How to Win Friends and Alienate Readers

[thedeadlyhook]

Thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes! And thanks so much for the virtual milk and cookies, lyrstzha! And Happy Belated Birthday to you as well - I hope you had a great day!

I've been reading a few first reactions on my flist to the latest Buffy comic (#35), and... wow. I'm sorta speechless. But only sorta.

Can I say that this latest is just reconfirming my impression that the comic has succumbed to the general boy's club-ish atmosphere of comics fandom? Y'know, kind of like what happened in video games, when it became known that girls liked to play Tomb Raider. So then nervous marketing departments had to go into high gear and remind every nervous male player that Lara Croft had big, porn star tits! Thus both reassuring the coveted demographic that they weren't being girly at all by playing a game that girls apparently liked -- hey, who doesn't like tits? -- and incidentally creating such an eye-rolling atmosphere that most of the girls who had inexplicably ventured into what was clearly meant to be their treehouse were motivated to leave.

Not on purporse or anything. Just... because.

Seriously. If I had been asked to sit in, in an editorial capacity, on a meeting to plan out the comics continuation of a popular TV show, penned by its creator, that happened to have a female lead and a large following of adult women, here's what I probably would NOT have advised:

Be sure to include lots of in-jokes to other comic books. And for the love of god, make them specific enough that you'd have to be an honest-to-goodness comic geek who's read comic books since the 1980s to really get them. Because it's always a good idea to alienate a general audience that's coming in from television and may not have experience with (or the best opinion of) comics and their readers -- y'know, leave them with a lasting impression.

Oh, and make sure the art is really cartoony looking, because adult readers who may already feel slightly embarrassed about buying a comic book will feel extra-embarrassed to be seen reading something that looks like it was specifically targeted at kids. And include sex scenes too. Yes, the same artist. No, not ironically.

BTW, for those who don't fit that category of comic book geeks - it so happens that I do - the cover is a parody of X-Men #138, the issue right after the Dark Phoenix saga ended with the death of Jean Grey. (You'll have to Google it: my browser is being old and hinky and won't allow me to upload to Photobucket.) The figure on the cover walking away from the camera is Cyclops, and he's leaving the X-Men, aka the figures in the background, for an extended leave of absence.

How does this fit the current situation in Buffy? Uh, it doesn't. Is Buffy is leaving the team? Did her significant other just die? No. It's just a sight gag for comic geeks, and meaningless, unless you'd like to cite the Lara Croft effect above and call it part of an unconscious attempt to drive away readers who don't get such jokes.

Also, to me, the steampunk spaceship Spike arrives in at the end reminds me a bit of the owlship in Watchmen. (The scene where the ship crashes in the snow in the Antarctic outside Adrian's fortress, specifically - really, aside from some surface detailing, it's even got a similar crash effect here.)

Why? WHO KNOWS!?!?

And finally, wow. Am I SO impressed that, at least judging from the promo art, the final arc of Season 8 penned by JW himself revolves around riffing on Twilight, a series that's actually really popular with teen girls right now. Because nothing says "feminism" like mocking what girls read/watch. Especially if one's own franchise fits that category too, or used to. Girls clearly don't know what they should be enjoying, yes? Maybe they really need some male author to get right on that and tell them.

UGH.

Whatever, comic-book-production-staff-guys. From this point in, never complain about your audience. By now, you've handpicked it.

Comments

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

I'm still hanging with the comics, at least through #40... but yeah, this is all bang on, I think.

FWIW: I'm not a comic geek, but I did watch Watchmen (and buy the book). Buffy floating cross-legged is a reference to Dr. Manhattan on Mars, and we get a Rorschach mask in the opening panel to #34. So in this case I think it's actually a theme. There are obvious resonances between the current arc and Watchmen.

[hazel75.livejournal.com]

And finally, wow. Am I SO impressed that, at least judging from the promo art, the final arc of Season 8 penned by JW himself revolves around riffing on Twilight, a series that's actually really popular with teen girls right now. Because nothing says "feminism" like mocking what girls read/watch. Especially if one's own franchise fits that category too, or used to. Girls clearly don't know what they should be enjoying, yes? Maybe they really need some male author to get right on that and tell them.

As much as I've ragged on Twilight myself, this really saddens me. Especially, because, from where I'm standing, Joss can't claim any righteousness with regard to his own series at the moment. And he's making himself look very petty, jealous and full of sour grapes.

[prophecygirrl.livejournal.com]

And finally, wow. Am I SO impressed that, at least judging from the promo art, the final arc of Season 8 penned by JW himself revolves around riffing on Twilight, a series that's actually really popular with teen girls right now. Because nothing says "feminism" like mocking what girls read/watch. Especially if one's own franchise fits that category too, or used to. Girls clearly don't know what they should be enjoying, yes? Maybe they really need some male author to get right on that and tell them.

