Sep 09 2008
Don’t forget the one-shots
If you visit your local comic shop today, you’ll undoubtedly be assaulted with posters for Secret Invasion, the current event going on in Marvel comics. If you don’t know what it is — and if you’re even remotely a fan of comics, I can’t believe that you wouldn’t — Secret Invasion is a huge crossover event involving the entire Marvel universe and these rather idiotic villains called the Skrulls.
I admit, I haven’t read a single issue of Secret Invasion. I’ve also tried to stay away from any other Marvel comics that tie in to the Secret Invasion event. Why? I’m incredibly tired of these huge epic events from both Marvel and DC. In fact, I’m a little tired in general of story arcs that take more than three issues to conclude. Think about it: A story arc that covers six issues takes six months to complete. That’s half a year. For one story.
Now, imagine you’re a new reader who’s interested in picking up a Batman comic after the seeing Dark Knight at the theaters. You pick up an issue only to see that you’ve been dropped in the middle of a story that won’t be ending for three more months. Think this fan is going to stick with the story? Probably not.
When I was a younger comics reader — and, yes, I know I sound like an old man when I pine for the old days — some of my favorite comics were one-shots, stories that started and ended in the same issue. Often, these stories were fillers. Some were even written months earlier and inserted when the regular creative team needed a break.
But sometimes, the one-shots struck gold. I remember one issue of Amazing Spider-Man called “The Beetle and the Badge.” It featured, as the issue’s name suggests, the Beetle, traditionally one of the lamest Spider-Man villains around. But the real star of the story was a hero cop, whose wife resented him risking his life every day. In the story, the hero cop basically saves Spider-Man and helps him defeat the Beetle. But in so doing, he pretty much guarantees the end of his marriage. It’s a bit of a downer of a story, but it’s also quite poignant. And it was all accomplished in one issue.
So, if you’re planning out your own series, remember the virtues of a story told quickly and told well. Think of long, multi-issue arcs as novels. Then think of one-shots as short stories. They’re both important, and they should both be part of a writer’s toolbox.
3 Responses to “Don’t forget the one-shots”
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I’ve often thought that these longer arcs we’re getting now are a kind of a cheat. There is so much padding these days, with larger panels and less of them per page, more splash pages, and sometimes even less dialog.
I also don’t want to sound like a get-off-my-lawn-you-kids kind of guy, but we did seem to get more better value comics back in the day.
The other problem with Dark Knight fans picking up a Batman comic right now is that it’s in the middle of the whole Batman RIP story, which is a mess.
Hi, Blackbird:
Thanks for your comment. I haven’t read the Batman RIP story, but I have heard that, like you said, it’s a bit of a disaster. And I agree 100 percent about splash pages. In the comics that I write now, I either eliminate splash pages or cheat them a bit –by putting smaller insert boxes into the main splash page. That seems to satisfy publishers, and still allows me to give readers more to actually read.
Dan
I read an interview once with Stan Lee and Jim Shooter, and they were talking about how there used to be a policy that to have a splash page, you had to get editorial approval. The image had to deserve it. These days, we even get talking head splash pages!