Go, Read: Chris Butcher on Formats

Chris Butcher has written a small, personal essay on his choices regarding what's available on New Comics Day that underlines a lot of current market realities, I think. Chris is a card-carrying comics insider for sure, but I think there's a way in which he's probably very emblematic of an adult comics reader -- he gravitates to comics according to how they make use of format. I think it's important to see the drift away from the traditional comic book as both a move dictated by economics and one that was very much planned, hastened and encouraged by the actions of industry leaders to make certain markets more difficult, unrewarding and hostile than they ever needed to be. The great experiment right now and over the next few years is if there's room for a revitalization of the comic book format for a wider audience made possible by a window of opportunity elsewhere through which certain publishers can buttress themselves against the rigidity and dysfunction of the periodicals market long enough to recreate the market within that market that once existed. I hope so, because I think that way of experiencing art has value for both readers and creators. I'm not confident, though.
 
posted 2:06 am PST | Permalink
 

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