oz@rlgvax.UUCP (THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ) (01/17/84)
There was an interesting questions asked in the latest Moon Knight, and that was, should Moon Knight no longer be direct sales, but instead go to the "general" market. I had some interesting (well to me anyway) thoughts about that. While I like the idea of sharing a good comic with a variety of people, I hesitate to share Moon Knight. Is it because I like the position of the "elite" who knows what good is and wants to savor it by denying it to others? No that is not the case. My worry is that if Moon Knight is sold to the general public, it will suffer from "Shooters disease" (i.e. gross commer- cialism to make the thing sell). I have seen many good strips (or TV shows or movies) that in an effort to appeal to ALL groups ends up discarded and a failure. If these projects had kept to their original intention and only tried to appeal to a specific group, then they would have at least succeeded in part. I was also amused to discover the Marc Spector was Jewish. Nu, funny, he doesn't look Jewish. It is an interesting thing that comics are now realizing that the world is not entirely populated by WASPS. Some of the recent Jewish heros seem to be after thoughts, Colossal boy, 7-UP (er Sprite), and now Moon Knight. Not that comics were completely insensitive to ethnic pride, you could usually find a Jewish or Italian store keeper, or a black newspaper stand owner, but somehow that just wasn't the same. There was ONE "early" comic that did have a REAL mixture of people and that was Sgt Fury, but they got away with it by having the "real" american leed the ethnic stereotypes. I don't mind, and in fact am amused by the latest Jewish superhero, but wish they would do their research a little better. I believe that for an entire year NO tomb stone is placed on a Jewish grave. A year after the death there is an "unveiling" ceremony graveside where the stone is unveiled. But so much for accuracy. As WPIX in NY used to say, "Thats my opinion, what is yours... We'd like to know." OZ seismo!rlgvax!oz