attack him. Don't attack a retailer. Don't attack his appearance, obviously, or any of that kind of stuff. I mean, that's just gross. But above all, the guy is a comic store owner for 30 years. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with his opinions entirely, he deserves thanks and respect for his dedication to the industry.

Glenn and his store were also the subjects of the fascinating 2013 documentary The Comic Book Palace

Secondly, I don't agree with what he's saying, but the reason that I don't agree with it is sort of different. If there's truth to his point, it's that we shouldn't come in and take beloved heroes and sort of change their personalities to fit our own. That goes across the board. I don't see people in disagreement with that necessarily. All of us, I think, that are writers and creators have to put ourselves into these characters, and that's the struggle. The most successful things that I've done are the most personal. It's where I'm wrestling with issues that I care about, fears I have about myself, about the world, fears for my kids, all kinds of things. And so you're always doing a self-insert to some degree. But I think the difference is if your hero is on model, even if you get them to a place that’s new and you’re doing things that people won’t expect, if you earn it emotionally, you can go there. You can get to stuff that’s intensely personal and even push the hero outside of their comfort zone. But you start with them in a place where they are who they are.

So that argument I don’t see a lot of people disagreeing with. The thing is, you don’t see a lot of people doing that. That's why, as an attack levelled at the industry or as criticism of the industry itself. It’s not necessarily something that I agree with because the hollowness, to me, is if you look at the main books amongst the Big Two—Superman (Joshua Williamson), Batman (Chip Zdarsky), Spider-Man (Zeb Wells and Dan Slott), Avengers (Jed McKay), Hulk (Philip Kennedy Johnson), Wolverine (Ben Percy), Wonder Woman (Tom King), Shazam! and Batman/Superman: World's Finest (Mark Waid). Down the line, the books that continually top the charts because they contain the biggest superheroes and the ones mentioned in that list are generally written by very established writers. They're also written by writers who are, you know, predominantly straight white guys.

And the reason that maybe people also bristle at that particular criticism that new writers tend to do this and that's what's hurting the industry, is that it's a criticism that's often leveled at new voices, right? At people coming in from marginalized communities who are getting a chance to either write on usually peripheral books, smaller books, books that aren't the main books, and they're being given some elasticity to do stories that speak to them, that speak to concerns and issues that they want to bring up in comics, so they have the freedom to do that. Whenever anyone is hired, whether new, established, to do Batman or to do Superman, they're not going to be given a chance to do a massive self-insert in some way, regardless of who they are or where they're from or any of it. It's a criticism that gets leveled a lot of times at the mainstream superhero industry—“it brings in too many new people that try too many new things and they put themselves or their politics in the books.”

And the truth is, if you look at these books, that's not the case. Like, it's actually an extremely conservative industry. The people on the books across the board, when it comes to the biggest superheroes, are not new people, are not people who are being given a chance to speak to things that are not traditionally in the books in some ways. So to me it’s a way of grabbing at new writers in comics and contextualizing them inside of a culture war that isn’t really fair, to be honest. I mean, if you had new writers on Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Detective Comics, Action Comics, people that didn’t have track records and somehow they were also doing stories about their own lives on these books, then sure you can make that criticism. But that just isn’t what’s happening. Just go and look at the books. Looks at Green Lantern, Green Arrow, X-Men, just name a big superhero and show me a place where it's a brand new writer getting a chance to really put themselves in it in a way that seems upsetting. New books and side books and peripheral books are always a place for experimentation. But those are often the places that get criticized as well by people looking to attack new writers for not doing the things that they want traditionally. But that's been a space throughout comics for people to try things that might not fit exactly on the main book.

So for me, the problem with that video isn’t the criticism that new writers shouldn't just insert themselves, but it's the implication that this is what's hurting the industry in some way. And I don’t know that Glenn was making that assumption anyway. I haven't seen the whole video beyond that clip. So he might just be trying to give new writers advice should they get onto big books. So again, the point for me is it’s a confusing argument as it’s being taken. Not even as it’s being made, but as it’s being picked up as a kind of “this is what’s wrong with modern-day superhero comics” because it’s just not what’s happening.

Anyway, just some thoughts. I'm open to any kind of counter-arguments and criticisms and any of that stuff. Hit me back here. I'll listen and I'll respond and I'll happily go on social media with it with you if you'd prefer. But I'm invested in this stuff the same way you are and care a lot about the industry and those are my thoughts. Anyway, thanks. I'll see you again Friday!

S