I
don't need to tell you that life is complicated. The amount of data
we pull in over the course of a year is staggering. Reflection is
more of a guessing game than a science. Still, some things linger,
events gain significance in hindsight, and the prick of a moment can
fester or bloom. Here's 5 moments from 2014 that left an impression.
---
When
my enthusiasm for Valiant Comics waned.
I'd
given up on the hope of being engaged by the type of superheroics
doled out by Marvel and DC long ago, but something about the 2012
Valiant relaunch had caught my attention. The enthusiasm behind and
audacity of their plans were, in a sweet and curious way, infectious.
There were good books as much as there were good times. Those early
years were filled with books demonstrating what can happen when you
put your intellectual property into the hands of artists and writers
and basically say to them, “Have fun with this. Make great comics.”
A matter of fact, I even chose Greg Pak and Robert Gill's Eternal
Warrior
#8 as one of my favorite comics of 2014.
It spoke large, it nearly brought me to tears.
But
as 2014 dragged on, something began to change. I got the sense that
whatever was going on at Valiant had taken a turn – as if endless
variant covers, the formation of “super-teams”, and company wide
crossovers designed to SELL MORE had become the mentality behind
editorial decisions. For some reason I was reminded that in January
of 1978, the great British philosopher John Lydon had said on the
stage of the Winterland Theater in San Francisco, “Ever
get the feeling you've been cheated?”
In
2014, my enthusiasm for the Valiant revolution got tempered by the
dollar grab doldrums.
Still,
I don't want to cast aspersions at anyone at Valiant. They have a
loyal fan base, some amazing creators, and they seem to be humming
along nicely for a smaller publisher wading into the waters already
teeming with bigger fish. It's a publishing company, after all.
Nobody there got involved on the business side of things to not
make money, and nobody ever got rich exploring the universal truths
of the human heart, especially when dudes punching other dudes
surrounded by throngs of ladies in tight fitting clothes is what the
market demands.
And
I know the fault lies with me, not them. Perhaps it's a
hypersensitivity to whatever smacks of crass consumerism bred from
having grown up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas where everything is
plastic and everyone is trying to sell you something. Maybe I should
lighten up and be more accepting?
Oh,
that's right, John Lydon also said, “Turn
the other cheek too often and you get a razor through it.”
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