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by **LOLtron** » Wed May 30, 2012 9:13 am

Wall Street Journal Trashes Comic Book Industry

The venerable newspaper points out a number of flaws in today's comics.

In last Friday's edition of The Wall Street Journal, Tim Marchman reviewed Leaping Tall Buildings, a history of the American comic book industry which profiled a number of influential creators ranging from Joe Simon to Alex Ross. Rather than focus on the book, Marchman instead chose to rip into the comic book industry, pointing out the various flaws of modern comics and placing the blame for the decline of the industry on prominent comic powers such as Brian Michael Bendis, Joe Quesada, Grant Morrison and Dan DiDio.

Among the highlights of the article is Marchman describing the Dark Phoenix Saga as an ancient story, declaring Image to be a boutique publishing house, describing modern day storytellers as "pretentious autodidacts" and mocking the hell out of J.Michael Straczynski for his work on Before Watchmen. It's a pretty damning article that only makes me want to read Leaping Tall Buildings more, if only to see exactly how the Great One is characterized in the novel.

Judging from the cynical and jaded tone of the review, there's only one conclusion to be made: Tim Marchman is obviously an Outhouse reader. One can only hope that Marchman will dedicate a follow up article to the slow death of Vertigo or how X-Men Forever and the EXTREME Universe will save the industry.

Source: Wall Street Journal
Written or Contributed by: ThanosCopter

http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/comics-news/19611-wall-street-journal-trashes-comic-book-industry.html/

by **Rockman** » Wed May 30, 2012 9:16 am

He's probably correct about everything he says.

by **Grayson** » Wed May 30, 2012 9:19 am

This doesn't bode well for Vertigo.

by **nietoperz** » Wed May 30, 2012 9:32 am

We shouldn't know this.

by **LobsterJ** » Wed May 30, 2012 9:34 am

He's not wrong.

by **Victorian Squid** » Wed May 30, 2012 9:50 am

Great article, can't wait for the fanboys here to commence whining.

by **MrBlack** » Wed May 30, 2012 9:52 am

I dunno, if he thinks the plot of AvX is "inscrutable," he can't be that bright. Even non-comic fans have an idea what the Phoenix is, if just from the third X-Men film and the 90's X-Men cartoon, and the first issue even included a primer for true newbies. What exactly is hard to understand about "big cosmic thing wants to destroy the Earth?"

by **mrorangesoda** » Wed May 30, 2012 10:08 am

Needs editing. Missing words completely ruined the Avengers vs. X-Men/AvX Versus point he was trying to make.

I don't think you can lay the blame for the industry's current woes at any creator's feet (whether they're JMS, Morrison, Bendis, or Greg Land). No one sets out to do bad work- they're clearly trying. If there's a problem, it's farther up the chain.

by **BlueStreak** » Wed May 30, 2012 10:11 am

mrorangesoda wrote:Needs editing. Missing words completely ruined the Avengers vs. X-Men/AvX Versus point he was trying to make.

I don't think you can lay the blame for the industry's current woes at any creator's feet (whether they're JMS, Morrison, Bendis, or Greg Land). No one sets out to do bad work- they're clearly trying. If there's a problem, it's farther up the chain.

Reading through it, I think he thought the book was actually called AvX.

by **Punchy** » Wed May 30, 2012 10:13 am

BlueMole wrote:
Reading through it, I think he thought the book was actually called AvX.

Well, if the cover has a massive A and a massive X facing up against each other, it's a reasonable assumption to make.

by **David Bird** » Wed May 30, 2012 10:50 am

nietoperz wrote:We shouldn't know this.

Oh?

by **David Bird** » Wed May 30, 2012 10:51 am

McDarkseid wrote:Great article, can't wait for the fanboys here to commence whining.

Arguably, it began in the article itself--not that much of it isn't obviously true.

by ****** » Wed May 30, 2012 11:07 am

McDarkseid wrote:Great article, can't wait for the fanboys here to commence whining.

I feel like this Tim Marchman fella is a kindred spirit.

by **Victorian Squid** » Wed May 30, 2012 11:20 am

amlah6 wrote:
I feel like this Tim Marchman fella is a kindred spirit.

Yeps me too.

by **Jubilee** » Wed May 30, 2012 11:21 am

It's just a quick overview of what is wrong with the industry. I wouldnt say it's an amazing article, because I've been writing similar pieces on here for years now and they were free!