Would Western comics be improved if some sort of omnipotent dictator banned all stories about pre-existing characters, and forced everyone who wanted to make a comic do it with original characters in an original setting? It seems like the reason comics are at an impasse is because they tell stories about the same characters people have been telling stories about for the better part of a century, and as a result there's no meaningful development or closure that can be achieved. Past properties are weighing down present creativity with the baggage of the status quo. Wouldn't it be better to burn it all down and start anew?
>>153406724This is certainly a problem, but not the only problem. There might be new problems if you force everyone to be original.Regardless. I fucking hate it how these characters keep getting passed around, how most of their stories are filler or inconsequential. I've hated it for 20 years.
>>153406724No. Anyone thinking this is as creatively bankrupt as the hacks at the Big 2You get rid of all stories about pre-existing characters, you still end up with the same hackery that has been pervasive in modern entertainment and slop-brained thinking in executives>b-but they'll make something newNobody that says they need to get rid of superheroes or pre-existing characters really wants new stuff, if they did, the new stuff would sell vastly better than the pre-existing characters en masse. Stop fetishizing NEW ORIGINAL CHARACTERS at the expense of quality, it's no different than corpsloppers fetishizing OLD CHARACTERS BUT NEW
>>153406724If you don't like them don't read them weeb
>>153406724All stories have cohesive points that tie them all together, a start a middle and a finishAmerican comic books with syndicated characters are a thing on themselves, they exist as a capsule in time to people just wanting superheroes to be real and protect them from danger
>>15340672Would there be a set time after the creation of a new character where they cease to be considered "an original character" and become a pre-existing character?
>>153406724>Wouldn't it be better to burn it all down and start anew?Sure. But I don't read comics by secondary writers, so I'm probably biased.
>>153406724>Would Western comics be improved if some sort of omnipotent dictator banned No.
>>153406724No
>>153408031>if they did, the new stuff would sell vastly better than the pre-existing characters en masseIt does. It's called manga.
>>153406724>original characters in an original settingI hate to break it to you sister (or your other sister >>153407664) but you've been lied to.There are no original characters and there are no original stories. Everything that passed off as 'creator owned' and 'original' for the past few hundred years is everything but that. It's a story that was being passed down as oral history when your great grandparents great grandparents were not even eggs or sperms and even centuries before then, and they've only been dressed up a little in the same way that fan fiction writers do with modern capeshit or anime or manga.Nothing is new. Or original.
They would just take the old characters and file off the serial numbers. Capeshit writers are shockingly uncreative.
>>153410398That alone makes a big difference. It also loosens all the restrictions.
>>153406724Yes but they still wouldn't sell.
>>153408783>manga>100% not derived from pre-existing characters or ideaslollmao
>>153411171>derived from pre-existing characters or ideasEverything is. Did you think this would be some kind of checkmate?
>>153410888this>>153411035also this, sadly
>>153411970Yes, given OP thinks that originality will completely save everything
>>153412686That's not what OP said. He's asking if there would be improvement if new writers were forbidden from using pre-existing characters and their worlds.
>>153410371>Nothing is new. Or originalLook, just because that may be the case, and a 'new character' is just a rehash and mixture of older stuff, doesn't mean we shouldn't let characters rest or keep using the same 5 characters.
>>153413261This.
>>153407664Then go get another hobby
>>153415267I love comics, I just don't follow most of the superhero stuff. Every time I try, it bites me in the ass. How so many comic readers stick to just superheroes is pure insanity to me.
>>153406724We live in an age where pretty much anyone doing original comics is self-publishing online. That is to say, they exist and you're just not looking.
>>153406724>some sort of omnipotent dictatorYou don't even need that.You just need comics to start operating like a real business. Which they're not currently doingYou think anyone's buying pic related? They're not.Nobody is buying any of these comics. It's a daycare center for the friends and families of executives.For both Marvel and DC, even before the movies and games got big, they made all their money through merchandise sales like Batman tshirts. But the comics themselves haven't turned a profit since the 90's.If you simply took away this nepotistic safety blanket, comics would have to start actually selling if they want to stay in business, and this would immediately lead to changes>"pre-existing characters? I'm sorry we tried that, nobody wants to buy Superman, he's old hat, unc shit, we need to come up with something new if we want to make any money">"gay people? politics? sorry that just doesn't sell">"Hey you, who drew that really undynamic fight scene where the characters just shoot lasers out of their hands, you're fired. I need to hire someone who knows fight choreography if I hope to sell any of these comics"
>>153415738When X-men was popular, it was the coolest shit ever. You've got musclebound dudes with claws coming out of their hands, laser beams, mind reading, sexy women, etc.Nobody really gave a shit about the deep lore. Sure they liked it... but if you were given the choice of having the cool characters but no lore, vs having all the lore but none of the cool characters, it's obvious what's really important to X-men
>>153415767Nobody is buying pic related, it's total shit.If they were forced to actual make money, this would never have been made. The person who made this never once thought "is this actually going to sell?"The person that hired them never once thought "is this person going to design something that sells?"The questions of business, of actually making money, have never once entered the boardroom in this century.
