We like to bitch and moan about the outside world and how they perceive us as campy, kiddie junk, but truth be told, that perception and the continued promotion of it is the fault of the comics world, no one else. Because face it, that s how we see ourselves. Outside of Chapman, who nine times out of ten is going to be the crank at the table, everyone was talking about appealing to kids and selling the same four-color fantasies. Though Chapman s statements were treated as heresy, he was right. The average citizen you see in the super market doesn t want to read the comic book adaptation of the X-Men film any more than they have wanted to read those books for the last twenty years.
People don t care about superheroes unless they come with fancy special effects.
The Kubert Bros. ink line means nothing to regular folk. Even the idea that these high-falutin media events will draw them into the store where they will discover Murder Me Dead and Sparks is ludicrous. People send an average of 2-3 submissions a day to Oni. Almost all of them include a cover letter that goes on about how Oni Press is their favorite publisher because Oni likes to take chances and try different things. All well and good, and in some cases, when I see that the person is truly trying to break boundaries with their work, it does my bitter soul good.