In the
small press comics digital hub thread John Caliber mentions how he thinks there should be some gritty reality comics and implied that the comics scene is perhaps too heavily invested in fantasy whether that be sci-fi, crime, superheroes or heroic fantasy. He suggested (amongst other things) a political comic and argued that comics as an artform suffered from not being aimed at a mainstream audience.
Whilst I might not like the thought of reading one of those comics being a scifi fan, I can see how the audience might change if, say, the Big Issue featured a comic written and illustrated by its vendors for example. Or there was a Coronation street tie-in like there is a Dr Who magazine.
That article in the Meg described Japanese comics devoted to sports stories, office manga and the like. In Europe you have all sorts of stories, especially thrillers. Perhaps we should be trying to emulate the American scene less and reaching out to an international audience more?
I will say though, that there have been a number of 'slice of life' and journalistic graphic novels published by major book publishers in the UK in recent years. These are the sorts of books that get reviewed in The Guardian. But do they sell?
Perhaps at school age children could to be taught how comics can combine word and picture for a much smaller budget than a film and challenge them to write about a variety of subjects. Get them whilst they are young and try to get them to realise the potential for the artform that I am frankly too old to realise. Many of them will have access to smartphones so someone should create apps that allow them to create comics then encourage them to share. Photoshop and Flash made art, photographic manipulation and animation available to a much wider audience than before and helped people who would never have thought they could do it get new jobs in these industries. Perhaps the new technology will bring in a revolution in comics subjects eventually.
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For me, I would like to see historicals - is there a CJ Sansom of the comics world out there? I expect some people would like to see romance and sex comics if the hair-raising stuff I see on the Deviantart website occasionally are anything to go by... Would a rom-com work as a comic?
