I start by saying I’ve been contemplating the method by which I to best behest my self of most of the contents of 6 short longboxes. That’s the first thing I thought of after having read The Hurting today. I haven't anything quite so horrid as the tittles that Tim is talking about, but I haven't found myself going and rereading them much either.

There is resistance I think, but slowly or quickly the ‘mainstream’ comics industry in America will have to do a few things.

1) It will stop calling itself ‘mainstream’. It’s not and really it never was. The term only has relevance in contrast to an underground.

Mainstream [re: legitimate] & Underground: A par of concepts that belong to the cold war mentality of the later 20th century. Concepts that seem to be having a renaissance what with the cold war mentality being displayed by cretin American politicians. But still retarded ones.

It can claim that it was for the last god knows [and I do but I’m sick of thinking about it] how long now the dominate Active market for ‘comics’ [see: Manga, BD, Fumetti, Sequential Art] in the US of A. By proxy to some extent also here in Canada.

2) Acknowledge that it can learn to navigate the new territory. A market in which ‘hi fantasy adventure’ comics like those that ultimately spawned Millennium, Crisis on Infinite Earths and other choice lowlights of the 80’s, and frankly 90’s north American market are not that interesting to most people.

Maybe if they were more flexible about trying to meet 'genre expectations' of superhero and fantasy adventure books then they tend to be, they might attract more readers, new readers. And they'd have to abandon this silly business of obsessively enforced 'continuity' on hi fantasy. IT'S FANTASY!

I know, sounds snobby. Buy I mean this in the literal ‘hey, it a fact, get over it’ way. They ARE not that interesting to MOST people. Tuff titties.

Ok, so, you want you can keep selling to that little nice niche over there. Be my guest. I really don't mind but don't expect it to get any bigger they way they're going. The rest of the real world and I are going to go over hear and enjoy our comics, whatever they might have in them. So long as it's not boring monotonous pedantic shit.

There’s amazing things happening in what’s shaping up to be the mainstream market of today. Its a big mixed bag.

There are a few successful well written hi fantasy adventure books, even one or two ‘superheroes’. But also we got these newer ones that really go to town and the drawing’s a lot more fun, not stiff like that old stuff. People call them Manga and a lot of them have nothing to with anything too insanely overwritten with ‘crossovers’ and obsessive minutia that makes no real sense. Some of them are great nonsense mind you, just silly! But generally, the writing is a lot better and the smart ones make no crazy promises about being around FOREVER to satisfy your Jones. The smart ones know how to stop before, or at lest when, they leave the audience wanting more.

And guess what! Manga is more about story telling style & pacing than artistic style or genre. So you can do any sort of story you want. Keeps it interesting for both the creators and the readers.

Not nearly as big a slice of the pie just yet but growing fast is the broader ‘graphic novel’ market. Really this overlaps with Manga. It’s a market only defined by format, not any aspect of style alone. Just ‘Books’.

So you can sell them in ALL bookstores to all sorts of readers looking for all sorts of stories in all sorts of genre and then some. Not just specially shops with the right kind of shelves. Don’t get me wrong. Those are cool. But specialty shops a market does not make.

And hey, no reason the denizens of the old American ‘hi fantasy adventure’ comic industry can’t play; they already have been somewhat, though still pretty tentatively. Publishing a lot of Books but still sticking to pretty much the same genres and styles of story telling. One thing guys? You’ll have to do a lot better. It’s not all Shakespeare but the reader’s expectations of writing & art standards and production quality are a lot higher in the book market than those sadly MOST common to superhero books, especially books like Millennium & Crisis on Infinite Earths. Man those stunk! Oh, and don’t forget The SECRET WARS! Gahhhh! Yah you’ll have to do a lot better.

I don’t think Larry Young has too much to worry about though, so long as he knows how to leave them wanting more.