Webcomics Part 4

Comics: The Rise of Geek Culture

                This could further be seen in the fact that the artistic ambitions of the underground would become overshadowed by the rise of what we would now called geek or fan culture in the early eighties. The word “geek” during this time was still considered derisive, and was meant to describe the extremely devoted fans of comic books, science fiction, and technology that immersed themselves in the fictional worlds of comic books. This devotion emerged from the fact that companies like Marvel made their comics specifically to be collected, and fans would create their own massive collections. (Sabir157) A culture soon began to spring up based around this idea of accumulation and soon “marts,”¹and “cons”²began to be organized in order to sell and trade not only comics, but their own fan created magazines called “fanzines,” which discussed and shared knowledge on the subject. The growth of this fan movement along with the need for a new market for comics³, resulted in making the “fan market” into not just another “parallel outlet of little commercial importance” but in making it “the new mainstream.” (Sabir 157) This kind of background is important to keep in mind for two reasons. The first is that it explains the shift in the target audience and shows the way in which it progressed back into an adult market, but continuing to retain those youthful elements that made them so popular in the first place. The second is that it reveals the start of a fan culture that would later expand to create its own empire based on these comics.

                The basic formula in comics was still there, caped, or costumed super hero with nearly inexplicable super powers, but with a new change. The new generation of superheroes were supposedly given psychological depth, and became a sort of mixture between the childhood fantasy world, and the sexually explicit, gritty world, of the underground comix. Some examples of this type of work can been in comics like Alan Moore's Watchmen, and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. These works reshaped the idea of the superhero into one that was meant to be dark and serious, but despite this, and the sex appeal, these comics would still remain inherently fantastical, overshadowing the fact that these new reworkings were trying to comment on society. These graphic novels possessed some kind of social commentary thinly veiled behind their superhero stories, but this was misinterpreted by the fan-base as just a new convention whose realism only worked in making their fantasies more believable, and brought them closer to their world. This attempt to make comics appear more mature to the fan culture would not change anything and comics would continue to be viewed as merely play things that were part of the fan's playground. Fans took to discussing the fantasy world of Batman and the X-Men as if they were real, and even at times would rewrite already established story lines to their own liking and publish them in their fanzines. (Sabir 158) In a sense the fan culture began to control comics, but not in a creative and revolutionary way that would contribute to the development of comics as an art form, and in fact in quite the opposite direction.

                By giving shape to the idea of “Geek Culture,” this fan movement only allowed for the perpetuation of the myth of comics as childish entertainment, only suitable for kids and awkward nerds, who spends their time collecting limited edition comic books. This image of the fan would place them “as marginal to the operations of our culture” and would also result in them being “ridiculed in the media,” as well as becoming “shrouded with social stigma,” which would only help to stifle the literary aspirations of comic creators. (Jenkins 1) Therefore, while the artists themselves did not avoid political and social commentary in their work, the American fans and mainstream was not willing to accept it as a viable way for social commentary because it would shatter their fantasy worlds. The rejection within the fan-base can be seen in the way they took up arms not to explore the serious topics that their favorite comic books might bring up, but to recreate their favorite character's costume to wear at a “con.” Thus, the history of comics presents how there has always been a resistance to dealing with the political in the comics meant for the masses. First, it was social hierarchies which made this distinction, in an attempt to avoid social unrest, but later it would be the masses who would come to prefer and seek fantasy worlds over the harsh reality of the world. The new comics that were making it out to the mainstream preserved the essentially childish element of escapism that they had had as works meant predominately for children, and placed themselves at odds with the thought provoking work of graphic novel artists. Thus it can be seen how American culture not only stepped away from the concept of comics as an art form, but also from any social-political commentary that these might offer opting to view them as secondary aspects of comics, and favoring the fantastical elements.

1Markets

2Conventions

3“The old newsagent market was declining at an alarming rate, but at the same time a more specialized network of 'fan' shops began taking off.” (Sabir 157)