{"id":34,"date":"2004-03-04T03:34:58","date_gmt":"2004-03-04T11:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=34"},"modified":"2009-12-05T03:40:51","modified_gmt":"2009-12-05T11:40:51","slug":"i-dont-like-modern-comic-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/archives\/2004\/03\/04\/i-dont-like-modern-comic-books\/","title":{"rendered":"I don’t like modern comic books."},"content":{"rendered":"

For the third year in a row, Mitch and I lost track of time and missed the APE<\/acronym> comics convention<\/a>. Argh!<\/p>\n

That reminds me: I’m not exactly sure why, I don’t like most modern comic books. I’ve flipped through a number of issues of various titles, but none of the mainstream superhero stuff looks interesting to me.<\/p>\n

Have I merely outgrown them? Perhaps, but I still like watching shows like Batman: The Animated Series<\/i> and Justice League<\/i>. I have no problems buying trade paperback collections of 1970s and 1980s superhero comic books.<\/p>\n

Is it nostalgia? Am I merely out-of-the-loop on current storylines? Am I totally confused because they’ve turned the worlds I knew upside-down and inside-out? Are my expectations simply higher because comic books are now at least three times as expensive as they were when I fell in love with them? Probably all of the above.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, when I look at the pages of modern superhero offerings, I can’t help but think: “Wow, yet another Jim Lee or Todd McFarlane wanna-be.” Comic books certainly look<\/em> a lot better than they used to; the artwork is crisp, detailed, and stylish. Colors are no longer limited to flat sections of uniformity; better paper and better printing technology now allow spectacular, rich gradients and subtle shading.<\/p>\n

But somehow it all feels so soul-less<\/em>. Comic books have gone the way of MTV with flashy art, extreme closeups, and gratuitously skimpy outfits on abnormally buoyant women.<\/p>\n

Get rid of the expensive, glossy paper and the flashy CG<\/acronym> coloring. Bring back the cheap newsprint and flat colors. Sometimes less is more. Airbrushed colors don’t belong with iconic art. And stop aping Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane.<\/p>\n

And bring back the Charles Atlas and x-ray specs ads too. Those kicked ass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the third year in a row, Mitch and I lost track of time and missed the APE comics convention. Argh! That reminds me: I’m not exactly sure why, I don’t like most modern comic books. I’ve flipped through a number of issues of various titles, but none of the mainstream superhero stuff looks interesting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rantsraves","tag-comics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}