When I first accepted the opportunity to become a writer for this webpage, I was thinking "This is going to be easy!" True, I had taken some time away from the hobby last year, but I had been a comic fan for years. My father and I used to go to the local comic book store in the mid to late 1970s to pick up the latest issues of Howard the Duck, Tomb of Dracula, Spider-Man and Fantastic Four to name a few.
Whenever I would stop collecting, something always drew me back. In high school, it was Wolverine, Green Arrow: Longbow Hunters and Lone Wolf and Cub. In college, it was 2099, "Knightfall" and the "Death of Superman". I have collected and read alot of comics. I know comics and the characters that make up the history of the medium. So why was it that everytime I sat down to think of a topic for my first article I drew a blank?
I know I am creative - I wrote an issue/proposal for Man-Thing 2099 (which my friend never did get around to drawing for me!) History. Knowledge. Creativity. Still nothing. I shared my frustrations with my wife. She asked me what I like about comics. Jokingly, I answered "They stimulate my senses!" At first, it seemed like a stupid answer, then I thought about it more. Do comics stimulate your senses, and if so, how?
Okay - that's an easy one. Obviously the first thing you see is the all important cover. In the sixties and seventies, the cover frequently contained word balloons, which is something you see very little of today. In today's marketplace there are far more titles and companies to choose from. Impulse buying has become a big factor. We used to get a cover drawn by the title's artist. Now we often have special cover artists, painted covers, chromium covers, exclusive editions by companies such as Dynamic Forces and Another Universe, hologram covers, die cut covers and the ever popular variant cover. Al of these methods are designed to catch your eye and say "Pick Me!!" In the comic book world, sight is the greatest sense and publishers take full advantage of this. I have been known to purchase a comic based solely on the cover. Most of the time when I buy based on the cover's influence, I am disappointed with the end result.
Once you move past the cover, today's comic publishers continue to stimulate your sense of sight. The traditional color has been increasingly replaced by computer generated graphics by companies such as Liquid Ink. Books such as Spawn and ***** were some of the ealy leaders in this trend. Five years ago, Marvel offered a "regular" and "deluxe" edition primarily onX-Men titles. The deluxe edition had a five cent higher cover price than its regular counterpart. The impression that the deluxe editon was of higher quality eventually lead to the replacement of the regular format (as well as a permanent increase in price!)
Along with new printing techniques, the paper itself also changed. The standard paper with the previous color techniques left the artwork flat. G.I. Joe #1 was printed on Baxter paper, and from there it has continued to change. Since that time most comics have evolved to a higher quality, glossy paper, and now (to a new type of paper). This, combined with the computerized images and coloring make the artwork jump off the page. This new paper also appears to be more durable than its predecessors. Years from now, the comic should maintain its condition far better and encounter less fading than its yesteryear counterpart.
Drawing styles have also changed over the years to offer more variety and rewards to the eye. If you go back and look at the drawings of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, the characters were definitely two dimensional. Artists like Stephen Platt, Todd McFarlane and Andy Kubert draw with much more detail allowing more realistic images. The popularity of Japanese Manga has also influenced an increasing amount of artists.
Sight is also useful in detecting tears or other defects that take away from a comic's appearance and value.
Whenever something changes, there are generally pros and cons. The changes in techniques involved in the creation of comic books has definitely had the greatest impact on our sense of sight.
While comics technically don't make sound, there are some great sounds associated with them. The earliest sounds I associate with comics or a character would have to be from the 1960's Batman television show. Who could forget sounds like BAM! POP! ZLOPP! and WHAM! "Avengers Assemble!", "Flame On!" and "Shazam!" are also well known. You could even stretch enough to include "By the power of Greyskull, I have the power!" pr "Wonder Twin Powers, Operate! My three favorite sounds are Howard the Duck's Wauugh!, Wolverine's claws Schnitt! and of course Spider-Man's THWIP!
Sounds can also be deceiving in the comic industry. When you hear about older comics such as Detective Comics #27, Spider-Man #1 or Fantastic Four #1, you know they are valueable. When you and your wife are one night going through your father's old comics and encounter Big Daddy Roth #1, the first sound you hear is going to be laughter. The name causes you to believe, despite its age, that it is valueless. After consulting the price guide you realize that sounds can indeed be misleading and it is Rat Fink having the last laugh!
