Don’t Believe the Hype! – Wednesday Comics

Posted on September 29, 2009 by tonyrak

When it comes to the recently completed Wednesday Comics, I will say this much for DC: they are not afraid to take chances, and I will always like that about them.

As you all know, Wednesday Comics has been yet another in a long line of DC’s mostly successful weekly comic serials, but was produced this time with a twist: designed to read and feel like a Sunday newspaper comics section. DC published their anthology in an oversized format that could be unfolded and read like a paper.  Each page of the comic featured one story from a different creative team, and each week the stories would slowly come together, page by lavishly rendered page.

Cool idea, right?  I sure thought so.  But now here I sit, glaring thoughtfully at the stack of Wednesday Comics that have been gathering over the weeks, and I’m wondering why it has left me feeling strangely unimpressed and underwhelmed.  How could such a fresh and inventive idea have turned out to be just another adequate comic experience?  I need to understand why, and if you’re reading this then I’m hoping you do, too.

Wednesday Comics’ faults certainly can’t be found in its production value, that’s for sure.  On all levels this was a gorgeous book, and that’s saying something for glorified newsprint.  Mark Chiarello had an eye on design and aesthetic appeal when he put together this project, something to be expected from DC’s Editorial Art Director, and if his bosses haven’t yet given him a fat bonus for his work then they really, really need to.  By adopting the oversized pages, Chiarello gave his art teams the chance to shine and have some real fun with this book (and say what you will, but Wednesday Comics was a comic clearly intended for the artists.  Don’t believe me?  Just look at what Dave Bullock pulled off with Deadman).

I also found the portability of it to be incredibly appealing, and enjoyed the reaction I got from non-comic readers when I took it out into “the real world.”  I remember one moment where I was sitting in the doctor’s office and, for lack of anything else to do, pulled an issue out of my bag, unfolded it, and began reading.  An older gentleman sitting across from me leaned over and said “those the funnies?”  I smiled and said kind of, and then explained how it was actually a comic book designed to be read and carried around like a newspaper.  He asked if he could flip through it, and asked me questions as he did.  We talked and had a good time, but more on this in a bit.

So Wednesday Comics looked good, and was physically fun to read.  Where then did things go wrong for me?

Sadly, I find fault with the majority of the writers and their inability to use the Wednesday Comics format to their advantage.  Of course, this isn’t to say that no good stories were told, because a few like Strange Adventures and Kamandi were consistently wonderful week after week, but it became painfully obvious that most of the writers were either uncomfortable with this format or simply didn’t know what to do with it.  It seemed to me that they took the safe way out by telling conventional stories that gave their artists little opportunity to do anything other than what they were instructed to.  Azzarello’s Batman and Busiek’s Green Lantern were glaring examples of this; both had the potential to be great, and were ripe with artistic opportunities, but the plots were so formulaic and the scripts so rigid that they instead languished in mediocrity.

I was also shocked that such a “low-fi” project like this (as opposed to comics that tout glossy paper and computer-rendered colors) had the gall to charge $4 an issue.  I mean, we’re talking about 15 pages of story on newsprint here… even the typical 22 page comic book costs less than this.  What if you were only buying this comic so you could read Kyle Baker’s Hawkman story?  Even if you liked the other stories, you simply had to read this one weekly.  This means that if you wanted to follow his entire story, you would have to shell out $48 (assuming you didn’t care one bit for all the others).  That price obviously goes down as you increase your number of must read stories, but anthology comics like this are mixed bags where not every story is going to be that damn good, (did anybody actually read Caldwell’s Wonder Woman!?) and when those stories don’t deliver the maximum bang for the buck each and every week, you’re left paying for more than you actually wanted.

As I look over these complaints and compliments, it seems to me that they ultimately speak to a larger missed opportunity, and that’s one of reaching new readers.  Remember that older gentleman from the doctor’s office I was telling you about?  Why wasn’t Wednesday Comics written for him?  Or the kids who (hopefully) read Teen Titans and Supergirl, why wasn’t this entire serial written exclusively for their enjoyment?  In an awkward attempt to appease all of the people all of the time, DC tried to market this comic to fanboys, new readers, and young readers alike without ever fully capturing any of them, and that’s a shame because Wednesday Comics could have made a great primer to introduce new readers into the medium.

You can see how DC kind of wanted to try this.  While it helps that they also serialized the Superman story in USA Today, why didn’t they then also serialize stories in teen magazines, or fucking Highlights for that matter?  Why was Wednesday Comics only sold in comic shops when it could have done so much more good in a bookstore, grocery store, or Walmart?  By trying to appeal to those of us already locked into the direct market, DC inadvertently missed even greater markets of new readers and customers.

Ultimately, the stories contained in Wednesday Comics were nothing I needed to read, and as a diehard fan with years of reading experience I felt they weren’t anything I haven’t already seen before.  I applaud DC for taking a chance in trying something different, but I’m disappointed that they worked so hard to sell this to me, the guy who’s going to buy their comics regardless, when all along they should have marketed it to a newer, younger reader, and thus a potential new customer.

-Tony Rakittke


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4 Responses

  1. Lobstah Johnson, on October 22, 2009 at 11:20 am Said:

    You hit every nail on the head here. I loved the idea and bought each issue faithfully but about half way through I found I was only reading a smattering of the strips and only read three strips of the last issue. If they do this again (and I still hope they do), they ought to have a wider variety of genres presented and a real focus on how story-telling in weekly instalments works best. And yes get this thing out of the speciality shops and into grocery stores, corner stores, new-stands wherever. Ah maybe that’s too much nostalgia talking but it would be nice to see.

    Reply
  2. tonyrak, on October 23, 2009 at 9:01 am Said:

    Hi Lobstah,

    Thank you for reading! I’d read recently that Chiarello will in fact be producing a sequel, so let’s hope he came away from this experience having learned what works and doesn’t.

    Reply
  3. Martin Fass, on November 5, 2009 at 5:09 pm Said:

    Speaking of those older readers, a group in which I am a member, and taking into account the death of newspapers which continues and worsens, and which, if anybody asks me, came about because of such decisions as downgrading the importance of daily and Sunday comics…DC (and others) are missing a bet, I believe, if they ignore the promise of publishing, on newsprint and at a fair price, comics. The publication could have pages of both dailies and Sunday features, and I am sure it would sell like hotcakes. Or, if that’s not good enough, sell as well as newspapers USED to sell from the thirties to the sixties.

    Reply
  4. Tony Rakittke, on November 6, 2009 at 7:31 am Said:

    Hi Martin,

    The format of Wednesday Comics (oversized comics on newsprint) is full of potential and carries with it a kind of brand pentration that regular comics otherwise may not enjoy.

    Perhaps I’m romanticizing the current value of newsprint a bit, but I feel like the average, non-comic reading household might be more likely to keep a copy of Wednesday Comics around the house, on the coffeetable next to the magazines, then they would the latest issue of Doom Patrol.

    Which begs the question, why doesn’t DC crank these out more often, make them a tad more new reader friendly, and strike deals with the existing major newspapers to distribute issues in Sunday papers? Can you even imagine the number of households that would then be exposed to DC Comics on a regular basis?

    There are other ways to look at the format, though, including using it as an anthology to develop new talent for the company. Up and coming writers and artists could tell stories with the company’s toys that don’t affect continuity yet still showcase their talents.

    My fear though, ultimately, is that the format proved to be so new and so different that nobody’s certain how to best utilize it, which is a shame because this kind of comic could do so much more than just being another comic.

    Reply

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