The Four Color Media Monitor

Essentially, DC has had a vested interest in comics shops going out of business. Weird how their new SJW comics thing has been making that happen. Coincidence, no doubt.

"And all the while, there's tons of creator-owned books out there that could make for better recommendations in the press, yet they choose to take the easy-peasy route of promoting dismal stories owned by the majors."

Why not list some of those tons of creator-owned books here?

"And all the while, there's tons of creator-owned books out there that could make for better recommendations in the press, yet they choose to take the easy-peasy route of promoting dismal stories owned by the majors."

anon "Why not list some of those tons of creator-owned books here?"

I'm going to disagree.
The vast majority of CONTEMPORARY creator owned comic books have the same problems that the large superhero publishers, declining quality and social justice warriors. The majority of all of Marvel's most outspoken progressive creators and staff got their start doing creator-owned books at places like Image, Boom, etc.
The vast majority of creator-owned comics are published by affluent hipsters and no one reads them. At best, many indie comics are coffee table books(based on liberal politics) at worst they are material purchased by libraries with the librarian and other people in academia being the real audience (https://twitter.com/cartoonstudies/status/1012851284070797314)



Mr. Bee muses "Essentially, DC has had a vested interest in comics shops going out of business. Weird how their new SJW comics thing has been making that happen. Coincidence, no doubt."

If DC and Marvel wanted to simply exit the Direct Market it makes no sense why they wouldn't quietly do so. Why did they, and by extension the entire comics industry, feel like they need to demonize and insult their customers in the Direct Market on their way out of the Direct Market.
Whatever the situation may be, I am almost certain that American comics are virtually unprofitable at this point and that may be the real reason they do not feel compelled to respond to any market forces.

You're right, I should try to be more specific. Some of the worst leftist politics can surely be found in some of Warren Ellis' writings, and I recall that even some comics based on licensed material like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew may have recently fallen victim to social justice politics, certainly the latter. There's also, of course at least a few adaptations published under the IDW banner like Jem & the Holograms which incorporated social justice propaganda and ludicrous diversity tactics, one more reason why they lost so many sales of recent.

The better independent/creator-owned products of recent are probably those produced by writers like Chuck Dixon, Mike Baron, and even Jon Del Arroz, who's recently developed some of his own comics contributions. Those are surely the authors I should try to suggest for looking into, as they usually have a better idea what makes for entertainment.

I think the example you used on your blog, that comic from Avatar Press, Black Summer was probably around Warren Ellis' peaked as a writer. After 2007, it became very apparent to this former fan that he was running out of ideas and settled into mediocrity and lately, pc tropes that haunt his latest work on Wild Storm and James Bond (007). PC tropes, with rare exceptions, are the province of mediocre writers.

Chuck Dixon and Mike Baron are older writers. The people choosing writing as a profession these days are activists. They are activists because of the growing importance of formal schooling to get the right connections (impressing the right wealthy people) to start a writing career. The writing programs have become dominated by SJWs.

The first thing SJWs deconstructed was Fine Art. If they are anywhere near as successful as they were with Fine Art, with entertainment, it will be a losing battle. They have been very successful at "striving for social change." Comedy, the most popular genre in human history, has been nearly destroyed in Progressive circles. Nearly everything that is funny can be considered offensive to someone. Unlike other groups, that frown on fun, Progressives have far more reach and a much better track record.

You have got to admit, watching Sacha Baron Cohen getting a conservative apparatchiki to pull down his pants on national television on the pretext that homophobic Islamic terrorists would be terrified of him charging at them rear end first is funny. And definitely offensive to someone. Many someones.

Anonymous dumb-ass said
"You have got to admit, watching Sacha Baron Cohen getting a conservative apparatchiki to pull down his pants on national television on the pretext that homophobic Islamic terrorists would be terrified of him charging at them rear end first is funny"



That's not really funny because it makes no sense. Islamic terrorists are not afraid of homosexuals. They are not afraid of getting raped by gay men. They are intolerant of homosexuals. Homophobia is a very misleading term to describe intolerance or hatred. Thank you for illustrating why today's liberals are not funny and much dumber than previous generations of liberals.

"That's not really funny because it makes no sense....|"

Of course it makes no sense! Humor is based on absurdity and incongruity; if it made sense, it would not be funny. The utter senselessness points out how gullible the poor victim was, and only makes it funnier. Cruel, but funny.

But I guess that just shows how comedy has been nearly destroyed in ultra-rightist circles and how ultra-rightist anti-neo-deconstructionists frown on fun.