November Discussion - Event Comics
Hi folks, with the Librarians' Graphic Book Club finishing at the end of the year I wanted to take the opportunity, before we get into this month's topic, to say a quick thank you to everyone who has been involved with the book club:
To the rest of the ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics committee who have been invaluable help behind the scenes, this would not have been able to run for three years if not for their support and assistance.
To the various people who suggested topics, comics, questions, discussion points, etc. - it helps so much to know that what we're talking about is both interesting and useful to library workers and more broadly as well.
To the participants, whether you joined in with the live discussions, posted in the forum, or just followed along, it has been such wonderful fun to meet and talk about comics and graphic novels with folks who share the passion for the format and for its place in libraries.
Thank you all and keep reading comics!
For our final book club we're talking about events and crossovers, those big ticket limited series that Marvel and DC release that usually have higher stakes and a more epic scale than the ongoing series. Here are some questions to get us all thinking about this:
- The scale of the stories in event and crossover comics can be appealing to new readers, but they often rely on knowledge about the backstories of multiple characters from many different series. What is the best way to navigate this when assisting patrons?
- If a library wants to engage with an event storyline for a comic, how important is it for the library to also engage in the stories that lead up to it and proceed from it?
- How can we avoid massive events from the larger publishers, and the publicity that goes with them, from overshadowing independent works particularly those from local creators?
- With at least one and often more crossover event stories each year should libraries be trying to include all of these big stories in their collections? Why or why not?
As always, there are some suggested titles to help get the conversation started:
- Crisis on Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez (DC)
- Secret Wars by Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic, and Paul Renaud (Marvel)
- The Multiversity by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Ivan Reis, and Jim Lee (DC)
And some questions about these titles:
- Crisis on Infinite Earths is said to have been what popularised the idea of large scale crossovers in comics and when the idea was pitched by Wolfman there had been little evidence of success in limited series, let alone continuity resetting crossovers. Beyond an attempt to make the DC multiverse more welcoming to new readers, what was it about this story that allowed it to overcome that difficulty to achieve the success it did?
- The Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic, and Paul Renaud Secret Wars series is the third series from Marvel with this title, following the 1984-85 series by Jim Shooter, Mick Zeck, and Bob Leyton, and the 2004-05 series by Brian Michael Bendis and Gabrielle Dell’Otto. With multiple distinct, but often related stories using the same title, how can we make sure we are effectively helping patrons find the resources they are looking for?
- Although Grant Morrison wrote the entire series, each of Multiversity’s seven tie-in one shots had a different artist or artists. As each was responsible for a separate, specific issue should we still be cataloguing the event series as a whole using the rule of including the first three listed creators/contributors and adding ‘and others’ or is it important to list all thirteen of the main artists in the catalouge? For the sixth chapter, ‘Multiversity Guidebook’, almost all of the 52 universes shown had a different artist or artists, should they all be listed as well?
- Crisis on Infinite Earths was first published in 1985, about thirty years before the other two suggested titles this month. How has the way crossovers are handled changed over this period and why do you think this is?
First of all, a massive thank you for all you've done around the book club James. This has been a mammoth task and I really appreciate it.
I also think it's quite fitting that we end the book club discussing big crossover events like Crisis on Infinite Earths and Secret Wars, which have served the big publishers to reset their multiverses by destroying the multiverse and bring it all back to a single universe.
Then... of course, the multiverse grows again, like a phoenix rising from its ashes. Perhaps, this will also be the case with the book club? Who knows!
I want spend too much time answering the questions in full, but here are some random thoughts in general.
I understand the appeal of big crossover events but, at the same time, I feel like most of them don't do too well. I prefer a writer and artist taking charge of a character or a team series for a run (two, three, four or ten years) than a big crossover event. The problem with these big events is that they often rely on previous knowledge, work as a climax to a long running story and are all bang but little story and character. I feel like they're overstuffed and present big important events that are often quickly undone or result in a return to the status quo because, of course, the stories need to continue being published every month.
We know that libraries cannot afford to buy every TPB of every series. Similarly, though, I don't believe that libraries should be trying to buy all events. Not all events are important and meaningful (meaning that they have a measurable, long lasting impact overall). And not all events are a hit. In fact, a lot of them are quickly forgotten.
When dealing with the big publishers and everything they publish, we need to be judicious in what we buy. The ongoing series that's really nailing it at the moment and will be a hit at our library. The limited series that requires no prior knowledge and has an excellent all star creative team. The big event series that will really have an impact.
Of course, sometimes, it's really hard to know which one will really hit the mark. Nonetheless, we must try.
RE Crisis on Infinite Earths: I think its main success is in the fact that it was the first one to not only have a major crossover but also reset the universe. It also has an excellent creative team.
RE Secret Wars: I've read all three. They can definitely be read on their own but I would say, in this case and with Secret Wars coming to the MCU, patrons need to read the most recent one. I think that one will be the template for the movie (although, as we know, Marvel likes to takes ideas from the comics but not plot points, the movies are totally different). Having said that, in my library we had the Hickman and Shooter Secret Wars collected editions. Sorry Bendis.
Grant Morrison and cataloguing of Multiversity... What a nightmare! You gotta love the man but I'll leave this unanswered.
I feel like crossover events have become too frequent and, therefore, diluted. They've lost the power of that BIG event. They're often used as a cynical exercise to sell more comics but they just create discussion and buzz, they don't advance characters and stories and, in fact, they often disrupt ongoing series that are developing an interesting story only to get interrupted by crossover events. Sorry, I realise that sounds really negative. It's not always the case. But it does grate at me.
And a question to you James. Do you have a favourite crossover event? And why?
Maybe we could continue the book club on podcast episodes in some form?
Thanks for your thoughts Iurgi, I definitely agree that as crossovers became first yearly occurrences and now there can be multiple crossover events in a single year, they don't have the impact that they could if they were invoked more frugally.
It's also an interesting point you make that often these events both disrupt ongoing stories that creators may have been developing over extended periods of time and also don't usually cause long-term changes to the status quo because there are other ongoing series. To me this suggests that when crossover events aren't handled well they end up suffering from the worse aspects of both ongoing series and contained stories. On the other hand, though, when they're done well they can tell very interesting stories utilising well known characters interacting and dealing with threats beyond those that could easily be handled in a standard ongoing comic.
As far as my own favourite crossovers, the concepts behind Dark Nights: Metal and House of X/Powers of X are really compelling - one combining Bruce Wayne with other members of the JLA to form twisted villains let Scott Snyder really explore the characters and situations in an interesting way, and the other kicking off exploration of how superhero stories can still be compelling with the spectre of death removed. I also have to mention Amalgam Comics and the 1990s inter-company crossover event that saw combinations of Marvel and DC heroes (such as Dark Claw, a combination of Wolverine and Batman, or Amazon, combining Wonder Woman and Storm). They may have been as nineties as comics can get, but the universe and the characters created for this were incredible and I have a definite soft spot for them.
