For over the past four years, I\u2019ve blogged regularly about comics, with topics ranging from story generation, to the business side, to critiques and reviews, to organization and cataloging, and even a post on coloring.\u00a0 I\u2019ve enjoyed the experience and learned a lot, but today I am bringing that effort to a close \u2013 at least for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
There are many reasons for mothballing this effort but primary amongst them are that I\u2019ve said about all I want to about the older stories and that the newer stories hold neither my head nor my heart.<\/p>\n
First, let me address the topic of the older tales told in days gone by.\u00a0 Of course, there are plenty of classics that I haven\u2019t covered but the prospect of trying to find every unexplored nook and cranny in a structured way doesn\u2019t enthuse me.\u00a0 The thrill of revisiting these just isn\u2019t there and I don\u2019t know if it will ever return.\u00a0 This ennui is largely the result of a sorry state of affairs in the current incarnation of comics and perhaps it is unfair to tarnish the spirit and reputation of those stories by association with the modern line, but there it is.<\/p>\n
Second, let me address the topic of the newer material.\u00a0 While there have been some gems in the past decade or so, the overall sense of fun and adventure and individual achievement is largely gone.\u00a0 Comics are now \u2018woke\u2019 and not for the best.\u00a0 Instead of inspiring stories of individual achievement that speak to all of us, modern stories present uninspiring stories of no achievement that speak to only a few of us at a time and only on those subjects that divide us.\u00a0 The most common themes are dominated by an incessant gloom of psychoanalysis, intersectionality and political correctness that hovers over everything.\u00a0 Good stories are universal even when they are about specific people doing specific things.\u00a0 Bad stories are divisive even when speaking of universal things.\u00a0 Today\u2019s stories are bad stories.<\/p>\n
G.K. Chesterton, who wrote his own share of fantastic fiction, is best known for his Father Brown mysteries.\u00a0 These stories are good because they deal with common situations that exemplify what it is to be human \u2013 love, hate, greed, fear, ambition, sacrifice, faith, and doubt.\u00a0 None of these stories try to embrace the world at large but rather content themselves with small, cozy interactions.\u00a0 The reader need not be British or French, or Catholic or Protestant, or a Capitalist or a Socialist, or have lived at the turn of the Twentieth Century to relate to what he reads.\u00a0 Dale Alquist, head of the American Chesterton Society, explains Chesterton\u2019s approach by noting that Chesterton objected to mystery stories involving international intrigue and spy drama because he felt the real drama should always be centered on what a man does and why he does it.\u00a0 It is more interesting to find out why one man murdered another than it is to find out how he did it.\u00a0 The universality of man that Chesterton tapped into in his tales transcends notions of race, religion, and other such labels and, instead, focuses on the soul.<\/p>\n
The creators of Greek mythology embraced these ideas as well.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never sailed the Mediterranean nor picked up a Hoplite\u2019s sword nor sacrificed a bull to the Olympian gods and yet I can relate to Homer and Euripides and Sophocles and Plato and Aristotle. \u00a0\u00a0The time and situations are all trappings that can be put on or taken off as needed.\u00a0 But the rage of Achilles from his public humiliation at the hand of Agamemnon is understandable to all.\u00a0 The bravery of Hector in facing an enemy clearly his superior can be admired by the weak as well as the strong.\u00a0 The cleverness of Odysseus in tricking the Trojans to admit the Greeks hidden in that famous wooden horse can be savored by everyone.<\/p>\n
The writers of the movie Alien also embraced these ideas.\u00a0 Ellen Ripley, played so ably by Sigourney Weaver, is an admirable character.\u00a0 Her tenacity, alertness, resourcefulness, and plain old smarts make her an ideal role model independently of her sex.\u00a0 Her struggle against nearly impossible odds makes her success all that sweeter for men and women alike.<\/p>\n
Even Shakespeare\u2019s Danish prince, the ever-doubting Hamlet, is an admirable fellow.\u00a0 His zealousness in finding the truth of his father\u2019s death and his shear intellect in pursuing this goal transcends the mere accident of his birth into the court of Denmark.\u00a0 His internal conflict is understandable to anyone ever faced with a hard and uncertain choice.<\/p>\n
In all of these good tales, we find souls we can relate to, that we can admire, or with whom we can sympathize.\u00a0 We can do so in spite of their particular station in life or circumstances in which they find themselves.\u00a0 In today\u2019s comics we find weak-willed, unsympathetic characters with no soul and for whom the only interest is generated by their station or their circumstances.<\/p>\n
Modern comics regale us with banal speech instead or noble action, confuse us with obscurity rather than provoke us with profundity, and, above all else, present us with a world where our heroes are lesser than ourselves.<\/p>\n
So, good-bye for now\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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