Postcards from Space: No, We Didn't - Mythic Fiction, Superheroes, and Fact-Checking Whack-a-Mole

incogvito:

Read this. Not just because @RaeBeta is a friend, but because it brings up a good question: Where do we go from here?

postcardsfromspace:

Here is a quote that has been making its way around the internets,* regarding Sunday’s Mythic Fiction panel:

“The panelists of Mythic Fiction in Comics included Bill Willingham, Kurt Busiek, Chris Roberson, Matt Wagner, and Dark Horse editor Rachel Edidin and they all agreed that superhero…

I’ve been fond of “preaching” the idea that you can tell any story in comics, but, if you want to use superheroes, the story has to be good enough that if you took away the costumes and powers, it’s just as strong. I feel like…and this is totally me talking out of my butt and patting myself on the back, but whatever…I feel like I do a good job of that (I’d say 80-90% of the time). The Bechdel Test is another matter entirely, but I’m working on it.

I think the problem with the role superheroes have come to play in comics isn’t with the genre itself, but with its status as default. When stories are shoehorned into one genre when they might better be housed and served by another, it cheapens and dilutes both the stories and the genre, as well as  the medium that genre is seen as defining.

I love superheroes, and I love and read superhero comics. But I think the perennial popular conflation of the comics medium and the superhero genre does no one a whit of good—including superheroes.

Notes

  1. postcardsfromspace reblogged this from incogvito and added:
    I think the problem with the role superheroes have come to play in comics isn’t with the genre itself, but with its...
  2. incogvito reblogged this from postcardsfromspace and added:
    Read this. Not just because @RaeBeta is a friend, but because it brings up a good question: Where do we go from here?...
  3. koltron reblogged this from postcardsfromspace and added:
    Hasn’t it really been rediversifying to reflect the market interest that other global comic markets have shown along the...
  4. postcardsfromspace posted this