So, this time I've decided (on Landry's suggestion) to talk about the evolution of the comics reader from the early formative stages to a hopefully more refined adulthood.
I work at a comic store, Comic Relief in Berkeley, and have worked around comics for 6 years now (I worked at Stand-Up Comics in El Cerrito, Ca too). I can't forget 10+ years of fandom before that. In that time, I've seen a lot of comic book growth. Myself, I've read everything from the Human Fly to King Cat and Sandman to Famous Funnies… if it's out there I've probably read it at one time or another.
What this has to do with the "mini comic" world (the words "mini comic" are so degrading) is that most of the people who now read books that inhabit our ghetto of the comic world most likely come from one of two back-grounds: the young hipster - punk-zine-reader who has a somewhat open mind or they are someone who at one point or another read mainstream comics of one kind or another.
A scenario follows:
Jane has been reading comics since she was 10. She began with Archie or Disney comics (which her parents forced on her since she is a girl). In high school she reads less comics but X-men, Teen Titans and Elfquest have characters she can identify with so she reads them. At this point her comic store has begun to carry a few of the stranger black and whites but Jane passes on them since they aren't in color and she knows no one who reads them. She continues to read the mainstream books and starts picking up a few of the female heroes and semi-literate comics but eventually finds books without pictures have more in common with her than the bland overground comic world. Sadly, this is what seems to happen most of the time.
I know that there are always exceptions. The lady who got me into reading the Carl Barks Disney duck stories was in her 50's and had been reading them and collecting them for 40 years. There are also people who have stuck with old Marvel characters for 30 years and will never stop even though "they haven't done anything good since the 70's."
Every once in a while (it's happening more nowadays), there is a monkey wrench thrown into our scenario: someone who likes comics and is vocal about the books they read. Usually, these people are thinkers and won't settle for corporate comics. When these people meet someone like Jane, they feel obliged to point out comics they like. In most cases it's a book like Love & Rockets or Sandman or a Carol Lay book: something you have to think about while you read (kind of like real books, huh). Now she's hooked, 'cause these are comics by people, people like her, like you and me, PEOPLE. They weren't created to fill a need in anyone but the person who did 'em. From here on out Jane's eyes are opened, she's on the lookout for other comics she can relate to. She tries Eightball cause she saw an ad in L&R, she tries Violent Cases cause the writer of Sandman wrote it, she tries Twisted Sisters 'cause it's an anthology that Carol Lay (who is God-like according to Kristine) is in. It's all downhill from there and the bottom of the hill is self-produced "mini comics"... but they are also the top of the hill. The way most people nowadays find out about minis is through a great comic like Eightball or Yummy Fur where the artist regularly plugs their faves which are usually comics done by someone who loves the ARTFORM (God forbid) and hence are doomed to do their comics in runs of 100 on a copy machine and make no money off them...
My point: be vocal about what you like. One way or another your mind will be opened. Supporting small press out of charity is bullshit. Support it cause it's work by fucking human beings, not a pre-determined marketing strategy. An individual's voice is inherently superior to "what they think you'll like."
[Originally published in Skim Lizard 6, in 1994]
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