Heidi Meeley runs a blog called Comics Fairplay and has just posted a FANTASTIC article about what average Americans think about comics and geek-culture. The ideas Heidi presents here are the foundation from which the comics community can begin to change it’s very real and very negative public perception. This is exactly the kind of story more comics journalists need to be involved in. Thank you Heidi.
Click here:
Every summer, my high school friends and I spend a weekend together, in part to remember our great friend Marcus, who died tragically in the summer of 2000. For the past few years, we would rent a lake house about an hour outside of Atlanta. It’s generally considered the best weekend we spend every year. For a few of my friends, it’s the only time I get to see them, as they have moved out to New York or L.A.
This summer was different, however, as one of our friends, Mark (who hasn’t made it for the past few years since moving to Dallas), was getting married in Amelia Island, about 6 hours away from Atlanta off the coast of Florida. We decided to move the dates of the MRMGT (Marcus Ray Memorial Golf tournament [golf is rarely played]) to this weekend in August (normally in July). What we didn’t count on is a tropical storm called Fay.
The 5 of us (Dan, Lance, Kyle, Steve, & myself) arrive at our beach house Thursday evening. The first sign that it’s going to be an interesting weekend is that there is a tree, blown down on it’s side, blocking the entire entrance to the neighborhood.
Once around the tree, we arrive at our beach house, only to find no key in the lock box (where the owners said the key would be located.)
So, we call the owner, who tells us that she wasn’t expecting us until tomorrow (even though our paperwork said exactly what day we were coming on… I believe what she really meant was “I wasn’t expecting you guys until after the TROPICAL STORM was over.”)
She tells us, however, that she’ll call her friend John Holmes, who lives down the street to come bring a key. Well, about fifteen minutes pass (of all 5 of us standing on a very small porch in the pouring down rain), and no John Holmes. So, we call back and she tells us that she can’t reach John Holmes, but will send someone from Jacksonville, an hour away, to come bring a key.
We decide to hit up the store to buy some groceries while we wait on the key. It takes us about two hours and we get back and still no key. So, we call back and the owner gives us the number of Mr. Ed, the person who will be bringing us the key. We call Mr. Ed and a woman answers. She tells us that she doesn’t know how to get to the house, and can we give her directions (we, who have only been there once). So, we just tell her to sit tight and we’ll come meet her.
Around this time, the owner calls to check in and we tell her the story, that it’s not Mr. Ed, but some woman who is lost on the way to the house, and that we’re about to meet up with her. The owner, at this point, is very confused.
We meet up with the woman, and it turns out, the woman is in fact Mr. Ed, and Mr. Ed just happens to have a very high pitched voice. Whoops.
So, Mr/Mrs. Ed follows us back to the house to make sure we get in. The key fits, and all is good. We wave goodbye to Mr. Ed, and are at this point joking, very loudly about our mistake with Mr. Ed’s voice when the doorbell rings. We answer, and of course, it’s John Holmes looking very confused and holding a key.
We tell John Holmes that Mr. Ed just dropped off the key and that we’re all good. John Holmes seemed to have no idea who Mr. Ed was, but nodded and walked away confusedly.
Tune in next time for Power Outages! Midnight Tropical Storm Swimming! America’s First All Black Beach! And More!
Dear Comics Journalists,
I sat in on the journalists panel at HeroesCon this year, and, to be honest, it turned me off to the journalistic side of comics a little bit. As an industry, comics journalism seems to be taking itself way too seriously, it seems to give too much voice to the loud anonymous vocal minority, and it seems inbred… in the sense that most comics journalists just serve the small comics industry with no interest in (or at least no means to) “reaching out” to larger audiences.
This is not an attack, however. Certainly not on any one person or website. I understand why you take yourselves so seriously, and in a way you should. Comics journalism should be taking itself as seriously as any other kind of journalism, but at the same time, if you aren’t having FUN doing what you’re doing, you need to reconsider what you’re doing. I hope that if you are doing any kind of comics reviews, journalism, or commentary, that you are doing it because you love it. You are doing it because you can’t NOT do it.
I understand why you pay so much attention to anonymous feedback. In a world where you are writing into a void, this is the only gauge of effectiveness that you have. But I would challenge you to stop looking at your audience as your gauge and start looking at yourself. Are you accomplishing what YOU want to accomplish? Are you writing the kinds of stories YOU want to read? And once again, are you having FUN?
I understand why you are so happy staying within the small “comic reviews for comic readers” niche. It’s a built-in audience. It takes less work. You are immediately accepted by a group without having to “prove yourself.” But I would like to challenge everyone who writes about comics to at least consider what you can do to reach out to a larger audience.
Comics are at a point socially that I’m not sure they’ve ever been. This is the time for us to stand up and show the world what we’ve got – some of the best, most unique stories ever told. “Preaching to the choir” is all well and good, and it’s a living (well not much of one), but there is an opportunity right now to open up the doors on comics and help to form an industry like the world has never seen. To prove that we are here to stay.
Let me give you an example. I found a new hero on the journalist panel at HeroesCon… a man named Carlton Hargro. Carlton is an editor & writer for Creative Loafing in Charlotte, NC. He writes a weekly comics column in the independent newspaper that goes out to 60,000 people in the Charlotte area.
Carlton was a name I wasn’t familiar with before Heroes. And I imagine you’re not familiar with him either. However, Carlton is doing 1,000 times more for the industry than any journalists I’ve ever heard of.
I spoke to Carlton briefly about how he got started and this is what he had to say:
“Actually I started out wanting to draw, write and publish comics and then I sort of fell into journalism. I worked as and editor for a ton of different media companies and then finally landed an Editor-in-Chief gig at Creative Loafing. Once in the head position, I immediately used my power to start a comic book review column! Creative Loafing is definitely the only newspaper in the city — and one of the few newspapers in the country — that covers comics every week.”
The more I see magazines like Entertainment Weekly and newspapers like USA Today cover, not just comic movie news, but comic book news, the more I believe that now is the time to make a difference in the industry.
What if every “comics news to comics readers” journalist contacted their local newspapers and pitched the idea of doing a weekly or bi-weekly column about comics? What if we all contacted major pop culture magazines about running freelance comics articles catered to their audiences? What if we all contributed to online mainstream zines, not just comic news ones?
And if you need more motivation than just “for the sake of the industry… well, these places can actually pay.
Together we can make a difference. Thank you.
- Hudson
