Straits Times Article: Comic relief

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Just something to share.

Comic books with more realistic heroes and ambigious morals are attractinga new generation of post-911 fans

By Karl Ho

AIDS, rape, domestic abuse and government experiments on black soldiers.

The comic book universe has become a lot darker and more complex.

Superheroes nowadays don't wear spandex. They don stylish leather gear.

They don't fight caricaturish villains. They deal with terrorism.

They don't use computers to save the world. They use them to go onto Internet chatrooms to meet girls.

And it's all in the name of winning over new generations of readers and making comics more relevant in the brave new world.

'It's a totally different world now, especially after 9-11,' says Joe Quesada, 41, editor-in-chief of American comic book publisher Marvel Comics, which spearheaded the move towards more realistic superheroes and plots.

'In our books, we have villains like Doctor Doom who wears masks, shoots laser beams from his hands and tries to conquer the world.'
Speaking on the telephone from his office in New York, he adds: 'Now, when a shifty person walks towards you, hiding who-knows-what device in his trenchcoat, that's your Doctor Doom. Everything's not sure anymore, and our books try to reflect that.'
And these days, superheroes don't appear only in comic books, but also in movies.

Thanks to successful superhero movie adaptations such as last year's Spider-Man, even more men in tights are making their big screen debut.

This year, three more movies based on superheroes will fly into a screen near you: Daredevil, X-Men 2 and The Hulk.

The superhero updates generate publicity and attract the attention of Hollywood and consumers alike, says history lecturer Ian Gordon, 48.

'Comics are not a mass medium anymore, but the movies are,' says the National University of Singapore's associate professor, who wrote a book titled Comic Strips & Consumer Culture.
'You update these characters and make them interesting to teenage boys because they are the ones buying the merchandise and watching the movies.'

Quesada has no qualms admitting that fresher and more contemporary characters have been created to tap into a bigger market.

And to lure non-comic book fanboys, he is willing to not only change what traditional superheroes do, but to also cut through the tangled web of past storylines and histories and introduce characters from scratch.

Fans appear to welcome such revisions in the comic book world.
Marvel comic book sales in the United States, buoyed by such revamped titles, rose by 14 per cent last year.

In Singapore, comic book stores are also seeing strong responses.
G&B Comics at Bras Basah Complex, for instance, easily sells about 120 copies of Ultimate Spider-Man, a revamped book that features Spider-Man as a teenager. This figure is twice that for the older web-slinger's books.

'Spider-Man is more contemporary in the new book,' says Mr Burnett Ang, 23, owner of the comic bookstore.
'Instead of being a photographer in the Daily Bugle newspaper after he graduates, he is a web designer, no pun intended.'

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GET REAL

WHILE comic book heroes have undergone re-interpretations

before, this recent wave of revamped crimefighters is arguably the most realistic yet.

In the 1960s, Marvel Comics rolled out a series of dysfunctional and humane characters such as Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.

Unlike the morally unambiguous cardboard cutouts that preceded them like the earlier incarnations of Superman and The Flash, these superpeople worried about putting their loved ones in danger and fretted about paying the bills.

They were a breath of fresh air and also helped the comics industry gain mainstream acceptance.

A one-off comic book series titled The Dark Knight Returns in 1986, for example, depicted a weary Batman forced out of retirement to fight crime. Among its fans was American director Tim Burton, who went on to lens the first two Batman films.

Comics also have a history of reflecting the times.

In the 1960s, Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man and the Hulk were born. They derived their powers from radiation as concerns about the Cold War and the nuclear bomb were prevalent then.

Quesada says: 'Now, our characters tackle issues like Aids, gay rights, and the new uncertainty after 9-11. I'm just carrying the torch from my predecessors.'

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MORAL DILEMMA

THE events of Sept 11 seem to prey on the creative juices of comics writers.

Not only are there a slew of comics lionising firemen and other rescue workers, superheroes are also forced to come to terms with the tragedy.

In Amazing Spider-Man 36, for instance, the web-slinger grapples with despair while digging through the rubble at Ground Zero for survivors.

Mr Kenny Chan, 50, store director of the main Kinokuniya bookstore at Ngee Ann City, says the mirroring of world events and social issues has resulted in a level of 'ultra-realism' previously unseen in comic books.

'I'm enjoying all of it,' says Mr Chan, who introduced English comics to his store. 'But it's painful to see issues like rape in comics.'
Other fans are concerned that the grey morality of the new superhero books might impart younger readers with wrong values.
Civil servant Terence Chua 32, explains: 'In the past, apart from my parents, my role models were heroes like Superman, who never needed to struggle with moral dilemmas and knew what was right and wrong.

'Now, they've weakened the heroes by making them realistic. Instead of getting out of trouble with ingenuity, they use their fists.'
But Brian Cunningham, 31, editor of industry rag Wizard magazine, thinks otherwise.

