It is what it is.

It's amazing how often people want what doesn't exist and don't want what does exist.

I've mentioned before, parents who are looking for comics and haven't bought one in 30 or 40 years will almost wholesale reject the current offerings. They want what they remember. Whether that ever even existed is debatable (comics from 30 or 40 years ago are clunky and dull compared the the art and writing today), they have a rosy memory.

Comics were on newsprint. They had big splashy panels that said, "BOOM! and POW! and CRUNCH!". They had dialogue like "Holy Metal, Batman!" They cost .25 cents.

When confronted with a comic vision of even 20 years ago, such as the Watchmen, they recoil in bewilderment.

Here's the problem. Current comic readers would reject the old style wholesale. I've had this store long enough to remember how pathetic the Jack Kirby comics sold near the end of his life, and how Stan Lee is indulged occasionally with a new story, while everyone mutters under their breath how his writing 'isn't what it used to be.'

Jack Kirby and Stan Lee are Gods. Gods who no one wants to read, anymore.

Who are you going to make comics for? The people currently reading, or the huge 'potential' audience who probably will never buy a comic?

Believe me, they've tried. Over and over again. Lowering prices. Going to newsprint. Being purposely retro.

That HUGE potential audience is quite the temptation.

But it never seems to work.

It's really a false choice. There are available books which are in the old style, there are even monthly comics that come very close. The real problem is that the old audience won't really allow for any variation from what they remember -- and frankly, that's impossible. Their memory is as a 12 year old, and they are now 42 and even the same comics wouldn't do what they want it to do.

There are several truly brilliant comics that recreate the 'feel' of the old comics, but told much better and with much better art. Astro City, for one. Tom Strong, is another. Even the more recent All-Star Superman. They never quite make it with the new audience -- and have zero effect on the old 'audience.'

A few specific examples: The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were pretty crude black and white stories. What people mostly remember was refined by the professionals who did the cartoons. Show an old TMNT fan an original comic, and they'll say, "That isn't it."

But it is. It's exactly what it was. It isn't what they thought it was.

Or Elfquest. Anyone who remembers this comic remembers the old 20.00 color albums. Which haven't existed for 20 years. I can show them the 9.99 'manga style' books, or the 50.00 small color hardcovers, all day long. "Why don't you have the old books?"

Because they don't exist. Except for big bucks on E-Bay.

Or the old Walt Disney Comics and Stories and Uncle Scrooge. Actually, these are exactly what they would remember. In fact, they're better.

Carl Barks is a bloody genius. You can mention the old stories of Uncle Scrooge traveling up the Amazon in search of gold with Donald and his three nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie; or going to the Klondike; or searching for El Dorado in the American Southwest, and people will get a fond smile on their face.

Tell them that they can actually buy the same stories, RIGHT NOW, and that they are even better than they remember. That they are of the same quality as the movie UP! or Toy Story.

Naw. It's for kids. (Who absolutely reject them in total. Period. Uh, uh. Don't want 'kids' comics....)

As I mentioned, Disney comics are no longer being published. Whereas in Europe, parents and kids both read them, along with TinTin and Asterix.

I don't believe, 30 years into my career, that this will ever change.

No matter how many movies are made from comics.

(Next comic movie? Surrogates, with Bruce Willis. Not that anyone will know that....)