GOD, this makes me want to go hulk!smash. I was outraged before, but only because I perceived JW as wrecking a wonderful 'verse because of sour grapes over Twilight's appeal. I don't like Twilight either, but Of COURSE this is there, too.

Thanks for a post full of insight and sense.

[shapinglight]

Apropos of this, I went to my local comic shop today and did a bit of market research. Apparently, 7 out of the 10 female customers who buy stuff regularly are reading Buffy and Comic Shop Boy says several of them were new to comics beforehand. Now, he's got some of them reading other stuff.

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

Also, to me, the steampunk spaceship Spike arrives in at the end reminds me a bit of the owlship in Watchmen. (The scene where the ship crashes in the snow in the Antarctic outside Adrian's fortress, specifically - really, aside from some surface detailing, it's even got a similar crash effect here.)

Why? WHO KNOWS!?!?

Obviously because Spike is impotent without his leather dust...wait...nevermind.

But TBH, I've been reading comics since the mid 70s and I still have no real idea what's happening in this one.

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Ah. You're going on the assumption that Whedon actually liked and wrote to please his female television audience. He didn't and never did, and neither did any of his writing staff (well, possibly Espenson, but only under duress).

I've been reading about this comic book drama with amusement, because Whedon has finally fully outed himself as a card-carrying member of that misogynistic boy's club and everyone seems so surprised. To me it's typical Whedon behavior. Ir's obvious that women rejected him constantly before he was rich and famous and he's been trying to even the score ever since.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Yep, the treehouseanalogy fits perfectly. I'd actually fit into the narrow category of girls that are comic fans as well.
But I read comparatively few US comics, mainly the non mainstream ones, so aside from references to Alan Moore, all their bla was pointless to me, because all those 0815 superheroes make me yawn. Give me a Sandman reference and we can talk comics, Joss!

And I'm really having massive problems with the male gazyness of it all. And with the lameness.

[elisi]

Am run off my feet, just wanted to state my support for this post!

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

I saw your Bday coming up on my homepage, but then I spaced. Sorry, and Happy Birthday!

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

PS: I saw some of that Buffy art in a review and my jaw sagged. What were they thinking?

[lyr]

You're very welcome. I hope your birthday was good, too!

And you make some very good points about the comics. I am a comic geek girl, and I still won't read it.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

Oh, great post! I'm one of those new readers to comics actually and it's taken me a long time to wise up about the medium and learn my way. But I've finally become well-versed enough to identify my surroundings and... they ain't good.

It's great to read your perspective as a veteran of the medium. I'm hoping you'll share your thoughts in the coming months. It's wonderful to find someone articulating eloquently on this subject.

Oh! And I thought you might be interested in seeing how Buffy Season 8 is ripping off Watchmen (http://angearia.livejournal.com/138799.html).

[treadingthedark.livejournal.com]

Also here from a link from Elisi's brilliant essay.

I really wanted to love the comics, I 've been obsessed with Buffy for more than a decade now. But I didn't.

I didn't even really like them much. But every time Jeanty or Allie would open their mouth my "I didn't really like them much" turned into hatred. I would try to be optimistic, but everything they said just made it worse and worse.

Then the spacefuck happened. I really thought Joss was being sarcastic when he said they would be fucking. This is not my Buffy verse. Hate.

"Maybe his deal with the evil genius genie expired and he's doing a public Flowers for Algernon dive."
Great line!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Be sure to include lots of in-jokes to other comic books. And for the love of god, make them specific enough that you'd have to be an honest-to-goodness comic geek who's read comic books since the 1980s to really get them.

Didn't JW do this with the series? Dark Willow was supposed to be Dark Phoenix, and Xander was Scott who-ever; I wondered why rip off another storyline like that. The line between "homage" and "rip-off" can be very thin sometimes but it can be done. The show itself managed it, more than once. But I don't read comics anyway, so I only knew about the rip-off from reading other fans comments, so it meant nothing to be anyway. Any clever in-jokes he meant to insert in that storyline were lost on me, and I suspect on large portions of the audience.

One of the things that bothered me about S6-7, actually, was the increasing number of "obscure" cultural references, mostly from the Trio and then later Andrew. At first it seemed like a mockery of a certain type of fan, but then when Andrew was given more and more importance in S7 (it seemed very important that he be given a specific redemption arc), and the references continue to pile up, I started to resent it as a viewer, as if the show was being taken away from me. And it way - the comics have demonstrated that very clearly. And here I was, thinking this was my treehouse, too.