On his blog last week, Jerry Ordway wrote bravely and feelingly about being a pro in comics when your age is over 50. Here’s a man who has been a comic book star of long standing and now finds it hard to get any work. His skill, ability, and desire haven’t diminished; he’s just older (and more experienced) than he was back then. He had an exclusive contract with DC and, in its final year, the company treated him deplorably, not giving him any work but not letting him get any work elsewhere.

I completely sympathize with him and can echo many of his statements. Is there ageism in comics? Demonstrably, at least for talent. On The Other Hand… some of the top editors at both Marvel and DC are around our ages. If the theory is that the talent needs to be younger in order to “get” or appeal to the younger reader, why are the editors immune? I sometimes feel like I’m in the “Bring Out Your Dead” segment from <a href=”

Monty Python And The Holy Grail.

Me to editor: “I’m feeling better!”

Editor to me: “You’re not fooling anyone, you know!”

I can’t claim that it’s universal. Dark Horse has been very good in giving me work and, in turn, I think I’ve given them good work in return. But I don’t seem to get any replies to e-mails that I send to the Big Two. OTOH, there are writers my age (or thereabouts) who do get work. Often they’re good friends with the given editor or Editor-In-Chief. I can’t complain about that, either; it’s worked in my favor in the past and can still work for me. Randy Stradley over at Dark Horse has been a friend as well as an editor and I get work from him.

Editors are also under far more pressure these days to produce higher sales. I and others used to nervously kid that, even with companies that were large conglomerates, comics were relatively free to do what they wanted because the money their sales brought in were chump change to Corporate Masters. That’s changed; superhero movies and games and TV shows are all big business and rake in tons of money and with that comes greater corporate oversight. With that comes the desire for more sales (How do you determine if you’re successful in corporate America? If you sell more of whatever you make than you did before and/or more than the competition). With that comes other problems.

The comic book market has a finite number of buyers with a finite amount of money to spend on the product. Digital sales might change that and expand the market base but I don’t know if the figures are in on that yet. So – how do you increase sales in a finite market?

One of the truisms of Hollywood is that “Nobody Knows Nuthin’.” Often, the folks in charge don’t really know what sells or why. Oh, they have theories but most often they look at what’s sold and try to do more of that or see who sells and try to hire them. You might think, if that held true in comics as well, that guys like Jerry Ordway would get more work.

Ah, but in comics, they believe the fans have short attention spans and what works in “new.” Not new characters or concepts but new variations on what you have, i.e. Superman minus red swimming trunks on his costume. That’s new, right?

I’m not dissing the notion. Fans, especially male fans, get bored after a few issues. They want something they haven’t seen before. That’s where folks like Jerry and myself run into problems; it’s assumed by editors and perhaps by fans that they’ve seen all we have to offer. Doing something well is not the point; giving the fans something new with which to get excited is the point.

OTOH, the fan base is the fan base. It’s getting older as well and, from what I’ve seen, it’s not growing. Isn’t it reasonable to assume that they would want to see an old favorite like Jerry Ordway? The object of the game is to get the reader to part with their hard earned money to buy a given book; Jerry’s done that. Combine him with a writer like Gail Simone or Geoff Johns and you think that wouldn’t sell? He knows how to do the work and how to please the fans.

Part of the problem also is, to get more sales, you need either a) for the fans to have more disposable income to spend on comics and/or b) bring in more new readers, preferably younger readers. On the latter, I’m not so sure that ship hasn’t sailed. The time to bring in new readers is about when they’re ten. Comics didn’t do that; they didn’t produce kid friendly comics (they still don’t) and would-be readers got lost to the video game market.

And don’t get me started on how they’ve ignored female readers. That’s a column right there and Mindy and Martha write about more knowledgably than I. That doesn’t mean I won’t add my two cents as well at some point.

In fact, this whole topic needs everyone’s two cents. I picked this topic up because I think it needs to be pursued. If you want folks like Jerry (or, yes, me) to get more work, say so in letters, in blogs, in other columns. If you think that comics are stories, not just product, and who does them are not just widgets, say something. If the conversation dies, if no one cares, then there’s no reason for the companies to care, either.

