A new mainstream
A new mainstream |
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Page 2 of 23  Cover to the catalogue of Christie's Auction of 'Comic Collectibles' (1994). Art: Jack Kirby. Prices fetched could reach stratospheric levels. This subculture turned out to be somewhat obsessive ('fan' is an abbreviation of 'fanatic', after all). The shops sold an endless array of superhero comics, which to an outsider seemed like pointless riffing on the same theme, but which to a fan were continually fascinating, and hence limited their clientele to males between the ages of about twelve and twenty-five. Women were certainly not welcome: the comics were in the traditional mould of power fantasies about macho muscle men, and commercially speaking there was very little incentive for publishers to think about any other kind of subject matter. Fans were often also speculators, and this inevitably added to the sense of 'geekishness'. Collecting had always been a major part of the hobby, but increasingly fans would buy comics purely in order to resell them at a profit at a later date. Thus, hefty 'price guides' were produced, while the practice of keeping comics 'mint' by storing them unopened in plastic bags became common practice. (In this way, first issues became especially prized, while subsequent numbers were sometimes completely ignored.) Curiously, speculators did not seem to appreciate the paradox that if everybody was collecting the same comics, they could no longer be considered rare. It would be easy to be excessively negative about fans -too easy, in fact. It should also be borne in mind that fandom has the potential to be a creative force. It offers opportunities to form friendships, and to express opinions about aspects of comics as an artform. It is also true that some fanzines have been used to speculate on the relationships between characters, to rework stories and to comment on them satirically. Fanzines have also solicited artwork, giving many professional artists their first break. In this sense, then, there is no point in complaining that fans should 'get a life', because they already have one. Also, so far as collecting is concerned, some speculators had the last laugh when auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's began to realize astronomical sums for comics in good condition.  Britain's most famous 'fan shop'. Forbidden Planet in London, C1985. |