First published at 15:03 UTC on April 10th, 2019.
Effective character introductions are severly laking in todays comic book industry. Every single comic issue published is a potential jumping-on point for new lifelong readers or an obstacle preventing them from investing in a character.
I read a …
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Effective character introductions are severly laking in todays comic book industry. Every single comic issue published is a potential jumping-on point for new lifelong readers or an obstacle preventing them from investing in a character.
I read a handful of Chris Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men series every week and I’m always impressed how he keeps readers appraised of previous events in every book. You can jump into his series on virtually any issue and enjoy it, confusion free. He always keyed the reader in on events and character history. Current creators or editors rarely value each issue as an opportunity to attract new readers. Current day comics are mostly presented as the next chapter in the trade they were written to fill in the first place.
DC Comics has been doing a lot of series crossovers of late, such as Sink Atlantis, The Witching Hour and Drowned Earth. These mini events are supposed to help prop both series up by putting new eyes on the titles and hooking new readers. Unfortunately, most of the time it feels like the writers and editors expect new comers to do homework before reading their book. Rather than showing readers what great characters they’ve missed out on and need to stick around for, these crossovers are used as opportunities to bump sales.
I’m not advocating for multiple pages of character introduction every issue but issue 1s and the first issue of crossovers warrant extra effort. Writers should treat every issue as a jumping on point and provide some character introduction. New readers can’t immediately catch up on 40 or more years of backstory, depending on the character. After three or four issues a new reader should have a firm grasp on the character and know enough to talk to long-time fans. It’s time to stop writing for the trades and start writing to attract and maintain new readers. Chris Claremont already laid out the blueprint in nearly 200 issues of the perfect comic book, Uncanny X-Men.
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