I didn't rush to answer the points of yours and Mxy's, because I've already answered these same points probably hundreds of times on this forum and the DC boards. And you could just look those previous answers up and see your questions have already been answered, over and over.
The new work takes a one-issue story and stretch it over 6 issues.
Agreed. But, that's not all titles, everywhere. There are exceptions to that rule.
Sure there are. But they are so rare in the last 10-15 years, I rarely find them worth the bother to seek out.
I prefer to buy back issues from an era with a far higher ratio of quality, that far less often disappoints.
I often feel ripped off when I take a chance on the new-era material.
The current writing lacks the characterization and sophistication of earlier 70's and 80's work.
Disagreed.
You're telling me a pleasant 80's run of
Detective Comics is more sophisticated that Neil Gaiman's
Sandman,
Books of Magic, Busiek & Pacheco's
Arrowsmith, or even Darwyn Cooke's
New Frontier? You're mad.
"Mad?"
What, are you British now?
Ive read every one of the series you list, and found them all dull, pretentious and substandard. I've described in detail my distaste for SANDMAN's overblown mediocrity on many occasions.
The current material is also much more dark and cynical, which is the major cause of my distaste for the new books.
You say that...and I've heard you say it many times before...and you also say this:
Or bluff its way into appearing sophisticated with crude attempts at shock-value and "adult" themes, using crutches like graphic violence, heavy profanity, or other "extreme" tricks.
Yet, I think you're simply generalizing an entire generation of comics because a few left a bad taste in your mouth. I mean,
The Authority?
Transmetropolitan?
Preacher? Yeah, I can see a lot of stuff from Vertigo and Wildstorm fitting something of that bill. But, you can't tell me
everything in the current industry has "adult themes, graphic violence, and heavy profanity". In fact, I can't name a single mainstream book that really has ANY of that. So, I think you're just assuming it's all like one base, generic image that you've created to justify your dismissal of an entire era of comics that don't give you the nostalgia kick you crave.
Either way, though, you say that you are turned off by books with "adult themes, graphic violence, heavy profanity", and yet here's the list you cite as being "approved" by you:
Moore's WATCHMEN, MIRACLEMAN, SWAMP THING, V FOR VENDETTA, or Miller's BATMAN YEAR ONE and DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, Goodwin/Simonson MANHUNTER, Wein/Wrightson SWAMP THING...
Are you trying to tell me
those books aren't "cynical" with "graphic violence and profanity"? Come on.
Again, just take a look at what I said in the above linked post, and my post that directly precedes it, and see that this has already been answered, in these and many others of my posts here:
While I praise Moore and Miller's mid-1980's work as a high-water mark in comics storytelling, I express reservations about the darkness of it, and express a preference for earlier work by others I specifically listed that I have no reservations about.
And I note that
Moore and Miller themselves acknowledge that their works are dark, and that their works were a catalyst for wide imitation, that has brought on a prevalent dark age in comics.
There is a level of characterization, complexity, sophistication and prose that the fanboyish new material just tries to regurgitate with a new twist.
As opposed to the solid prose and storytelling of an earlier era. Now it's all about posturing toughness and big explosions.
I miss the era where I actually cared about the characters I was reading about.
I'm not saying you're completely wrong, mind you. I just find your reasoning flawed. I also don't believe that there is nothing as "sophisticated" as twenty-year-old Detective Comics, and the like. I just think you're really shooting yourself in the foot by missing out on some of the really good stuff of the modern comic era.
But, each their own, I guess...
Again, I do buy about 30-50 new books in any given year, sometimes more, but am overwhelmingly disappointed with the new work and often feel like I've wasted my money.
So I spend much more on back issues of the previous and better eras.
As I've clarified, repeatedly.
I've clarified that Moore and Miller represent the high-water mark of comics storytelling,
despite their darker elements I have reservations about, and that despite their aesthetic quality, the darkness of their works makes me prefer and more often re-read the arguably less sophisticated earlier work (which I listed examples of, at length).
Less sophisticated in some ways, but more sophisticated than the new work in other ways.
Less padded, more character-driven, arguably more sincere, arguably more tightly scripted,
definitely less profanity-laden and less cynical.
Other sophisticated works, such as Dave Sim's CEREBUS, and McGregor/Russell's KILLRAVEN, I have no such reservations about.
Other examples I've often listed as rare examples of quality in the modern era include:
HELLBOY
LEAVE IT TO CHANCE
YOUNG AVENGERS
SOJOURN
GROO
You keep trying to sweep me into a dismissive category as "rejecting everything new", when I've made clear that while I do recognize new material of high quality occasionally appears, it is so rare now that I seldom find it worth the time and effort to seek out.
I find the other stuff, and other forms of entertainment, a more fulfilling use of my time.
