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I think it is because many Christian are not feed with enough spiritual food, they're not train by their church for deep bible study, or they do not attend any bible study at all, they only know the basic bible knowladge and wanting to help God to expand His kingdom by that.
They only have little understanding on word of God there for they do not have deeper spiritual guidance from God, to be a Christina comic artist one have to really study deep into the word of God first, than only their storyline will give more substance to the readers.
I speak from experience, I started to create some Christian comic for God few years ago, but because of lacking on biblical knowledge I struggle tremendously, then i realize it is because of my lacking of biblical knowledge than i pray to God to teach me deep in His words, and God did teach me that.
And now i'm creating a Christian comic guiding by Holy spirits, i believe this comic will reach out to the entire world. God Bless u all, amen.
I'm coming in late on the conversation and for that I apologize.
A lot of good stuff has been said and so it wouldn't do anyone any good to repeat it. However, one thing I'd like to point out relates to the "quality" issue. As a former editor who was bombarded with hundreds of submissions from writers and artists alike, I have a pretty good idea just HOW MANY people would like to work in comics. However, we've got to keep in mind there is a difference between the practicing professional and the hobbyist. There is NOTHING wrong with either, but they are different.
As an example...I tell my kids that if they wish to improve at something (singing, baseball, guitar, whatever), then they must be prepared to spend HOURS EVERY DAY practicing that thing. The same is true for comic creators--believe it or not! ;) You'd be surprised at the number of creators I'd meet at conventions who wanted me to give them work and swore they were "just as good" as the guy I was using. I'd look at their work and (most of the times), it was pretty bad. I'd learn they were a PROFESSIONAL SOMETHING ELSE--but only a hobbyist comic creator.
An addendum to this idea is actually having a working knowledge of the hows and wheres and WHYS of comic creation. I think someone put a link to Scott McCloud's book--and that's a good one. But there are a lot of wannabe creative types who don't even know the difference between a thought bubble and a word balloon. Quite simply, they're uneducated about the craft.
So, to answer your original question, I don't think it's laziness so much as I think impatience. We live in a digital world (as so many of the later posts pointed out) and we expect instant gratification. Someone even touched on it (Buzz?) with the 10,000 hours idea. I think Christian creators have a tendency to be sold 100% on their idea because they believe it is glorifying God--which it SHOULD be. The problem often comes is they become so anxious to see it in print (or THEMSELVES in print) that they don't a)take the time to LEARN how to TELL a comic-fashioned sequential art type story and b)take the time to PRACTICE what they learn.
whew--did I really just type all that?
Give God all the glory...always!
-Roland
The best comics, in my humble opinion, which is humble, and more fact than opinion, are those which do not focus so heavily on fantasy, those which use irony as a standard for humor, and those which are subtle in whatever message they intend to address. That is to say, the best comics are not Christian comics.
If you take any of the alleged best comics on the Internet - I think someone listed them out above - you'll note that they have a penchant for satire, irony, and subtlety in message (if they even have a message). And they are about the type of people we want to spread the message to.
Ribu John said:
Comics are diluted?
Well so are:
Almost every category of everything is swamped or over-run by both good stuff and bad. What does this mean? This means you have to be creative, and find your specific niche in the category - or make a new one. It also means being a selective audience and picking and choosing what you wish to read.
You may not enjoy them on the iPhone - but other people might. Don't necessarily write off a potential revenue stream. Is it the best suited for comics reading? No. But it is an alternative. There are also iPad, Android, PSP and other venues where they can be viewed.
In the iPhone specific instance, if you were to create a comic knowing that was your output mechanism, then embrace the technology for what it is and adapt or create the comic specific to that device. Goes for any other device or format option. It's not necessarily about preference so much as offering choice, or choosing the right technology to display the right story.
Yes and no. It's not worth it if you don't believe it to be. Someone else may think it is worth it. How much should an individual be paid for putting in potentially 168hrs + of work in order for someone to view their comic? And if only one person buys that comic for a $1.99, would that $1.99 be too much?
There is the potential that $0.99 or a $1.99 is too little. Should someone who spends 3 months producing 24 fantastic, out of this world pages be paid the same amount as someone makes 24 pages by scribbling stick figures onto squares and does it in a day? The sad truth is, the system that we have built does just that - so how does one remedy that?
This is where one would vote with their wallet and determine by the quality of the output what the value of said item should be.
Price is a slippery slope, catch 22. If people price higher, they can make more per unit with less sales - but this potentially sends people away. HOWEVER - having a lower price doesn't necessarily mean someone will buy more comics or more of your stuff. Sometimes, high price or low price you still get the same audience regardless. Higher price could be a barrier to a newer reader - but if they want to read it and perceive said item at value, they will pay for it.
Ribu - as a potential comic buyer, what to you should be a fair price for a comic (comic floppy), and if in the digital space - what would be fair? Let's say 22- 24 pages of reading material - and of higher quality.
Alec, you're a machine. Keep up the good work.
I think the movies (especially the super-hero movies) are producing the kind of FX awe and wonder that the funnies did decades ago, and the current video games as well. In short, video games and movies (and 3-D animation) are the "comics" of the 21st century which have the audience of millions which traditional comic books used to have.
