CBR: Year In Review: The Kirkman Manifesto

[CBR News]

In this first installment of a weeklong series, the CBR News staff analyzes and
debates the biggest trends and events of the comics industry in 2008, beginning
with Robert Kirkman's call for a creator-owned revolution.


Full article here.

[finestjuan]

I am still new to these boards.
I for one will not take a side with his manifesto. I love Robert's work, but many of his arguments in his manifesto were flawed. Nevertheless, I heard both Bendis and Kikman's arguments after the manifesto (both in Word balloon and the Convention debate) and each had there merits.
The argument that they had with each other did do something for me. I reevaluated what I was buying.. I went from being a 90% marvel/DC guy to a 40% guy.. the other 60% is now Image/DH and all other independents.. I am convinced that the Big two will publish in TPBs now so i will not spend any more on monthlies for titles i can get later for cheaper. (in stocktrades.com). I have realized that the independents have won me over with new fresh ideas.. Such wonderful titles like Atomic Robo/ Grimm Fairy Tales/hackslash/madman/fear Agent/Echo for starters...

I am a 30 year collector and with over 120 titles and a 1/2 dozen Graphic novels that I buy a month, I was a marvel and DC Zombie (not anymore). I am thankful that Kirkman started this dialogue allowing for hundreds of responses on boards that led me to my decision on trading my then pull list for my current one. If I am one that is willing to change my spending habits, i wonder how many more are there..

As for trends. I will never tear a company down, but what i can say is that It is the 4-6 issue arcs that have led me from buying monthlies. As you can see from my selection above, my independents are mostly single issue complete stories.. not Arcs.. This is what completely draws me in.. I hope that the Big Two can go back to this.. If they cant, then we will see where they stand in 10-20 years...

PS I loved Secret Invasion, dislike Final Crisis, love batman, love Marvel Cosmic, dislike DC Cosmic, love Hulk!! (love him or hate him- Loeb writes FUN comics..)

[fly on the wall]

I hate fresh ideas. They give me hives. I liked well cooked ones better.

Madman's starting to suck.

[mroakley]

While Kirkman's manifesto may be a little on the light side, it makes some major points. While I'll admit that there really aren't that many artists in the industry that have the name recognition of Liefeld, Lee, and McFarlane; there are plenty of writers that approach that level.

Brian Michael Bendis seems to be Marvel's golden boy at this point. If he were to return to creator owned work, people would follow. Warren Ellis splits his time between creator owned and work for hire for Marvel and occasionally DC. Mark Millar is another of the golden boys, as is Grant Morrison. If they all concentrated completely upon creator owned work, the readership would follow.

Now there's always a downside to this type of thing. When the Image founders left Marvel, they took a bunch of readership with them and left Marvel floundering for a few months trying to replace the quality of artist. I could see the same thing happening if writers were to leave the big two. There needs to be a rate of quality replacement that isn't there at this point in order for Kirkman's manifesto to work.

What I'm saying is put quite plainly as: There isn't enough new blood coming in at a constant rate to support a change of guard at the big two if the biggest creators were to leave and go creator owned. This is more the fault of the big two than anything else. New blood, new creators, always breathe a breath of fresh air into the industry, and into the books that they're on. Matt Fraction and his work on THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN is amazing. Yet who would replace him if he were to leave and do completely creator owned work? The rate of attrition has no adjustment for new blood.

Many years ago when I was young and stupid, my biggest dream was to draw for Marvel or DC. Now I just want to make my books the best they can be. So instead of calling out established creators at the big two to leave, why not call out new creators to polish their craft to the point where it will consistently blow readers away and then have THEM become a creator revolution?

[George Tramountanas]

Wow! Lots of good, well thought-out replies on this board! Thanks fellas! Happy New Year!

[Matt Algren]

To quote Mark Waid, "I remember when *I* had MY first beer."

[Jeremy Wins]

The quote that Mark Waid used "I remember MY first beer" is a great line and everything, but I need to point out that it originated from an old Steve Martin comedy album.

It's a great line, a VERY great line. Many stand-ups including myself have used it to shut down hecklers, but because it is such a great line, I have to give credit where credit is due.

[howyadoin]

The quote that Mark Waid used "I remember MY first beer" is a great line and everything, but I need to point out that it originated from an old Steve Martin comedy album.

You beat me to it.