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Comic Book Industry Blunders
By Dave Gieber
Below, you'll find
extensive information on leading comic book industry articles and
products to
help you on your way to success.
What has gone wrong within
the industry and can it be fixed? Therape and pillage, in the eyes of
some, may have left the comicbook industry gasping for life support. It
seems that for anindustry that has seen so much success, the history of
comicbooks, has apparently been confounded by seemingly dumbmistakes.
The first could have very
well been the coining of the name"comic books". The earliest versions
of the so-called half-tab(for half tabloid) reprints of the Sunday
funnies (the comics)became known as "comic books". This led to the
thinking ingeneral, that
contained comic or funny material,which we all
know, is a far stretch from reality. Comic bookscan be very somber,
dark or adventurous magazines. It has oftenbeen suggested that there
should be another term coined tobetter describe this literary package
we all know as comicbooks. To date, no other user-friend term has been
suggested foruse in the comic book industry.
A second misdirection came
when magazine prices started to rise.Instead of increasing comic book
prices, like other successfulmagazines did, the comic book industry
decided to cut pages tokeep the then current price tag of 10 cents.
This brought on theimpression that
were "cheap" by definition, andneglected the fact
that a dime was a lot of money at one time(steak & eggs cost 35
cents). This presented the image thatcomic books were just for kids. It
also made the productincreasingly less viable for retail merchants to
stock. Why takeup the same shelf space, when a higher priced magazine
would domore nicely. Again the perceived value of the comic book
wasloosing credibility.
Then as the 1950s rolled
around, an individual by the name ofDr. Frederick Wertham, published a
book entitled "Seduction ofthe Innocents". Through the use of
unscientific research andassumptions, he stated that all the nation's
ills were directlyrelated to kids reading
(ah hmm, what?).
Central tohis thesis, was
the misassumption that
were strictlyfor kids. The more adult material,
it was irrationally assumed,was aimed at our sweet, naïve innocent
children. Yes, we do haveto protect our children, but it still bothers
me to no end, thatcertain self-righteous individuals believe their lot
in life isto make the rest of the planet adhere to their own
personalbeliefs. If this were the case, then our great country
wouldhave never been founded.
With this wildly irrational
attack on the comic book industryand many congressional leaders jumping
on the bandwagon, comicbooks were gaining a bad reputation. The comic
book industrypublishers at this point, could have banded together
anddeclared that comic books, like movies, were not "just forkids". It
should have been stated that the wide range of comicbook genres
represented was target to as wide a range ofreaders. All but one of the
publishers (William Gaines,publisher of EC Comics) buckled under to
this CongressionalInvestigation and the Comic Code Authority was
created. Thisgoverned the content of
and ensured that for thenext 15 years or so, the
literary content would not rise muchabove that of pablum for the mind.
Therefore another slide intoincredibility for the comic book industry
took place. Can thecomic book industry be saved? Very possibly, but
when theindividuals in charge of the saving are as eager as ever to
makethe same mistakes all over again, what will the outcome be?
Theydon't even appear to be cleaver enough to make new mistakes.
About the author:Dave
Gieber, a former rocket engineer, has decided to take upresidency on
the Internet. He is the owner and editor of severalwebsites, one of
which was built around one of his childhoodpassions;
www.comic-book-collection-made-easy.com . You canvisit here to keep up
to date on the world of
andcomic book collecting. Feel free to sign up
for my comic bookezine.
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