Touch is another important factor with comics. Sometimes defects are not as visible, but by running your fingers down the spine or across the cover can make you aware of slight creases. I would not recomment frequent handling of books however. That increases the chance of creasing the cover or accidentally tearing a page. The printing techniques discussed earlier, while improving the appearance of the book, can run into problems involving touch. With increased usage of a comic, the oils from your hands can react with the ink, causing colors to smear or fingerprints to appear. Most noteably you will see this on the back cover of your Wizard. To prevent this, it is a good idea to wash your hands prior to reading. Make sure they are well dried. Touching a comic with wet or damp hands is definitely a bad thing!
When I was a kid, one of the earliest stores my Dad and I would go to was Fuzzy Papers in Springfield, Ohio. It is long since gone now, but it brings to mind the feel of the paper. Today's comics are smotth and have a feel more similiar to a magazine. The different formats of comics usage of paper also adds to your perception of a book's value. A thicker or slicker paper used by a comic such as Marvels or Kingdom Come gives the impression that it is of higher quality and more valueable than say Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
Getting back to Fuzzy Papers, the older books have a special feel to them. The paper is rougher and feels more antique. Chances are, if you were to have the opportunity, you would read and turn the pages of Avengers volume 3 number 1 much more quickly than you would volume 1 number 1. You would probably take time to clean off the time, check the area for debris and foreign objects, lay the older book flat and carefully turn the pages giving it the respect it deserves. Based upon the feel of the paper and the perception it will give you, chances are you will take the same measures whether it were Avengers #1 or Daisy and her Pups #8.
There are certain smells in life that take you back to a certain place or time, or maybe hold special meaning to a person. Sometimes the air after a hard rain will remind me of Put-in-Bay Island, where I spent my honeymoon. Or a fresh cut yard in spring might make me think of my baseball days in high school. large amounts of sulphur will remind me of the dreaded rendering plant just outside of our college's campus. However, the quickest way back to my childhood and a time without job stress, bills or everyday pressures and responsibilities is the smell of an old comic book.
Back then, we could buy comics at yard sales or flea markets more easily than you find them now. Plus, people didn't know the value as much then. We knew that taking care of comics would make them last longer and increase the value. There weren't backing board, bags and boxes like there are now. It made sense to protect them from moisture, so we would purchase the one gallon storage bags from the grocery, insert the comic and tape the edges down. We would stack them up to keep them flat and put them in brown grocery bags to protect them from light and stored them in wooden trunks also found at yard sales.
Being stored in a small area, it didn't take long for the smell of old comics to fill the trunk. The smell of those old trunks and the books is the absolute best smell I have encountered in my life. I could spend hours just smelling and daydreaming about the past. Even today I search yard sales and the three for a dollar bin at local comic stores for titles from the 1970's or before. They are not difficult to find, and the images I get from a complete run of Human Fly are far greater than that shown in the price guide.
In a way it is sad as well. Like with most things, those older books won't be around forever, and personally, I do not see today's comics with their higher quality paper and computer generated artwork will ever achieve the same sensations that the comics of my youth will. I am sure that when today's ten year olds reach their late twenties - early thirties Spawn, JLA, Spider-Man volume 3 adn Pokemon will hold a place in their hearts and bring them back to this time, but I don't think it will be the smell of those book that does it. Therefore, we owe it to them to take care of the books we had growing up and allow them a chance to experience and share with us.
This one stumped me. There couldn't be any association with comics and taste. You could try to taste it if you wanted to, but I wouldn't recommend it. See previous notes about ink rubbing off! Then my wife reminded me that in fact there is at least one comic that is definitely associated with taste - Bazooka bubble gum. You can read (and smell!)the comic strip then enjoy the chaulky gum. A few years back, they tried to recreate this by packaging X-Men tattoos with gum, but it definitely wasn't quite the same.
After all the years of collecting, and even stopping on occassion, there is always something to draw me back. There is something about American culture that tells us comics are something you are suppossed to grow out of. But if you do, you are missing a great deal of literature and art. Young kids may enjoy some, but comics are more for adults.
They send messages about society. In Spider-Man, a clumsey picked on guy like Peter Parker can don a suit and save the day. X-Men shows the effects of a world when a group of people target another with hatred and discrimination.
It's an escape. It's identification. It's diversion. Comics are an island of stability in a very fast changing world. They are something you enjoyed as a kid, but need as a stressed adult.
|
|
|