OFF THE BEATEN PATH: ALTERNATIVES TO SERIALS AND OGNs

By Gabe Chouinard

Comics are a living, breathing medium. They are flexible and adaptive, able to pounce on anything from the latest computer coloring techniques to whatever happens to be the current hip trend. Unlike most media, comics are influenced by their fanbase, to the point where feedback from fans is instantaneous.

So why do we, as an industry, continue to sit around treading water while the rest of the world races by like Olympic swimmers that are coked to the gills on the finest Columbian blends?

What I find staggering is the fact that our industry contains and embraces some of the most intellectual, forward-thinking creators of any medium. Moreover, comic fans tend to be insanely bright, monsterously literate bastards. And yet, we are continually crippled by the demands of an outdated and ultimately irrelevant history.

Someone in this industry needs to grow some balls.

I don't pretend to call for a revolution, or anything so dramatic. Rather, take a look around yourself. Do you notice that every other entertainment medium has already caught up with the present, while comics languish in the backwaters of the swamp with the inbred dueling banjo players?

What the industry needs is change. Evolution. Common sense. Big brass testicles.

There are three common formats for comics: the monthly pamphlets found in comic shops and grocery stores; the trade paperback (TPB) that REPRINTS the pamphlets; and the original graphic novel (OGN) which is like a TPB, except it is an original story.

I can't help but picture Topol in "Fiddler on the Roof".

It's time to break away from tradition, to offer something new. While the general populace is slowly beginning to detect the comics that have been hidden beneath their collective radar, hype and recognition isn't enough.

For all the ranting and raving about how great the OGN is, the sad fact is that the majority of the ranting and raving is no more than incestuous rhetoric. Because in the real world, no matter how great an OGN might be, no one reads Previews and no one decides to pop into a comic shop. Real people shop at bookstores, and Suncoast, and Tower Records.

Distribution is like the lifeline for a creator. Everyone knows that a book needs to go through Diamond in order to survive. But that, again, is history speaking. What the industry needs are creators that have the balls to go OUTSIDE of Diamond. What we need are the gonzo madmen that are willing- no, EAGER- to risk everything for the sake of their art. We need creators to go through book distributors, and magazine distributors. We need people that are willing to be trendsetters and revolutionaries.

Still, this is an industry that is incestuous and obsessed with history and (as Topol said) tradition.

So here's a thought. Instead of creating yet another on-going serial that is going to go straight to the comic shops, why not create a book? If you're going to self-publish, why not extend your sacrifice and create a manga-style digest that will fit nicely among the paperbacks at Borders? Why not create a comic that works as an artbook that can sit on the shelf beside the works of Dali and Picasso and Rembrant? Granted, it's more expensive AND more difficult. But adversity is the artist's friend, a brother-in-arms that forces you to create the best work that you're capable of.

THAT'S how the evolution of comics begins. By people that are unafraid of risk, who are willing to try something new.

So come on, creators with iron balls....what are you waiting for? Create something worthy of the general public. Save comics.

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