Our culture of geekdom wasn’t spared trouble during this past year. Major publishers faced massive lay-off’s from the lowest office levels to head editors. We were faced with the biggest question; will our beloved comics industry survive?
That question was answered by us, the geeks and nerds around the world. Despite our different opinions regarding characters, stories, themes, and the direction of the companies we cherish; we pulled together and helped keep the thing we love afloat. Writers and artists began selling pieces to help keep shops open and employees’ feed, fans bought in bulk from their LCS, and we made it clear that we wouldn’t let our medium and industry die out like many others this year. Hell, this was our crisis and much like the Justice League, we beat back the doom and destruction on the horizon.
Not every job, artist, and writer was saved. Much like the classic crisis we’ve read time and time again though, we saw the birth of new artists and writers self-starting to fill whatever void was created in the world. This is thanks to industry pros starting online schools to teach us. How many other industries did this? Empowered their fans? United everyone? Not many.
The film industry made inclusivity rules, but didn’t teach those on the outside or fans how to create within it. They further divided and made it harder. That doesn’t save your industry. Moving movies to stream doesn’t save the theaters going out of business or all the production crew from not being able to make money. Unlike them, the comic industry did the opposite and we’re still chugging like the little engine. That’s a good thing too. Because if the movie and television industry ran out of comics to adapt, they’d be all out of ideas.
The point that can’t be stressed enough is we did this. This wasn’t because of one person or group. This was us as a collective. We put the differences aside and worked together for a common goal and I hope that we can continue that into the next year and beyond. So, when people try to draw lines in the sand and make divisions among us, remind them that we all want the same thing. Maybe not the same way or the same stories. But we want comics to be good, keep going on, and telling stories we love and relate to.
Happy New Year, my friends.
