Bill Jemas was the publisher at Marvel Comics from 2000 to 2004. And while the financial fortunes of Marvel improved during his time, Jemas had a way of saying things that infuriated a lot of fans. At one point, he dismissed the concerns and complaints of internet columnists as they were all “writer wannabes.”* Another time, he derided the fan base saying something to the effect that the comic book audience was comprised solely of those who wished they were working in comics.
My initial reaction to those comments was to decry them. I wanted to insist upon a great big “No!” We may love comics but that doesn’t mean we don’t like our own jobs. I know of plenty of fans who like being teachers and preachers and journalists and wouldn’t necessarily want to give up the passion they have for their current careers in order to break into comics. We’re not all aspiring artists. We’re not all writer wannabes.
But I then I started to think about some of the things that we do as a part of our pastime. Just look at our message boards. We share our own ideas for characters we’ve created. We regal each other with pitches we’d make for individual titles. We write fan fiction. And some of us even draw fan art. I know that I’ve done all of these things. So maybe Jemas is right. Maybe the comic book audience is comprised solely of those who wished they were working in comics.
I thought about that a bit more and I wondered, “So? What’s wrong with that?” Couldn’t you say that about any form of entertainment? I may daydream about writing comics for a living. But I also daydream about becoming a Hollywood actor or a rock star. Who am I kidding? I still daydream about playing third base for the Baltimore Orioles. And I don’t think that I’m alone.
This is a common to all of us. I’ve seen some ads recently for “On the Lot.” It’s a new reality series by Mark Burnett (the creator of “Survivor”) and Steven Spielberg in which ordinary, average people get to make a movie. A dishwasher or a hairdresser is suddenly given a cast, a crew and the chance to make their daydreams a reality. It’s the same impulse that drives millions of people to try out for “Rock Star” or “American Idol.” There was even an episode of “The Simpsons” in which Homer Simpson and a bunch of other middle-aged characters like Moe went to a rock star camp in order to learn how to rock’n’rollers from real stars like Mick Jagger and Tom Petty.
What about sports? Somewhere inside fan you’ll find the desire to be the one out there playing or making the decisions. One of my childhood friends use to mail line suggestions to the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens. One of my uncles has bragged about his buddy who had the chance to sit down with the owner of the Grand Rapids Griffins and comment on roster moves. How many fans play fantasy sports, as if they were the general manager or the head coach? How many fans imagine that they’re really a part of the action when they play a video game? We all have these daydreams and we don’t abandon them just because we become adults.
What is true about all of these other entertainments and pastimes is also true of comic books. Of course, fans daydream about actually being the ones who make the comics. It’s not unusual. It’s only natural.
But there’s something else that seems to bring these aspirations to the fore in comic book fans. Maybe it’s that so many of the people who are making comic books have come from our ranks. From Roy Thomas to Jim Shooter, from Marv Wolfman to Len Wein, from Kurt Busiek to Mark Waid, the list is long of fans who have turned into professionals. And maybe we think to ourselves, “If he can do it, so can I.” Roy Thomas started out writing fanzines. Kurt Busiek was a regular fixture in letter columns. Even Gail Simone was an internet columnist before she wrote professionally. And so our aspirations to become comic book writers seem real in a way that it doesn’t seem real for us to become professional athletes (Disney’s “Invincible” notwithstanding).
Maybe it’s that the people who make comic books still seem close to us. They aren’t millionaires like most professional athletes. They don’t live drastically different lives like most Hollywood celebrities. The distance between them and us doesn’t seem as great as it does between us and Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson. Once again, the aspirations seem more within reach.
That isn’t to say that making a comic book is easy. When we try to turn our daydreams into reality, we learn the truth. It takes time to put words to paper. It takes talent to draw. It takes skill to make the story flow or to craft dialogue that is individual to each character. It’s just as challenging to make a great comic book as it is to make a great movie. So maybe we should admire the people who make comic books for a living more than we do.
Either way, it’s okay to love our real jobs and daydream about making comics at the same time. We might all be aspiring artists and writer wannabes but that’s no reason to be ashamed.
(Originally Published at CaptainComics.us on March 23, 2007, An Audience of Aspiring Artists and Writer Wannabes)
*I was unable to locate the original quote. However I was able to unearth numerous columns in 2002 in which several different columnists began describing themselves ironically as “writer wannabes” in allusion to Jemas’ comments. At least I know that I didn’t imagine Jemas saying it.
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