Roger Brand Memorial Article

Remembering Roger Brand

The Comics Journal 

by Kim Deith

October 12, 2011

https://www.tcj.com/a-lousy-week-for-woods-remembering-roger-brand/

Comics Broke You, too, eh?

So, we have a viral protest going on in the social media world. It's hashtag is #comicsbrokeme. 

I'm amazed at how many people have horror stories about Comics, but moreso at how many people revived their love of the media by finding a niche to thrive within. 

Comics is a labor intensive media. It does not matter if it is physical or digital. No amount of automation, machine learning or artifical intelligence gets involved. From developing a theme, plot outline, rough visual design through the finished product requires passion, vision and persistence to produce a work that deals with static images and words to tell a story. 

The quick money mentality of mass media consumption producers who fly along pandering to the latest trend works to break down the production aspects of the media of comics. From the solitary cartoonist doing both the writing and drawing, production houses have broken down comics into a plethora of aspects that include, but are not limited to plotting, writing, editing, illustration layouts, preliminary art, finished art, pencillers, inkers, colorists, lettered, page designers, sound effect design, and packaging design. 

None of these micromanagement generated jobs and commensurate titles have allowed comics to be produced at lightning fast turnaround time to satisfy people seeking to financially profit from a cultural bubble. It is the same production issue that animation has dealt with since the 1960s. The human effort required to produce a "story product" is great enough that it blunts the impact of being able to immediately stuff something in front of you and require you to consume it. 

If comics breaks a person, it simply is a matter of rigid thinking about what the impact of their "story product" should be. It is a gross divergence in the actual reaction not being what they want or need. Comics won't ever fully validate you even though you feel called to pour every morsel of your being into it. Comics can be a beacon to attract people like you to you, it just doesn't come with the guarantee that you feel you need to thrive.