What was the biggest story in comics in 2014?
"Print Is Dead? Long Live Too Much Information.
I remember back when comic books spoke for themselves and recommended each other. Nowadays? Nowadays we know WAY too much about our process and each other and less about the comix. TMI fosters empty hype and unnecessary scandal that kills the magic of creativity. Sure there will always be industry problems that need to be addressed and changed but it seems like the majority of the people I talk to know more ABOUT comix than actually buy and indulge them. We might as well be debating the pros and cons of astronaut diapers. And, how many more armchair philosophers are going to sprout like moss and negatively attack any given comix topic? When did our hard work get boiled down to a sensational headline scribbled by Tom, Dick and Jane? Sure, it’s nice that our friends and family basically replaced the Roger Ebert’s of the world but I miss Roger Ebert. I count on my progenitors of cool to keep it considered and qualified. Otherwise, we’re only advertising to each other and hardly anyone is buying.
I’m as guilty as the next clown of teasing my action while sharing others in some kind of desperate survival instinct to sincerely spark a kernel of honest interest via social networking. I hate that I have to trend well in order to be let into the party when I’m just trying to show up to my own party. It makes my projects seem less a priority and it’s becoming a futile exercise competing with his lunchtime pix, her subway ride rant, and the pop culture gossip that seems to trump anything significant. At the end of the day, I’m producing less artistic content just so I can appear to stay relevant to a mass attention-deficit disorder populace that can’t focus for more than 30-seconds.
It’s becoming evident that movies and TV have picked up where mainstream superhero comics left off. Eventually, franchise publishers are going to wholly abandon print for digital. Fine. I get it. So, let’s rally the troops and take advantage of the handful of brick and mortar stores that are still standing tall and line the shelves with comix that mean something more than just perpetuating revamped dinosaurs. Do yourself a favor the next time you pick up your next haul of comfort comix, try something new and independent and think about what it took to get that into your hands. I make comix because I have to. Not because they’re cool."
http://comicsbeat.com/the-beats-annual-survey-2015-edition-with-added-sneak-peaks-at-sfar-and-blutch/