“Beau Smith- And don’t drink when you write comic books as well.”

by Beau Smith

The other evening I was going through stacks and stacks of comic books here at the ranch; some old, some new, and some that were strangely somewhere in the middle. I was putting some up for storage, some up for eBay, and some back in my collection. Of course, going through these comics, I had to stop and read or at least skim through some of them, especially from the past. About the same time on the TV I saw an ad for the latest Marvel Comics movie, Guardians Of The Galaxy.

Something struck me.

It was like something out of the 80’s film, Back To The Future. I realized that we are currently going through something that I experienced as a kid reading comic books in the 1960’s between Marvel and DC Comics. Not just within the realm of comic books, but in pop culture as a whole.

In the late 1950s when I was very, very young, before I could read, I discovered comic books. I was truly drawn to them, no pun intended. There was something about the pictures that pulled me in, and I wanted to learn what those words and letters meant that came out of those fictional character’s mouths. I looked forward to my first day of school just for that reason alone. Selfish, yes, but whatever it takes to educate a kid.

“Have Her Marry An Ape, Her Sales Will Go Up, I Promise!”

Once I learned to read, there was no stopping me. I read everything I could get my grubby paws on. Comic books still were at the top of my reading list. As the 60s began, I noticed a change. It was subtle, but it was there. The DC Comics I read had wild, incredible covers of things that were just so over the top that even a grade school kid like me would notice. Issues where Batman had crazy, different colored costumes, Superman fighting off the weird effect of a rainbow line up of colored Kryptonite, Wonder Woman being forced to marry a talking ape. You name it, it was going on in DC Comics. I’m not saying they were bad comics, as a kid, I had a certain love for those fantastic fables of fiction. They were like a fun dessert, they didn’t stick to your ribs like a well-balanced meal, but they were fun.

“I Am Groot!” (You are not.)

Then I noticed that Marvel Comics weren’t just cool monster stories anymore (I Am Groot!) or run of the mill westerns that always had a hero with the name “Kid” attached. Comic books like The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and The X-Men, were giving me more to think about, yet still giving me the jaw busting power fantasies that a young, grade school boy dreamed of. I found myself using the dictionary to look more and more words up that Stan Lee was tossing in my head. Even though I didn’t know it, I was enjoying what people then would call the soap opera slant that these Marvel Comics had, and even though I couldn’t describe it at that time, I was also drawn to the more realistic and dynamic art style that artists like Jack Kirby, Don Heck, and Wally Wood were giving me. Please don’t misunderstand me, I still enjoyed DC Comics, but it was a new world that Marvel Comics was opening up to me that I was putting on top of my “Read First” stack.

“Comics Can Be Fun And Can Cure Constipation.”

Something very important that I must add: At that time and through the rest of the 1960s, Marvel Comics was also able to give me humor in the characters and stories that DC was unable or unwilling to give me. I don’t mean slapstick humor, I mean the humor we enjoy every day in real life. The stuff that makes us smile, laugh, and snicker every day. This told me that Marvel was giving me characters with personalities that I could relate to, understand, and want to hang out with, even if it cost me 12 cents. DC was merely giving me characters that shouted “I AM FICTION!” I was able to suspend my belief and pretend for just a few moments that Peter Parker could be a real person with fantastic powers and incredible situations.

Granted, in the 1970s things at both Marvel and DC got a little nutty when more fans turned into pros and began writing and caretaking these characters. We went through a stage where a character was either too silly or too serious. Ripping stories from the day’s headlines became the mud that slowed down the streamlined storytelling of the 60s. Writers began to think that each comic book had to have some political or cultural issue to hit the reader over the head. They lost track of the fun.

“Say Cheese!” (or don’t….)

The 80s renewed innovative creation in comic books, not only in mainstream comics, but more importantly in independent comic books which set the trend for comic publishing in the 80s. Like anything else, too much of a good thing always leads to…well…too much. The result was a wave of angst that still plagues DC Comics and has constipated a lot of their stories, characters, and vision in publishing. The event has become the non-event and buried the personality of characters within the books. Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman have all becomes icons and not fictional characters that you know and care about. Their marketing is “I am Wonder Woman and that should be enough for you to buy my comics.”

Well, it’s not enough.

Guardians Of The Galaxy

It’s what has caused those characters not to grow outside of comics. Worse is that it has caused them not to grow within comic books. Don’t get me wrong, DC Comics isn’t alone in this, Marvel Comics has slipped in the personal care department, but they have managed to make their character grow outside the published format by making those characters likable and worth your emotional investment. With the films of Iron Man, Avengers and Guardians Of The Galaxy, Marvel has shown that you can make you characters lovable without turning them into the Care Bears or even worse, turn them into stiff, stifling, and stoic like DC has done with theirs. Stop and really read almost any issue of Batman, Superman, or Aquaman and say the dialogue out loud. I think you’ll find it sounds like Richard Burton doing a Summer stock play drunk out of his mind or something so robotic you’ll wonder if the dialogue was made by your cell phone answering recording.

Today, we are seeing Marvel Comics step ahead creatively from DC Comics like they did in the 1960s. We’re seeing DC Comics stuck in an event rut that is keeping their characters from an opportunity to leap forward and recapture not only the reader base the characters have built through the decades, but to pull in new readers of all ages to make DC Comics and their corporate owners all they can be. It’s the 1960s all over when it comes to Marvel and DC characters, but the landscape has changed from comics to film.

There are a lot of great comic books out there to read, not just to settle for.

Your amigo,

Beau Smith

The Flying Fist Ranch

www.flyingfistranch.com