Up From Genre City

The Awful Truth

Read this.

It's an in-depth examination of Marvel's sales trends over the past seven or eight months.  It's pretty easy to go to the store every month, pick up the titles you like, and walk around dazed when you find out they're getting cancelled.  After all, you loved the book, you're smart, why shouldn't the book stay in print?  Fascinating to watch such infallible personal beliefs disintegrate after looking through a single article about sales figures.

I'm now stunned that any books I like keep getting published.  You look at something like this and the trends are so blindingly obvious, it's really remarkable that Marvel and DC take any chances at all.

How does this tie into Warren Ellis' latest column, another fantastic one about covers?  Beats me, but I feel like it does somehow.

All in all, an illuminating day.

Will Eisner: 1917-2005

Although I never met him, anyone who's ever read a page of his can't help but feel a personal connection to the man, so vital and organic was his work. The comic book medium as we know it would simply not exist without his influence, of course, but the most startling thing about his legacy is its basis in his unflaggingly giving and charitable spirit. He gave us a brand new artform as a gift, for us to contribute to or to simply enjoy and for that every one of us owes him a debt that can never really be paid. But as Brian Michael Bendis stated quite eloquently, there will never again be a world without Will Eisner. And for that I am unbelievably grateful.

On a personal note, although I really only got into his work over the past few years, there's no way I would've even considered doing the work I do without his influence on the creators who influenced me.  He is single handedly responsible for the medium of the graphic novel, and long form cartoonists like Dave Sim would probably never even have considered works of such depth and maturity if Eisner hadn't shown that it was even possible, not to mention the grace, wit, and talent he displayed in their creation.

More information about his life, his legacy, and what you can do in his memory can be found here.