Most historians and comic book fans consider the era we are currently in to be modern. But there is no doubt that something in the comics industry created a fundamental change in the business and entertainment foundation of the medium sometime early in the new millennium. Soon, I think the pundits will announce that comic book publishing has entered a new era, and the old one, now known as the “Modern Age”, will be reclassified as something else (the most likely candidates will be Platinum or Age of Comics). Iron). However, since that era hasn’t been labeled, the only thing we can accurately call the current era of comic book publishing is the “postmodern” era.

In the golden age of comics, any adventure in an issue was longer than 8 pages, and most titles were anthologies with multiple characters in short adventures. In the Silver Age, many titles had a 12-16 page header and a 6-8 page backer. In the Bronze Age, most comics featured a single character or concept, often in short two- or three-part stories, with subplots that could span a year or more.

Today, the norm in most superhero comics is to write “story arcs”, a four to eight part story, with each issue serving as a “chapter” of that story, which can intersect with the family. largest of title titles. books, or in other titles entirely.

The storytelling technique in these comics is called “uncompressed”, because the scenes are “allowed to breathe”. Instead of rushing from one scene to the next at a breakneck pace, the writer can stop at a scene or even at a specific moment to allow it to unfold more fully.

The style may be typified (or even stereotyped) by a sequence of images that don’t change and have no text, to indicate that a character is thinking, or the writer wants to indicate an embarrassing and awkward pause in dialogue. It can also be used on a series of images without text to raise awareness about something in those images.

Two of the first American comics to use the style were those of Warren Ellis. The authority and Brian Michael Bendis’ The last Spiderman. In The authorityit was usually referred to as the “movie style” or “widescreen style”, because Ellis often used the device to “slow down time”, as popularized in films such as Matrix. In The last Spidermandecompression was most often used in dialogue, where two characters talked to each other for pages.

Both titles were huge hits, and many other writers tried to emulate the styles of Ellis and Bendis, with varying degrees of success.

Even when done correctly, unzipped storytelling has costs and benefits. For one, it gives the writer a chance to really develop his thoughts (characters, action sequences, etc.) more fully and really bring them into focus for the reader. On the other hand, with less text to read, you can shorten the reading time of an issue, leading to reader dissatisfaction.

A common complaint among readers is that decompression is “stuffing” the book, expanding a story to sell more copies of each issue, or to complete a contract in a trade paperback collection of the series, which generally sells better when sold. collect 5-8 issues of one title. This is called “writing for the craft,” though both DC Comics and Marvel Comics are publishing more of their newer collections in hardcover format first.

sleeve it is such a broad term and experience that it would be impossible to examine the history and cultural impact of manga and anime within the context of this article. For the purposes of our discussion here, we will primarily focus on the impact manga has had on the US comic book market.

“Manga,” at its most fundamental level, is just another term for a comic created in one of the Southeast Asian countries, or one influenced by work coming out of those countries.

Manga has influenced Western culture for decades, from speed runner Y Battle of the Planets/G-Forcevia live action Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and its aftermath in the 1980s and 1990s, until Pokemon Y Dragon Ball Z This day.

However, it was primarily an underground hobby in the United States, one for high school and college students. What finally brought the manga’s popularity to the top may have been the debut of Shōnen Jump Magazine.

shōnen jumpa monthly English edition of Japan’s Weekly Shōnen Jumpdebuted in late 2002. Among the seven stories serialized in the first issues were naruto, One piece, Dragon Ball Z Y yu gi oh! They have all become huge cross-platform hits. shōnen jump it tapped into a huge underserved market for younger kids who wanted action-packed comics.

Viz, Tokyopop, and other publishers capitalized on the manga explosion by making deals with Asian manga publishers to translate their original titles for an American audience and sell them in digest-sized collections. If you visit the “Graphic Novels” section of your local bookstore, chances are the shelf space for manga is 4-5 times that of American-style comics.

It’s unclear what the ultimate impact on Western-style comic book sales will be, but they are dealing with resistance within the American comic book community. Some fans and retailers have rebelled against the idea of ​​selling manga in US comic book stores. It’s unclear what the reasoning behind these sentiments is.

Identity crisis was a miniseries written by bestselling author Brad Metlzer and illustrated by Rags Morales, published by DC Comics in 2004. The seeds first planted by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in the watchers in 1986 they finally reached their full realization here.

Identity crisis it deals with topics such as rape, murder, human rights violations, madness, corruption and deceit in a very frank and adult way. the watchers touched on all those topics too, but Identity crisis it was the first time they had been in the spotlight in a title firmly established in the DC Universe. These weren’t some characters created for the sake of history, they were icons of DC Comics’ Silver Age, they were the Justice League of America.

Whether you thought Identity crisis Whether it was a good miniseries or not (and it was a very polarizing story), it must be recognized that it is at least an intellectual descendant of the watchers. The morally ambiguous quality of the story has set the general tone in the DC Universe. As Identity crisisWe have seen:

• A Justice League administrator shoots Blue Beetle in the head, killing him instantly.
• Wonder Woman breaks a man’s neck on live TV around the world
• Batman uses (and loses control of) a computer satellite in an attempt to spy on literally everyone in the world.
• Even DC’s current crossover event, “Blackest Night,” has at its core the mistakes the heroes made in their past, literally coming back to haunt them.

(A personal note: I’m not judging any Identity crisis Or what has happened since then. But it’s impossible to argue that the DC Universe isn’t a much darker place than it was 10 years ago.)

It’s true that it can feel like superhero comics are entering their twilight, as sales continue to drop each year. But on the other hand, we may be just around the corner from another Golden Age. It is obvious that superhero stories on the big screen have been embraced by the masses. Perhaps, with new distribution models like the iPhone or Longbox platforms, superhero comics will regain their prominence in the national consciousness.

So whether we were in the modern age or the postmodern age, it’s quite possible that we just flipped into another era of comic book publishing.