Comics and the Overwhelming Nature of Length

Comic books are a truly American art form that have spread and inspired millions around the world. Though showing similarities and inspiration from 18th century Japan and 19th century Europe, the comic book as many understand it today originated in 1930’s America. Though born in 1933, the character created by two Jewish boys, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, would not be truly revealed to the world until 1938. This character would cause the comic book world to explode as well as introduce the concept of a superhero to the world. This character was Superman.
This character started mainstream comics and would continue to run, with very few gaps in publication, in Detective Comics for the next seventy nine years. While this is an amazing sign, it’s also detrimental and tiresome to potential new readers. Many comic book franchises are simply too long.

This isn’t to say longer series are automatically worse. Many long running franchises manage to be interesting over a decade or even more. Also, the franchise would not last this long if not for quality or art and writing. However, this creates decades worth of backstory and lore that can be overwhelming for a new reader who is interested in the franchise. Due to the nature of the shared universes of the two biggest comic book publishers, DC and Marvel, there is already a ridiculous amount of lore for the universe itself that can easily go over a new reader’s head. Concepts such as the Anti-Monitor from Crisis on Infinite Earths or superhero registration from Civil War may be referenced with no regard to the fact that a new reader may not know what any of this means. On an individual character, this doesn’t become any simpler. A single character, say Dick Grayson, can have seventy or more years of backstory.

So, what do writers and publishers do for this? Publishers are well aware of this issue. They want to appeal to these younger, interested audiences, but they don’t want to completely alienate readers who have been buying for twenty or more years. When a company can’t grab newer audiences, they eventually die off. Headlines such as “Millennials Killing Diamond Industry” are fairly common and are prime examples of what happens if an industry can’t expand to the younger audience. However, older buyers are consistent, and alienating them too quickly can lead to intense and sudden drops in sales.

There’s a few ways that publishers try to get around this. One of the most controversial is changing the main character. In comics about superheroes, this is usually done by holding onto to the name, but changing the person behind the mask. It’s been seen relatively recently with Sam Wilson taking on the mantle of Captain America or Kamala Khan becoming the newest iteration of Ms. Marvel. Non-superhero comics will often kill off or somehow take the protagonist out of commission in order to replace them with a different protagonist. Publishers use this method for the same reason they continue these heroes for so long. It’s easier to sell. Those who are new to comic books will see a name they’ve heard, but also realize the character is new. This is often followed by changing the race or gender of the new hero behind the old mantle, which can become more controversial than just changing the character behind the mantle. This is often known as an “affirmative action legacy.” But, it’s often necessary as a non-reader looking at the cover won’t be able to tell one character from another at a glance. By changing their skin color or secondary sexual characteristics, someone can note that they are a different character without opening the book.
Another method is to create an entirely new character. This is the method Image Comics uses. Rather than having a shared universe with continuous characters, they allow writers to create entirely new characters and/or worlds to tell the story of. This is the most requested method of enticing new readers whether it’s a new self-contained story or simple another DC Universe hero. The downside to it is trying to sell the new character. Older fans may not care as they’re already invested into the series they collect. Newer fans might not even be aware that the series exists. It’s generally spread via word of mouth. And, if it takes too long for word to get around, the series can be on its way to serial cancellation right when it starts to pick up steam.

The third most common method is a reboot. This is usually done in order to start all the comics over from issue #1. Ideally, it allows the writers and artists to redesign the universe for a younger audience without completely alienating older readers. It often incorporates the above two methods in order to give younger readers characters to latch onto while keeping older characters around for recognition. This can help to “trim the fat” off longer running series by giving them a new perspective and potential to change. However, it can also make older readers feel like all their years of reading meant nothing if done wrong. And for newer readers, it can be a confusing mess as it doesn’t completely undo all the older stories. At worst, it can be a confusing mess for everyone.

This isn’t something unique to American comics either. It’s also a common issue with Japanese comics, usually called manga, but in a different way. Manga tends to update far more quickly as the biggest publishers, Shueisha, Kodansha, and Shogakukan, tend to release on a weekly basis. Individual manga series also get cancelled much faster and newer ones take their place. Just like their American counterparts though, a popular series will be pushed to continue. Bakuman。is an excellent series that gives some insight into this, written by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, creators of Death Note. It shows how creators will be pushed by editors to come up with more ideas in order to continue a popular series, even to the detriment of story or art quality.
Manga fans tend to be more excepting of exceptionally long manga series as they are self contained and rarely over ten years in length. Depending on the popularity of the series, a long running series will constantly be in print in tankobon format. Some magazines, such as Viz and Shonen Jump, will post their popular franchises online for a small fee, allowing dedicated fans to read them. But, some series will lose print. Finding original copies of series like Detective Conan can be excruciatingly painful and expensive, and trying to find them in America is a waste of time and effort. Because of this, at least in America, manga fans will often ignore long running franchises regardless of how much praise they receive. The most notable example would be One Piece. It is currently running in its twentieth year and is often praised by fans and even casual readers. The length of it forces these praises to fall on deaf ears as reading it would be an incredibly daunting task with both time and finances needed.

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