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From: firby5@yale-comix.UUCP (Jim Firby)
Newsgroups: net.comics
Subject: What comics are for
Message-ID: <4020@yale-comix.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 15-Jun-84 21:49:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: yale-com.4020
Posted: Fri Jun 15 21:49:08 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Jun-84 02:05:26 EDT
Organization: Yale University CS Dept., New Haven CT
Lines: 34


There has been a lot of discussion lately, here and in the 'zines, about
the "abysmal state of comics today".  I would like to examine this complaint,
and show that it simply ain't so.

I have been studying forms of fiction for many years, and if I have learned only
 one thing, it would be this:  each form must be accepted on its own terms, and
 on those terms alone.  There is no such thing as an absolute standard to be
 applied across the board.  Each form is unique, although there may be some over
lap.

This is the problem with most of those doomsaying articles.  They want to apply
standards to comics which comics never intended meeting.  Due to the almost ince
stuous nature of comics and fandom today, some comics are trying to give these n
oisy fans what they think the fans think they want, and that's when we really
get bad comics.

Let's face it.  If I want Hamlet, I'll read Shakespeare.  If I need a bit of
existential angst, I'll go to Camus, or Sartre.   Why should I read Ms. Tree
or Sommerset Holmes when I can find the same thing done better in Greene?
One of the most embarassing bit of comics I can remember is Eisner's "proof"
that you could indeed do Hamlet in comics.  This is easily the worst thing
he has ever produced, and it seems to me rather sad that the man who gave us
P'gell and Denny Colt, the Octopus and that charming man who could fly felt
obligated to prove that his chosen form of fiction was just as respectable as
Shakespeare's.

 Well, I seem to have said what comics are not for in this article.  Tune in
 next time for part 2, where I will reveal what comics are really for (I hope).

				      from the airtight garage of
						joanne f.