moriarty@uw-june (Jeff Meyer) (01/15/84)
This may be a very controversial opening line, but I believe that 1983 was the best year comics has had since.... well, since I can remember. Four years ago, I decided to cut my comics consumption by two-thirds, basically due to the banality of the titles produced. It was a simple, painless operation due to the high crap content of most of my stand-bys. This year, I realized that my consumption had reached the pre-purge record of four years previous; however, I would be hard pressed to cut 2 or 3 titles from my subscription list. Let me make several observations on the reasons for this leap in quality, and then launch into a list of several titles (and people) who deserve special notice for their progress in 1983 in following articles. THE INDEPENDENTS: This was the year that the independent distributers begin to come out of the woodwork... by the year's end there must have been at least 8 independent comics companies in existence, each publishing at least two comics a month. Now, this is not automatically a matter for celebration; while increased competition usually results in more diverse work and (hopefully) a better product all around, it can also mean ever-expanding crap (i.e. let the buyer beware). But this year will mark the independents not so much for their growth but for their progression into "real" comic book companies. Let me clarify this point: with one or two exceptions, the independents in previous years could be characterized by i) uneven publishing schedules (several months between monthly issues), ii) chaotic behavior in the titles' creative teams (I can remember one issue of Star*Reach where none of the artists who were scheduled to appear in the previous issue met their deadlines, resulting in a h*ll of a lot of Lee Mars stuff), iii) a general air of superiority to the Big Two, which in almost all cases was undeserved (sure, no one published anything worse than the Unknown Soldier, but I certainly don't remember anything with the constant quality of Master of Kung Fu or Byrne & Claremont X-Men). But this year the independents seem to be (mostly) thinking of themselves as actual, competing companies, and following the example of Aardvark-Vanheim and First Comics, they are taking a very professional attitude. While I certainly don't like all of the stuff that is being put out by the smaller companies, nobody is taking a "holier-than-thou" attitude over their competitors (except Bud Plant and occasionally Eclipse). COMIC FORMATS: The reason behind the independents' growth was the increasingly profitable nature of the direct-market sales; when you don't have to compete for 7-11 rack space, it makes a world of difference. The comic code seems to be slowing disappearing from lack of attention; I can only hope that this will continue, and that there is no "seduction-of-the-innocent" backlash from the Moral Majority or their chums (I haven't heard from Falwell for a while anyway, probably because it's income tax time and his attention is directed elsewhere...). The Baxter paper became more and more prevalent, and experiments with the format of the comic book were numerous. Several limited series Baxter books appeared, and while the quality of the material printed on the thick pages was generally less than sensational, color experimentation did reach new heights of vividness (I think of Camelot 3000 in particular). I doubt will get anything more, ah, unusual than the flexi-disk in Nexus; hopefully better voices will be gotten next time (though the theme song was TERRIFIC!). GENERAL WRITING AND ART: In the next two articles will be a list of comics, writers and artists who did a really fine job in 1983 (in my opinion). All these people deserve special attention; however, there seem to be a lot of other people who, while not doing great work, are producing constantly entertaining material. I think the most startling (and perhaps most promising) development during the last year was the absence of really stinking material being put out. Several years ago I found that 80% of comics on the market were really crap, with maybe 10% good, 6% very good and 4% excellent. This year I would have made it 40% crap, 30% good, 20% very good and 10% excellent. While it is possible (nay, definite) they I have become easy-going in my old age, I think there is a lot of *good* stuff out there. J.D. Matteis (spelled wrong, probably) and Gerry Conway are two writers who are prime examples; rarely do they do stuff that makes me go "Whew", but it is entertaining. Also, DC is coming out with some very good stuff, and it certainly has more "high points" than marvel this year (I have not paid much attention to the old stand-bys this year (i.e. Superman, Batman (except for the Outsiders). This article is getting (actually, it is) too long, so I will give a Best of '83 article for people/organizations, and one for titles, in the next day or two (talk about flouting one's ego). Comments and flames (the latter preferably mailed) are welcomed. 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