On the other hand, casual 'net surfers will, I believe, stop and look at some handsome comics artwork especially if it's free. Secular sites like www.goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com are highly visited and warmly regarded. In terms of using comics for evangelism, the 'net is a great place to do so---just not to make a living from them (unless subsidized by a large ministry, or if advertisers on the site paid enough to make it worthwhile, or some other business model that we haven't discussed). I remember being approached to put my books on www.wowio.com a few years ago (I declined) which is free reading for viewers, but puts a few cents in my pocket for each reading. If that were a successful launch pad for making a living on digital (Christian) comics, I believe we would all have heard about that by now.
I genuinely thank God for the time and space to publish six Christian books and graphic novels and to remain debt-free. A new one (already completed) is slated for spring, 2011, and I have one more in the works.
Kind regards in Christ Jesus,
Alec
This one poster pretty much sums up my thoughts, the poster on the Robot 6 comicbookresources.com link Alec shared. He wrote:
Way too many comics are being published, leading to poor product and poor sales. The Best writers and artists need to work on the best properties. Simple as that. I’m mostly talking about Marvel and DC.
Of course I feel the 3rd-6th main publishers are also releasing way too many books. Comics are severely diluted right now.
He's pretty much got it summed up.
It's not comics that are the problem, its the way they are being done so poorly. Who wants to buy a bad product? The sport of basketball lost a lot of fans after Michael Jordan retired. The reason was the NBA brought in too many high jumpers who didn't know how to play the game. They just knew how to jump high. That's not basketball.
Basketball is experience a resurgence lately because better players have been drafted into the league. People will buy into something done well and entertaining.
Also, I've seen the new digital way of doing comics, and I'm not impressed. Kindle and iPhone make for horrible comics viewing platforms. The iPhone especially. You can only view one panel at a time! Otherwise its too small. And why do all that frustrating finger/hand work when you can just lean back and flip the pages of a paper comic?
One thing hurting comics is price. They are too expensive. But for 1.99 per comic, the digital product isn't worth it either.
Alec - I've been seeing all those articles too...
Some food for thought: Borders loses $74 million (Even the regular bookstores are in trouble...)
http://joshblaylock.com/2010/12/10/borders-loses-74-million/
A bleak thought: Will February '11 Be a Comic Book Direct-Market Massacre?
http://joshblaylock.com/2010/12/08/will-february-11-be-a-comic-book...
NOW - not to be mean - BUT, comic book stores (as far as I can tell) have done themselves very few favors over time. A lot of them expect the customer to appear and buy and leave. They:
TO BE FAIR - the above does not necessarily apply to all comic stores.
Of course, when wallets get tight, the first thing to go is frivolous stuff, and lets be honest...comics as a whole are pretty frivolous.
The link you have there where the guy says, maybe they'll just start stocking what they like, they may be onto something. If the comic shops become selective, and start putting only good stuff (of course a potentially relative term) then the market may shift.
As comics go - the story telling technique of combining words and pictures into a sequence (or whatever the definition is) will continue to exist, even if a hobby of sorts. But "comics" can transform into so many unexplored avenues, it's not even funny.
RIGHT NOW, and I mean RIGHT NOW in the market there has been huge inroads into the concept of Visualizing techniques - and they've discovered: WHOA - you will remember! Visuals give you a 90% retention rate! Now this is technically applied to "note taking with visuals".
But there is something to take note of - VISUALS and TEXT is a compelling format to present information - which a) aids in retention of information, and b) adds interest to boring text.
Sometimes its a matter of us comickers letting go of our long-held pet projects and looking for alternative avenues of doing what we love.
At least for the immediate future, the interest in digital will be a boon to those who can jump into the fray - so long as you can differentiate yourself from the pack.
The BIGGEST ISSUE with comics that I'm seeing (and this has been my issue for years) is: The effort and cost to produce a comic generally costs more than the return on the investment - so why continue producing for a loss?.
If the above is true, then that means we need to:
a) Change our style so it becomes simpler, faster and more expedient (but then does anyone want it?)
OR
b) Do the fantastic work that takes lots of time and effort, but then find, dig, scrounge and fight for a bigger market - either a personal market, or of the general market. (But we're not marketers...and aye -therein lies the rub).
A link to an interesting video regarding visual thinking/note taking. One thing to do is to consider how this could be exploited, turned on it's head or applied to the world of comics:
http://vizthink.com/blog/2010/05/14/sunni-brown-and-the-doodle-revo...
Martin
Ribu John said:
There is indeed a lot of arguing about whether comics are dying... I simply disagree with much of it. Comics won't die out, and neither will the print form. ...I'm not convinced the sky is falling yet.
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/12/comics-sales-down-in-2...
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/10/comics-sales-fall-off-...
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/18912.html?utm_source=twitterfeed...
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/05/25/top-comic-book-sales-drop-by...
http://www.icv2.com/articles/talk_back/18653.html
http://jonathanshipley.blogspot.com/2010/09/retailers-speak-up-abou...
Remember Big Little Books or the Pulps?
Agreed. Comics can take multiple forms, variations, deviations and be done completely differently than the traditional approach. That said, there are also things that years and years of comic books existing previously should feed into or inform said new approach.
Perception or reality? If it's only a perceived notion, and you don't know for sure, then how do you know if that's really what investors want? If you actually have investors that DO want this, then kudos for you taking the time out to find that out and then providing it to them.
The flip side of this is: Present to your "investors" a compelling package, and extensive prose, or not, it will sell them on the idea.
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