Do you know how I know this?
Look at any other enthusiast in their hobby and you will see someone who embraces their hobby, debates it throws it about but ultimately doesn't have to defend the medium that their hobby comes in.
Comic readers do.
A Star Trek fan will sometimes be derided or have a joke made at their expense but everyone has seen an episode of Star Trek and even if they didn't like it they didn't say 'well televisions certainly not for me'. You see they can accept that the method of delivery by which they experienced Star Trek is different from the program itself. They know they can go back to watching Downton Abby and forget they ever watched a stupid costume drama set in a strange time full of people speaking in a strange way...
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| You would be amazed that this didn't take long. |
But if you showed them a comic of Downton Abby they would be as baffled as man with diarrhoea facing a barbed wire toilet seat. They just wouldn't be able to get past the idea of superhero comics and The Beano because the industry simply hasn't been reaching out to them, that's going to be the subject of another blog. None readers don't get that statements like 'comics are for kids' or better yet 'they might be worth a bit in a few years time' are like pissing in his Lordship's tureen because they think it's a potty to a comic reader.
Comic readers though don't do anything to rebut this image of comics held by the none reading public though. Being a bunch of insular snobs they view anyone who doesn't know what's in the third pouch on the left of Batman's utility belt as a philistine. So when they feel they have to defend their hobby they sneer and act aloof in an attempt to seem more mature than they are, only convincing the none reader that they are massively insecure about their own maturity and that there grasp of reality is somewhat tenuous because they actually did know what was in the third pouch from the left on Batman's utility belt.
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| Now you know. |
My friend and I both take comics into work, usually trades for ease, and we have both been the subject of scrutiny and ridicule by our work colleagues, though my friend more so than myself. He took Alias by Brian Michal Bendis in and got the usual sneers of 'Mner comics are for kids' remarks. So he showed them the trade. They shut up. He went on to explain in patient tones that comics were just another delivery method for story telling and that the medium isn't defined by it's content and he liked them because there are fewer steps between the creator and the finished product so you get a purer story. Although he had to use flash cards and contemporary dance to get his point across.
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| The usual faces of a comic reader in the wild... |
You see people fall asleep when you try to get them interested in something you are passionate about because nine times out of ten we reign in the passion because we think it scares people. It doesn't, I watch Top Gear because the passion they infuse into every word they say is intoxicating and I don't even have a driving licence. They make it interesting and fun and you know something else they are utterly childish and un-apologetic about that. Most watched program in the world practically.
Attack people with your passion and don't apologise for being right.
Comic readers are so hung up in the minutia of defending the contents of comics and in fighting over whether or not Batman should have sex or not that they don't realise that no one except them cares and it makes them look like this...
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| scary, no? |
When they could look like this...
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| To a geek this is terrifying |
Here's some links to very learned sites...
No one questions the passion, but the it needs a better vocabulary and direction. Don't try to convince someone they would like Batman if they just gave it a try, find out what they like to read/watch and find them a comic based on it.
Introduce the comics to them, not them to comics.
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| There's a comic out there for everyone. |
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