If anyone asks you, “What do you do for a living,” and you tell them you’re a comic book creator, they expect you to be knowledgeable about superheroes. All comic books do not consist of superheroes, and comic books (like The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck in 1837 and The Funnies in 1929) pre-date superheroes. In order to create a comic book in modern times, you can stoop to using features from phone apps and draw out your content and scan it (without having to digitize the work). In fact, you could just take pictures of a model, add bubbles from an app on your phone, and creatively create a comic book. With this knowledge, why do people expect most comic book creators to care about superheroes?
The most common genre of American comic books is superheroes. Superheroes rose to prominence back in The Golden Age, which is the Great Depression and World War II era, then propelled into popularity in the 1940s, remaining a dominant form of the comic book since the 1960s. Unless you make your way into the Big Two Comics (Marvel and DC), if you’ve not made it into an independent comic book business (to work with Dark Horse Comics, Top Cow Comics, and Archie Comics), you may have to either self-publish your comic book or take the expensive route by hiring a comic book artist.
What About Non-Superhero Comic Books?
Some non-superhero comic books are The Walking Dead (which reached popularity thanks to the AMC television series), Frank Miller’s Sin City, 100 Bullets, and Bone. Scott Pilgrim is a graphic novel that turned into a 2010 action/romance movie (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World). Kate Beaton’s Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is a graphic novel that covers roughly three years of her life, and if you prefer more of her work, you can look at Hark! A Vagrant.
Technically, a graphic novel is perceived as multiple comic books mashed together. Sure, you should absorb as much knowledge about your profession as possible, but in the pursuit of comic book making, is it a requirement to be knowledgeable about superheroes?
Comic Books Can Turn Into Graphic Novels
From my previous experience with creating superhero characters, I’m aware that the content creator can start off with the goal of a comic book, only to create a graphic novel. It’s like starting off with a regular short story, only to wound up with a novel, but it’s your choice to break the parts up into short stories.
I’ve created an eBook graphic novel called Only In Doubt Town, an audiobook called Doubt Town: Happening Street, as well as a web comic that’s free to view called Only In Doubt Town: Sun Chi Moves To Happening Street.
Mainstream Superheroes
When it comes to the world of comic books, everyone knows the name Stan Lee, who created characters like The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, and the X-Men alongside Jack Kirby. Lee is mostly known for creating Spider-Man and first collaborated on the character with artist Steve Ditko, then the anthology comic book, Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962) was introduced in the Silver Age of comic books. Spider-Man, the alias of Peter Parker, has been featured in films, television shows, video games, and plays. Is your spider-sense telling you that you should’ve gotten into the comic book industry?
Why is Lacking Knowledge of Superheroes Risky?
What could be viewed as embarrassing is if a comic book creator lacked knowledge about superheroes, then someone not in the comic book industry is explaining the history to them. Not knowing about every superhero isn’t going to be career suicide, depending on if your goal is to focus on separate genres. Now, if you create comic books and still aren’t aware of every comic book character ever made, you could advance your knowledge. If you’re at a Comic Con event showboating, then maybe it’s time you know about people that possibly paved the way for you.
Are a Superhero and Role Model the Same Thing?
Not too many people wouldn’t want to have extraordinary or superhuman abilities and skills or God-like powers and attributes, but with exceptional and above-average writing and artistic skills, there are some comic book creators who can live without the world of superheroes. Maybe you grew up playing with action figures like Spider-Man, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Flash Gordon. It’s not necessary to have superheroes in your life, but throughout time, the meaning of superheroes changed. Now, a superhero can simply be a role model or somebody without superhuman abilities who saves lives, does good deeds, and/or gives advice. A role model is someone we should have in our lives, so to be knowledgeable about role models is like being knowledgeable about superheroes.
Garth Ennis, a comic writer (mostly known for the Vertigo series, Preacher) stated in an interview with Uproxx, “Well, I don’t like any of them. You can pick your favorite and watch me denigrate them. The thing is, due to a quirk of distribution and growing up in Northern Ireland in the ’70s and ’80s, I never really saw American superhero comics…” If you prefer reading about imaginary beings that you’re incapable of living up to, then learning about Marvel, DC Comics, independent comic books, and self-published comic books is for you.
Are There Too Many Superheroes?:
To someone who isn’t a fan of superheroes, it seems like they’re creating too many superheroes (like Anna Ameyama, Ghost Spider, Superboy, Ms. Marvel, and The Batman Who Laughs). We already have She-Hulk roaming around in the comic book world. We already have Blisstina Francesca Francia Mariam Alicia Utonium (better known as Bliss, who is made out of the ingredients sugar, spice, and everything nice, with Chemical W) from the Cartoon Network’s television series The Powerpuff Girls. On Netflix, there’s a television show called Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir and The Thundermans.
More heroic figures are coming out of nowhere. Maybe you prefer reading about supervillains (like The Joker and Harley Quinn, Catwoman, Mystique, Poison Ivy, Venom, Black Adam, Doctor Doom, and Magneto), but it’s not a requirement to know about them.
It seems like comic books went from a diverse medium (having adventure, mystery, drama, romance, and more) into the single genre of superhero, where the superhero genre overshadows everything. Manga comics (like Sailor Moon and One-Punch Man) involve superhuman abilities, but there are Manga comics without superhero content. Manga comics can have romance content (like Skip Beat! by Yoshiki Nakamura and High School Debut by Kazune Kawahara), sports content (like Kuroko’s Basketball by Tadatoshi Fujimaki and Real by Takehiko Inque), and historical content (like A Bride’s Story by Kaoru Mori and Vagabond by Takehito Inque). Manga can also have fantasy and supernatural content, which can at times share a resemblance with superhero content.