>>153406724The omnipotent dictator should erase all of existence so thoroughly that it retroactively never existed.
>>153415790When Astro Boy was made, it was insanely popular, it was the hottest shit ever.but then it stopped being popular, readers taste changed and nobody wanted Astro Boy anymore. They started buying grittier comics like Golgo 13.Tezuka, who made Astro Boy, sticks with the market, and he produces Black Jack, a comic very different to Astro Boy, it's grittier, and it sells.This is the story not just of manga, but of all real business. If the product doesn't sell, it won't be made.
>>153415600>onlineDoesn't count.
>>153413261>>153415214A lot of what passes for 'new' is just dressed up - we're about to get the second live action theatrical featuring Supergirl, and the first real look at the cosmic universe outside Earth in the DCU, as well as the first theatrical and only second live action version of Lobo.And it's all in, essentially, the fifth or seventh live action adaptation of a slim novella about vengeance as old as the bible - that's just gussied up with some Western Cowboy Civil War Southern Racism and a few other, uninteresting and unimaginative tropes and trappings, to make it seem - at least - somewhat different than Ahab tales of vengeance, or the Monster toward Victor, or almost anyone from Hamlet to the Queen against Titus - or any of the other vengeance plots written up by Shakespeare. It will most certainly be 'just a rehash' of older stuff. Many modern writes are too lazy, and far too close to hacks than actual writers, to attempt any creativity or imagination in their plot contrivances and plot devices to get us from Act 1 to Act 3.
It would be better if all these old characters were public domain already. When they belong to everyone, they belong to no one in particular.
>>153418200No
>>153406724The problem is corporate ownership.If the big two behaved like real publishers, there would organically be more original comics in conjunction with continuations/adaptations.
>>153406724Yes
>>153406724Needs more than that.
>>153420518Such as?
>>153419456Yeah?
>>153421292Trains.
>>153425240?
>>153408342nobody is reading them. trannies buy them as some kind of virtue signal but they don't actually read them. they're garbage lol. it will all be over soon enough. tick tock.
>>153426881Trains!
>>153426881Commuters read manga on trains. Can't read if you're driving.
>>153406724No, retard. The writers are bad and can't write prose, their OC donut steel indie vanity projects are just as bad if not worse than their Big Two projects.
>>153415738>>153415767>>153415790>>153415853You're a fucking retard btw.
>>153429525The issue is the artists. Writing doesn't sell comics. You take One Piece and keep the exact story and writing but replace with some shitty western artist no one would've ever cared.
>>153429582Well even if you used a GOOD Western artist no one would've cared, because japs are xenophobic and that shit would never get into SJ. Go back to whatever retarded weeb cesspit you crawled from.
>>153429582>>153429664It would have a good amount of fans, but it wouldn't be a best-seller.Oda isn't the greatest artist in the world, but there's a distinct charm that no other artist could replicate. It's his baby.
>>153429582This is a good argument.Comics are an harmonious mix of art and story. It's not one or other, it's both. And if one is shit, then half the comic is shit, and nobody is going to read a half-shit comic.But you can judge the art far quicker than you can the story. The story you have to read, but the art just hits you immediately. And I'm not even talking about the typical "bad" art. I think pic related is shit.It's shit from a taste point of view. It's just not something I want to look at.It's good on technical grounds.... but it's just ugly. This style, which is the style of most comics... is just ugly.
>>153431063Have another. I just don't want to look at this. This doesn't look good. It's a weird amalgamation of disjoined stylistic choices, that fundamentally don't look good together.
>>153431067If I'm not making my point clear here this is some random concept art from Lilo and Stitch.There is a clear art direction here, everything has a decided way that it looks. There is a definitive art style and is perfectly in harmony with the tone of the story. It oozes the atmospehre of Lilo and StitchThat kind of art direction just doesn't exist in most comics at all.
>>153431063>It's good on technical groundsNot at all. It's sloppy as hell. Perspective is fucked.>>153431087You couldn't find a manga page for your example?
>>153431181I don't like to pick manga examples if a non-manga example works just as fine. Posting manga drives diehard comic fans mad, but here you go.I'm not trying to cherry pick and particularly special example here, but generally speaking, most people look at pic related and say "I like how this looks". They're not thinking about artistic technical ability or polish or anything like that. It's purely a matter of whether it's something they want to look at or not. And this manga is popular, people like looking at it.
>>153431281Here's another example, one that, stylistically is very basic (not to say it's not skilled ofc)People find these characters attractive.People want to spend time with entertainment media that is pleasant to look at. It's like, music is pleasant on the ears, art is pleasant on the eyes.
>>153431337I'm not trying to say it's all about being cute and soft eitherPeople like the look of BerserkThese art styles are just, at an indescribable level... nice to look at. It is a joy on the eyes. And I don't get that with comics at all, and I don't think I'm alone there.
>>153431281>>153431337Not as bland as the superhero comic pages, but these are pretty weak. They look ugly and rushed. I don't think these help your case.>>153431360This one does. It's immediately visually arresting. >And I don't get that with comics at allTo me, that's strange. I think there's a good amount of comics with good, harmonious art.
>>153411035Sad!
>>153431360Is obvious comics have good artists anon
