Is this predatory metaphor disturbing anyone else besides me? The point is, what hasn't killed comics has made it stronger and less wastefully flamboyant. Sort of. Here's what I see as being the important stuff about the comics industry over the last 12 months...

• 1.The gradual fall of the Marvel empire. Due to poor management, treating it like a children's entertainment complex instead of a publishing company, Marvel has fallen in its mightiness, though not fallen as a power in the industry. It consistently winnowed its titles down to just Spider-Man and X-Titles, apparently slowly becoming just X-Titles. Spider-Man suffers from trying to all hang together, trying to pull off multi-part crossovers with itself, and trying to make plot ideas come around that are unbelievable in a world of the incredible. (Yes, among the things I'm talking about is the Spider-Clone, although they get credit for honesty and sense of humor for the one-shot '101 Ways to End the Clone Saga.') The X-Titles suffer from poor writing and no characterization. I don't know where the idea of having Mark Waid write one book went, but he hasn't been back there for a while since he did the two or three issues I saw.

• 2. The slow, steady rise of DC. DC needed little else to grow happily again but the removal of the bigger lion prowling the plains, Marvel, which, oddly, happened, when no one any longer believed it would. DC has begun to grow again. Though it suffers from superficial crossovers and 'events' in which little important happens (Final Night, and, to a lesser degree, Zero Hour), DC is now expanding rapidly. Excellent writers, a variety of titles, multiple groups of loyal, sometimes obsessed fan groups (Bat-Group (overlapping at many times with Chuck Dixonmania), Super-Group, Legion Group, Mark Waidites, Robinsonia, the Ennis Following, and so on. Hey, I'm a Legion Dixon Waidite with Robinson leanings, I can talk).

  Weaknesses of DC:

  • A. Cheesiness. See the recent Birds of Prey 4-parter with Black Canary, the Huntress, and Catwoman, and, possibly, the Supergirl title. This is such a common thing in comics these days that I suppose the fact that DC has comparatively little of it should be a relief, but it really isn't. Black Canary/Oracle were and are fine by themselves, but the last 4-parter was way too blatant for me.

  • B. Poorly-Planned Marketing gimmicks. Batman suffers, at times, the same problems as Spider-Man (see above). Superman (as I think we all know by now) is constantly undergoing massive changes that are, soon after, reversed or glossed over (death, marriage, loss of powers, different powers). DC's themed annuals are also starting to be a real source of embarrassment, with a few exceptions here and there (Batman as Pirate, Wildfire in the Legion's future). However, last year's pathetic Dead Earth annuals seem to have taught everyone a lesson.

  • C. Enveloping Universe. DC's characters often visit other titles, sometimes in pathetic attempts to add a sales kick in the pants to that title (Death's 2 appearances in the monthly Books of Magic, Saturn Girl in Soverign Seven), but usually to give the reader what was so fascinating in the Marvel Universe of the 80's: a universe wherein most characters interact realistically with one another at any given time. Titles that are isolated, such as Grant Morrison's Invisibles or Garth Ennis' Preacher, however, do not suffer from not being part of that universe if the writers do not wish it. (Quite the opposite, as far as I can tell.) I have listed it under weaknesses because many non-DC readers say (as used to be a problem some people had with Marvel) that all the titles seem so interconnected in background that they cannot find a good jumping-on point anywhere in any title (which was the problem with the interesting-looking L.E.G.I.O.N., oddly enough, for an only slightly different reason). I greatly enjoy the enveloping universe quality, but we must remember that some new readers will often feel caught outside the envelope.

• 3. Image comics. Image comics has three main things: Spawn, and all the sales power that comes with him, titles like WildCATS, a title so shallow it really isn't good for anything but crossing over with other titles in other companies... which it seems to do very well, so I'll knock it more when I'm making some impressive money for stuff I've written... and Gen 13, which is in between. The lack of proper pacing and need to cross-over that you get with things like WildCATS, with the originality and sales power you get with Spawn. All I can say is, if Humberto Ramos would just pick a title and Stick With It, everyone would be happy (especially the title he chose). Humberto! Please stop wandering from book to book! You're playing with people's lives here!

