Do you know what I mean?
Yes, I do.
When I feel like saying "They're only comic books" to someone, I usually mean that they shouldn't be taken too seriously, seriously in the "Wertham/Gaines" sense... they're only works of fictional entertainment, not that they mostly aren't good or not. I've never considered myself as in a position to critique anyones work, let alone the cumulative output of an entire industry (although like everyone else, I have my subjective likes and dislikes as far as artists and genres).
Precisely. Or seriously in the, dare I say it, Roy Thomas "I love the Justice League" sense. I love the FORM and the HISTORY (don't ask me why), but I don't READ comics. I did for a decade or so, and then sporadically for another two, but with less and less real interest in anything but the medium. Occasionally a series would rise to worthiness, but very seldom.
They are what they are... but I guess that's just an outgrowth of what seems to me to be a gentrification of the form which is one aspect of my recent distaste for the medium. IMO comics were suppose to be fun... a happy diversion... it saddens me to see the grotesque monstrosity that they've become.
Like watching a train wreck in slow motion from seven different cameras over and over again. The same screeching wheels, the same buckling tracks and the same multitudinous casualties. The same dumb corporate mistakes again and again. I don't think comics have been fun since 1969. Maybe one or two, on and off, but please don't let the current state of the industry taint your appreciation of their past successes.
For me it's always been the artists - generally good-natured folk doing their best in an untenable situation. It's hard to find a pre-1969 artist who wasn't a pretty decent person. I'm sure there are exceptions, but in the main, they are rare.
And knowing now some of the back story of the business, that perhaps it might have always been so, that is even more disturbing to me.
Again, consider how many GOOD people survived that environment. It was never very easy and seldom pleasant, but so MANY MANY really nice people like Murphy Anderson, John Severin, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Jim Mooney, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, etc, etc, etc, made their living there. Their success stories are awe-inspiring.
Particularly when I've had to recently come to the (somewhat sad) conclusion that I never experienced what you've mentioned here... I've never had any really "good" experiences with comics on the order of which you speak... particularly with the collector/hobby aspects of it. And also sadly, I have to admit that perhaps I never understood comics really... what they fully meant to others.
I haven't had that many good experiences with "comics". All of mine have been with PEOPLE in and around the comic business - a business I've deliberately shied away from participating in during these last 45 years. I don't fully understand what comics mean to most collectors/dealers (they do tend to meld together with time), either. Still, most of those I met have proved to be worth knowing.
Sure there are assholes out there and you're bound to run into them now and again, but, like the good/evil ratio of comic artists, they are a minority.
I guess some people (such as myself) are/were better off leaving them in the past, with whatever few good memories and feelings for them that they may have had still intact.
The fact that you're here and interacting with some pretty nice folks shows that there are still advantages to be had by staying involved. The current crap that passes for comics these days are unreadable to me - and have been for over a decade. They are picture/pin-up books with a passing nod to story-telling and a vicious streak a mile wide. I finally stopped buying them. My rule was I only bought comics that I would read and it kept taking me longer and longer to go through the week's haul. When I sat down and analyzed why, it turned out that most of them were simply unreadable - as comics.
As I said, that takes NOTHING away from the books that WERE readable and were crafted by some pretty awesome gents and ladies. Don't give in to the dark side. There's light at the end of the scan.
Peace, Jim (|:{>