Thursday, July 23, 2009

Interesting Point on Wednesday Comics

Steven Grant, in his Permanent Damage column, brings up a very interesting point:
"But where do new WEDNESDAY COMICS fans go next? Will anyone
intrigued by, say, the Flash or Green Lantern strips find anything remotely
similar, besides the costumes, in THE FLASH - REBIRTH or BLACKEST NIGHT?
Theoretically, WEDNESDAY COMICS should be making more than just WEDNESDAY COMICS fans. It should be making DC fans, or what's the point in exposing them to a host of DC characters? But DC's superhero comics don't publish any material like you find in WEDNESDAY COMICS! Innovative concept aside, and the deserved pride of producing it, what long term benefit does the project even bring the company?"

In this, I absolutely agree. I would buy everything DC puts out if the stories and art of their regular titles matched those or even approached those of their Wednesday Comics. Today's comics are so mired in retro-continuity and crossover events, a "civilian" (as John Byrne describes non-fans) would walk into a comic book store and not be able to find a single DC title that remotely resembles what we fans are going crazy over in Wednesday Comics. DC is successfully turning their franchise into a niche industry appealing only to that dwindling number of fans who still buy their monthly comics. As I noted here, their products are only currently made to appeal to the smallest minority of fans, when brilliant work like Wednesday Comics could lead to new readers and new customers, there's unfortunately nothing there for them to buy when they dare to walk in the local comics shop for the first time. They'll take a look at DC Zombies--sorry, Blackest Night, and walk right back out of the store.

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