Keep the discussion going.

MONDAY MORNING: Mindy Newell

TUESDAY MORNING: Emily S. Whitten

Journey to the far corners of your imagination with Willow, for the first time ever on stunning Blu-ray!  Written and produced by George Lucas and directed by Ron Howard, the film tells a timeless fantasy tale in which heroes come in all sizes…and adventure is the greatest magic of all.  In celebration of its 25^th anniversary, the unforgettable classic has been fully digitally restored and debuts on Blu-ray and DVD Combo Pack March 12, 2013 from Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

The Willow Blu-ray and DVD include a dazzling array of extras with never-before-seen exclusive content such as deleted scenes with remarks from Ron Howard, a personal video diary of Warwick Davis, matte paintings and much more. In addition, look out for Ron Howard’s new introduction for the original 1988 featurette “The Making of an Adventure,” as well as special effect legend Dennis Muren’s new intro to his piece, “From Morf to Morphing: The Dawn of Digital Filmmaking.”

Special Features include:

• NEW – Willow: Deleted Scenes with Ron Howard
• NEW – Willow: An Unlikely Hero – Personal Video Diary of Warwick Davis
• The Making of an Adventure with an all new introduction from Ron Howard
• From Morf to Morphing with an all new introduction from Dennis Muren
• Matte Paintings
• Easter Egg
  

Our friends at Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment have given us two copies to giveaway. Entries must be received no later than 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, March  13. The decision of ComicMix is final. In order to win your very own copy of Willow on Blu-ray Combo Pack, simply answer the following question:

What did Ron Howard direct immediately after Willow?

• Gung Ho
• Parenthood
• Apollo 13
• Grand Theft Auto
• A Beautiful Mind

 

A fractured, ruined world where forgotten, legendary creatures live and thrive in towering mountains, magical forests, and barren deserts. Angelique Bosc and her allies will traverse harsh, nightmarish landscapes to discover the secrets of the past, stabilize events in the present day, and unlock the  
mysteries of the future as they journey to CADAVER ISLAND!

Pro Se Productions Proudly Presents CADAVER ISLAND, the debut novel from Author Kevin Rodgers!

In the year 2212, long after the world has been reshaped by seismic cataclysms and polar shifts, Princess Angelique Bosc recovers from a terrible Hovercraft accident, which left her injured and near death. Her friend and physician, Dr. Laurent Stine, used his skills as a robotics engineer to replace her damaged organs with android components. Angelique realizes that her mechanical heart will require a fresh battery pack within 48 hours. However, a loathed and exiled warlock, Xavier Thames, steals all of the battery packs and transports them to his castle, Thames Keep, in order to build a time machine. Angelique, Dr. Stine, and their allies are forced to embark on a long, perilous trek to Thames Keep located on Cadaver Island. Can they reach Thames Keep and replace Angelique’s battery pack before she goes into cardiac arrest?

“Kevin Rodgers,” stated Tommy Hancock, Partner in and Editor in Chief of Pro Se Productions, “is one of the strongest new voices in Genre Fiction.   Able to write well in any genre, Kevin has excelled at the sort of cross genre mash up type stories that today’s readers enjoy.   One of our more prolific contributors to Pro Se Presents, our magazine, Kevin can chill, thrill, and excite readers as well as any author.   Pro Se is more than proud to be publishing not only Kevin’s debut novel, but the first in a trilogy guaranteed to Cadaver Island is the first installment of a trilogy by Author Kevin Rodgers, replete with all the horror, action, and adventure Kevin’s work is known for.”

Featuring stunning artwork by Ariadne Soares of Fitztown and mindblowing design and format by Sean Ali, Cadaver Island is a nonstop futuristic horror thriller guaranteed to chill and amaze! From Pro Se Productions, a leader in Genre and New Pulp Fiction!

CADAVER ISLAND is now available at Amazon HERE and via Pro Se’s CreateSpace eStore at https://www.createspace.com/4198141 for $15.00.  And coming soon in Ebook for your Kindle, Nook, and other devices for only $2.99!