Speaking to Life! from New York, he says that kids today are mature enough to handle adult themes in comics.

'Nowadays, adults have to explain to the young what it means when a United States president gets into trouble in a sexual way. Our kids are different from kids before. They're growing up fast.'

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This should be more interesting.

COMICS SHOPS IN SINGAPORE

ABSOLUTE COMICS
03-13, Parco Bugis Junction,
Tel: 6333-3193, 11 am to 9.30 pm daily
This three-month-old store has a good stash of back-issue comics going as far back as 10 years. It also sells memorabilia such as T-shirts and toys.

G&B COMICS
03-13, Block 231, Bain Street 03-47, Bras Basah Complex, Tel: 6837-2280, 1-7 pm, Mondays to Saturdays, 2-6 pm on Sundays
It boasts an impressive array of comic books and related merchandise, such as mini busts of Spider-Man and X-Men.

COMICSMART
10, Jalan Serene, 02-05, Serene Centre, Tel: 6466-4213, 11 am to 8 pm, daily
One of the old-timers, this 17-year-old haunt maintains a strong bond with its regulars. It has outlets in Specialists Centre and in Tampines.

COMICS WORLD
B1-22, Park Lane Shopping Mall, 35 Selegie Road,
Tel: 6339-6413, 11.30 am to 8 pm daily, noon to 6 pm, Sundays and public holidays
This little shop has also been around for 17 years.

ALARIC'S COMICS & COLLECTIBLES
8 Grange Road, 03-02, Cathay Cineleisure Orchard, Tel: 6235-8201, noon to 10 pm, daily
Offers comics, collectibles and streetwear toys from Hongkong designers such as Michael Lau.

KINOKUNIYA
391 Orchard Road, 03-10/15, Takashimaya Shopping Centre, Tel: 6737-5021, 10 am to 9.30 pm, Sundays to Fridays, 10 am to 10 pm on Saturdays
This spacious bookstore stocks a good collection of English graphic novels and trade paperbacks for comic-book neophytes.

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NEW GENERATION SUPERHEROES

DAREDEVIL: The first few issues in the revamped comic saw the blind superhero questioning his faith. He also tackled the issue of Aids when his girlfriend re-appeared carrying the virus.

ULTIMATE X-MEN, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN AND THE ULTIMATES: Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Spider-Man depict the heroes as teenagers in high schools who own mobile phones and spend time on Internet chatrooms.

Issues such as spousal abuse are also tackled, comic-book style: One of the Avengers unleashes an army of ants upon his wife, The Wasp, when she is miniaturised.

THE NEW X-MEN: Gritty, with top-notch art work and writing, these X-Men go around in leather jackets and black turtlenecks, have telepathic sex and pretend to come out of the closet to spite their ex-girlfriends. They also kill.

TRUTH: A six-issue comic book series featuring Captain America, the star-spangled hero is re-interpreted here as an African-American rather than the original Caucasian.

The series draws inspiration from the Tuskegee experiments in the United States between 1932 and 1972, where health officers tested the effects of untreated syphilis on unknowing, poor rural blacks.

The original Captain America can be seen in his own book fighting terrorism in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks.

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Comics drawing readers

IN THE late 1990s, the comic book industry faced a crisis of superhuman proportions: declining sales.

Readership was dropping by 7 to 10 per cent every month in the United States.

Marvel, one of the two biggest players alongside AOL Time Warner's DC Comics, filed for bankruptcy in 1998.

But two years later, it emerged from the shadows, and has grown stronger since.

Total revenue for Marvel Enterprises, which includes comic book, movie, toy and licensing divisions, in 2002 was US$280 million, compared to US$181 million the year before.

It posted a profit of US$18 million last year, compared to a loss of US$10.8 million in 2001.

Marvel has also overtaken DC as the market leader, capturing 47 per cent of the market share.

All this has been thanks to the new management team led by the likes of Joe Quesada.

Shrewd, adventurous and media savvy, the new team revitalised the corporation.

'Marvel has never been good with working with writers,' he tells Life! 'There was a method of doing business that wasn't conducive to the creative process. So I changed the status quo.'

Formerly a freelance artist-cum-writer, Quesada has amassed a list of contacts which he uses to give his superheroes added creative muscle.

They include writers such as director Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back) and J. Michael Straczynski (creator of the sci-fi TV series Babylon 5).

The company also markets its books - bound into easy-to-read volumes called trade paperbacks - in mainstream bookstores and supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart.

So well-received are the Marvel revamped comic book titles that they are flying off the shelves. These titles have also consistently been in the top 10 comic book list in the US.

Sales of the trade paperbacks rose 230 per cent last year in the US. As of last June, US$3.8 million worth of such books were sold.
If Marvel's experience is any indication, good content will always save the day, especially when Hollywood is looking. Movie tie-ins have helped sell more books and have brought box office profits to the company's coffers.