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The Tragedy of Comics
April 10th 2002, 14:30 MSD by m0nty Warren Spector of ION Storm was quoted from his Game Developer's Conference address in a recent PC topic as criticising the lack of mass market penetration by computer gaming as a whole, saying: "Games can become a mass medium, or they can be a medium like comics." Comics have a bad rap in the gaming industry, it seems, despite Freedom Force finally breaking the hoodoo which befell previous attempts at games based on the US superhero comic genre. The phrase "mouth-breathing dudes in 'Akira' T-shirts", from the infamous Salon article about E3 2001, encapsulates the disdain held by hardcore gamers for the archetypal male teenage comic consumer. So is Warren's analogy worthwhile? I think it is, but perhaps not for the obvious reasons. The history of comics as a genre in the US and Japan over the past century bears some scrutiny, for it contains many lessons and potential pitfalls for the computer gaming industry - and the similarities between the two are unmistakeable. It is perhaps unfair to compare the two genres, since comics have a history stretching back well into to the 19th century. The US comics scene, dominated by the superhero genre in book form, has already had its Golden Age (1938-45) and Silver Age (1950-55), plus a Bronze Age and a Platinum Age if some fanbois are to be believed. The debut of Superman just before WW2 perfected the template. (As an aside, it's easy to plot the similarity of game characters with comic heroes: names like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Dick Tracy sound like they came right out of Scott Miller's marketing formula.) The major problems in the comic industry have come from censorship. The Hayes production code hit filmed cartoons in the 30s, removing gratuitous nudity and drug references amongst other sins. The first wave of attacks on printed comics came during the McCarthy era in the 40s and 50s, after a long period of agitation by a psychologist named Dr Fredric Wertham. Many of the superhero and horror comics were shut down, despite efforts by publishers to placate the community by setting up editorial boards. A Senate committee on organised crime investigated the link between comic books and juvenile delinquency, culminating in a draconian regulatory environment called the Comics Code which gutted the industry. The superheroes only re-emerged in the mid-50s to fight communism alongside the McCarthyists. Another round of censorship occurred in 1968 with the substitution of the Hayes code with a new MPAA scheme, which had the effect of taking a lot of much-loved Saturday morning superhero cartoons off the air, to be replaced with frippery like HR Pufnstuf and Josie and the Pussycats. Meanwhile, in Japan, comics are much more widely accepted, having evolved after WW2 as part of the redefinition of Japan's identity. Metropolis is perhaps the defining work of manga, the Japanese comic form which was made popular by titles such as Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Galaxy Express 999, and of course Akira. Osamu Tezuka created the first three mentioned titles in comic book form and guided their translation into film versions, and the director of Metropolis, Rintaro, also directed GE999 amongst other anime (manga is the printed version, anime is the film version). Katsuhiro Otomo, creator of Akira, wrote the screenplay of the Metropolis movie, completing an imposing trio of manga legends, and the resulting film is extraordinary. The reviews for the film, made last year but only hitting Western territories this year (with DVD released this month), stand testimony to its artistic power and grandeur. Like the original black and white comic written in the late 1940s, it fuses the imagery and themes of the 1929 Fritz Lang silent film masterpiece with the fears and nightmares of post-war Japan to create an eerily prescient dystopian vision. Political references range from German Bauhaus industrialism to Hitlerian fascism, through to Japanese apocalyptic angst, and even resonances of the current war against terrorism. Visual styles are layered against each other, CGI complementing cel animation, and strains of the 1930s era jazz soundtrack are interspersed with Wagnerian climaxes during the frequent dazzling action scenes. Both US comics and Japanese manga are closely related to social themes, creating modern myths and addressing current political concerns. In comparison, there are few computer game titles which even aspire to approach the level of contemporary relevance, complexity and artistic merit of works such as Metropolis. Those which do, like Deus Ex and Anachronox, are stuck like all of their imitators in the Western mindset of the superhero, in which the ambivalence towards technological progress that is such a feature of manga is abandoned in favour of the myth of the All-American good guy whose powers only increase as he embraces technology. American comic books and graphic novels have become one of the main media to foster this myth, feeding off the pulp science fiction and Edisonades of the early 20th century, but games have not progressed far beyond this convention. If computer games are to grow to achieve the level of sophistication of manga, they will have to transcend the "game" and become works of art. This does not necessarily preclude gaming from reaching a mass audience: the gaming industry is diverse enough to pursue both goals at the same time. Manga itself has gained broad acceptance in Japan, and has had some export success. Arthouse-quality manga like Metropolis coexist with hentai tentacle rape pr0n. There is no reason why mature games which contain complex plots, contemporary themes and deep characterisations can not sit on the same shelves as cheap licence knock-offs like Barbie and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Are games ever going to grow up, or are the mouth-breathing fanbois going to remain the LCD forevermore? Are otakus just comic snobs? Are comics really mature, given the childish obsession with heroes in tight latex by US artists, and all the elfin doe-eyed schoolgirls who populate even the most serious manga and anime? Does it matter if most games don't cater to women, even though half of the gamer community is female? Is the current Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) scheme put in place by the ISDA enough to placate the radical censorship lobby, or will the next round of school shootings have more serious consequences for game content? Is Warren Spector just jealous of claimed sales numbers for The Sims? Who would win in a fight, Akira or Spiderman? |
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I like to let people who like to talk do so. So I can see how full of shit they are. You're the new nazis.
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He is lying damm it!! you can SEnse the Anger flowing from him!! Feel the DArk Side ,Luke!!! Feel IT! On 2002-04-18 04:47:00 Some Sick fool said this.
"awww yeah, buzz baby, buzzzzz just for me." |
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/me loves crash, even though he probably hates me quick tip: i have to care about you to hate you. so no, i don't hate you. - if you can laugh at it, you can live with it.
- "Hey, how 'bout this: fuck you." -LPMiller |
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i have to care about you to hate you. so no, i don't hate you. :) *dreamy smile* crash said he didn't hate me! :) Don't you wanna seize the day?
I wanna go back to reality But I'm just addicted to stay Guide me the way out of infinity |
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He is lying damm it!! you can SEnse the Anger flowing from him!! Feel the DArk Side ,Luke!!! Feel IT! Darth Jeff "You kids tried your best, and you failed miserably! The lesson is, never try." --Homer Simpson
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hahahaha God I just busted out laughing in the middle of work again. And it wasn't even that funny! (sorry Ergo) You're the new nazis.
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Hahahahah I'm just imagining the JEFFK portrait on the site wearing this huge Dark Helmet-sized helmet. HAHAHAHAHA You're the new nazis.
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What?!?!?! That's comedy gold, dammit!!!!! "You kids tried your best, and you failed miserably! The lesson is, never try." --Homer Simpson
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Your Swartz is as Big as mine!! On 2002-04-18 04:47:00 Some Sick fool said this.
"awww yeah, buzz baby, buzzzzz just for me." |
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Ergo "Darth K" works better IMO ... WoT?
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eh...you're right. Hey, I tried! "I want you to remember me just as I am...filled with murderous rage!" --Homer Simpson
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There is no try. On 2002-04-18 04:47:00 Some Sick fool said this.
"awww yeah, buzz baby, buzzzzz just for me." |
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j00 d0n't und3rst4nd the p0w4H 0f d4 d4rk s1d3! Arizona Diamondbacks 2001 World Series Champions
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