Sunday, January 1, 2012

In 2012 I'd Like to See...

Here are some things I'd like to see in 2012:

On Cryptids:

  • TV audiences accept that if we ever do catch footage of a ghost, UFO or bigfoot on video (which we won't because, well...), it is not going to show up at 11:43 PM on a Saturday on Animal Planet.  
  • The TV audience realizes that the people who are pursuing these things have decided to divorce themselves from reality for reasons that probably have to do with a lack of hugs in their formative years, because they played a lot of Dungeons & Dragons as kids, and/ or they might just not be very bright
  • Except for Mothman, which is totally real

On Comics:
  • Indie creators look at the marketplace and quit making the same five indie comic books over and over (you are only allowed to do zombies, vampires or were-beasts if your last name is Roberson and/ or you are going to do something entirely new with the concept).  
  • On the flipside, I'd like to see DC and Marvel just make solid comics about their major characters (like Waid's Daredevil).  
  • Someone, somewhere in comics makes a first issue that does half a good a job as your average TV show at setting up new characters, a setting and a conflict instead of just seemingly throwing genre bits on the page.  This may mean your first issue is more than 20 pages.  I'm sorry.
  • Comic readers will realize that Dragon Ball Z and Pro-Wrestling are not the be-all/ end-all of storytelling, and we hit at least YA-levels of narrative in more comics.
  • The stuff inside comics will be half as interesting as the stuff happening outside the comics
  • Creators will realize they have the power to take things into their own hands if they can work out new models of vertical integration and a few step up to act like business people (Image for 2012)
  • Publishers like IDW will realize their real job is to reach an audience outside of the direct market, including pricing models that work for folks on the street
  • I have nothing to offer Marvel and DC.  You're both offering me small selections of books I'll pick up, but its clear its time for major changes at both companies.  I am waiting for your corporate bosses to clue in to this fact.
  • You would sell more comics if they were 25 pages for $2.  I'm just saying.


On Television:

  • My cable service will realize that offering me 200 channels is not something that's cost effective for either of us.  I watch shows, not networks.  If one cent of my money is going towards baking shows, bridal shows, home-shopping shows, pregnant teen shows, etc...  then cable may have quit making any sense for me.  (I really just need local news and TCM, HBO and ESPN at this point.  I believe everything else winds up on Hulu.)
  • Someone will come up with a News Network that actually shows me the news and not Nancy Grace and that horrid Jane Velez-Mitchell being
  • Another season of Louis would be great.  As would the continuation of Venture Bros.  


On the Election Cycle:

  • For me not to want to gouge my own eyes out by June and wish for the replacement of our voting system with a monarchy
  • For the unbelievable distortions and fantasy/ paranoid fabrications to be covered as such by mainstream news media instead of being looked at as if the complete distortions have a grain of truth
  • For voters to actually think about what a candidate is really saying and weigh that against whether or not that's something a @#$%ing lunatic might say

2 comments:

Michael Corley said...

A comic book podcast said Venture Brothers was a big sloppy kiss to Marvel Comics. I cannot disagree.

The League said...

Oh, sure! They do Marvel homages proud.