Tampa Bay Super Lame

The museum of cartoon and comic art, or MoCCA, is holding a design contest for their new building. As reported here, in Bustler, the Brooklyn based museum is moving on up in the world.

In the past decade or so, comic book sales have dropped drastically. The industry has evolved and reinvented itself so many times that it’s hard to keep up with. It seems that now, most major comic book companies are starting to discard paper printing for digital comics. See Graphic.ly’s new platform for digital comics here. The age of the collector would seem to be coming to an end as comics become less print media and more electronic media.  The question and situation are presented as a hyperbole, of course. Fans, like me, will always be here to gobble up special edition books in physical form. And as long as there’s a market, there will be sales. But say the market disappeared, I ask myself, would I be able to sit by as these stories and characters died?

For me, as for other Super Lame nerds, comics helped raise me. These characters acted as moral compasses for a young man who was disillusioned with the doctrine of his parent’s religion. Characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men taught me valuable lessons about growing up.

As any Spider-Man fan will tell you, doing the right thing isn’t always easy. In Peter Parker’s case, it rarely is. Moral choices weigh heavy on the heart of this New York city youth. Often, Peter is faced with choosing an outcome that is beneficial to himself versus an outcome of greater good for humanity. These are simple situations, like stopping the purse-snatcher or making it home in time to eat dinner with your beautiful wife. It seems like an easy answer, but most people would never dream of intervening in a street crime, especially if no one would know it was you. Because remember, Spider-Man has a mask and a secret identity (pre-Marvel Civil War). This means that in simple cases like these, no one will praise you for the good dead or curse you for non action. The moral dilemma rests solely on the heart and not on the ego. Spider-Man teaches that no good deed goes unpunished, but still good deeds are a moral imperative.

The X-Men are a whole tale of acceptance in their concept alone. A band of social outcasts fight against prejudice and defend the rights of those who persecute them. This is not a tales of heroes but of revolutionaries. The book is deeply political, often placing scenes and characters in places of high authority, like the White House. The minority group in this tales not only defends their persecutors, but does so while taking the ethical high-ground. The leader of the X-Men has the super power of telepathy. Professor Xavier could simply change the minds of the masses by force, but instead chooses to let the public come to their own conclusions, ever showing his undying faith in humanity.

Both books have been teaching generations about choosing good for good’s sake. To think that the stories may someday stop, breaks my heart. I would support the industry in any way so long as these characters in this universe stay alive and continue their struggles through life and society. If comics become a digital medium, so be it. I ask only that the quality of art and writing I experienced as a youth continues and that new generations are taught the values of the hard road of doing good.

by Corin La Pointe-Aitchison

Tags: Arts, Comics, Digital Comics, MoCCA, New York, Peter Parker, Spider-Man, X-Men