• 4. Dark Horse. Dark Horse treats itself like what it is: a quality publishing company. With their growing explorations into what may be the Next Big Thing, which is MANGA and/or animation-style comics in general, Dark Horse stands do do very well over the next 5 years or so. In addition to titles like the manga Oh My Goddess, Dark Horse has Mike Allred, which is a much more important fact these days than that they also have the now-infrequently-published Madman Comics. And in fact the creators at Dark Horse are so work-at-their-own-pace that the company would be in dire straits if those creators weren't so magnificent (Concrete, Hellboy, etc). (P.S. Manga Madness is also being felt at DC in the Legion titles, Impulse, and the Titans. More on this from me later.)

• 5. Who's left? Well, the very fact that companies don't rush fantastically to mind says something... But let me discuss some titles, many of them new, that have caught my attention in the last 12 months, titles which are not a part of the above companies.

  • A. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. It's off-putting. I had to read my friend Nathan's, because I was afraid to pick it up. And it is more disturbing and sick on the inside than the outside, by far. But not nearly as much as Marilyn Manson. And JtHM is FUNNY. And I think it's really achieved a cult following in it's brief run. People who see later projects by this guy are going to snap up his work, and he says he does indeed have some planned.

  • B. Charles Vess' self-published Book of Ballads and Sagas. I think it's going to have 6 parts. Very nice. Green Man Press, as I recall. Brings in that Vertigo crowd very well, it seems.

  • C. Oh Yeah! Almost forgot Valiant. I don't know if it will work, but I notice Valiant is trying to make a comeback. I think it'll work for a while, but will they still be around in 5 years? Not if they don't try working with some new characters, new titles pretty soon.

  • D. Shi. Never read it myself due to the obvious cheesecake factor, but I'm beginning to wonder why I haven't done it anyway. I like Black Canary/Oracle when they have a good reason for a story, after all, and Shi's popularity is huge and not diminishing.

  • E. Cerebus. Dave'll be around in five years... but will we care? Probably. When I look at the way Cerebus started out, and at what it's become, I can't help but think that Sim will continue to evolve as a storyteller and his fan base will slowly increase. Now, if only I (and more importantly, people like the Friends of Lulu) felt so sure that he's gonna evolve as Dave Sim.

  • F. Finally, two comics that have little to do with one another except the niche in the genre they share: Too Much Coffee Man and Lethargic Lad. Like JtHM for those who don't need their humor to be dark. TMCM speaks for itself. If I'd had a drink in my hand at the time, I swear it would have been coming out my nose instantly when I saw Lethargic Lad #3's Kingdom Come parody. Fantastic.

  Well, that's about it as far as I can figure. Welcome to the future. So what lessons can be learned from all this?
  • 1. I went to a slide show once in about 1989, called, "What Marvel Has In Store For the Coming Year." The guy said, "So, what does Marvel have in store for the coming year? I can sum it up for you in three words: (ch-click) Wolverine, Wolverine, Wolverine." This is a true story. The point is, I think Manga is the Big New Thing for a while. My favorite manga that I haven't mentioned above are Ranma 1/2 and Lum. Viz Comics is the publisher of both, I believe.

  • 2. It's good to be big. It's better to be the best.
    2a. Writing is more important than art. Characterization is more important than characters (especially characters with cool powers. I think Garth Ennis' recent Heartland showed once again what a good comic you can make without using other planets, mutants, magic, or even nudity). Quality creators make for a quality company, and it's often worth paying extra to get the work of the big names. Why else do you think Marvel bought out the company that had Prime, Freex, Strangers, etc? So that by the time they were done with it, a company based on writers, I wouldn't even remember its name. And it worked. I really can't remember.

  • 3. There's nothing wrong with being funny.
    3a. There's nothing shameful in cartooning.

  • 4. Alan Moore is not only still great, he may be the savior (living martyr, anyway) of comicdom. The difference between how DC once treated Moore and how they then went on to treat Neil Gaiman, I think, shows that someone learned a lesson: creators are important. This gave us Image comics, and you must say they live up to their name, at least, but the same movement opened up the cold war in the industry to people that are crazy enough to think they can publish their comics themselves. These days, they have a fair chance (a good chance? Hmm. A fair chance? Very possibly).