How to fix modern comics-part 3 - Gimmicks vs. Growing a long-term fan base? 

The majority of the comic book storytelling is that they are writing to fit into the trade paperback that collect 4-6 issue story arc rather than write a self containing story in one or two issue with ongoing subplots.

Great chat. If manga can keep long-form stories going, then American companies can too. If Savage Dragon and Spawn can keep long-form stories going, then companies with billions of dollars behind them can too. I'm not a big fan of continuity enslaving great creators. But figuring out a way forward, to carry on a long story, while still being open to experimentation seems possible. Give fans of characters enough to make them happy, but continue to try stuff out. How hard is that? Darwyn Cooke and Neil Gaiman both spoke about the handcuffs of DC continuity, and how it stopped them from being able to interact with characters and story ideas if they included continuity in their creations. There should be room for minds like that to work their art within established comic lines. But you've got to give the people what they want as well. Tough balance, I guess, when you're talking about monthly publications. Looking forward to the next chat from you guys in this series.

The Worst things that you actually could do in Comics is actually to repeat something over and over again and actually never moving on to Anything new and original as it actually becomes like the Variante Comic Covers("Its A Different Cover,But The Exact Same Book.")and that actually takes away the Excitement of actually Having and or Collecting Comics as there becomes just too Many Titles and Characters to keep up with and eventually becomes annoying to actually deal with constantly and you just put them all away and actually move on to something else instead-"Im Just Saying How I Would Actually Feel About It Individually."

Theres a video called "There Will Never Be Another Manga Like One Piece" by Mr Morj that explains why One Piece is so successful. I suggest watching it. There are some points in there worth discussing in regards to modern American Comics as well.

What I actually liked best about Indie Comics Comics ultimately killing off various types of Characters Within Within their own types of stories is that theres always another individual Will in some ways or another choose to take up the Mantle of the Previous Heroes or Villians through either actually knowing them or all of the various types of things that theyve actually done as either Heroes or Villians throughout their existence and actually Being Being influencual to a New Generation Of Heroes and Villians and actually developing New Characters and Storylines E tremely different from the actual Originals Themselves and actually Continueing on the actual Legacys themselves and occassionally connecting previous Heroes and Villians with The New and Present Generation of Heroes and Villians Farther onwards in continuity and actually letting things Evolve correctly as it actually show Within Comics nowadays.

Yes characters don't "come back to life" often in manga. There are a few exceptions like Dragonball where the magical wish granting Dragonballs can bring people back to life whenever but it's all part of the fun of the Dragonball universe. And moments where a Hero dies and comes back to life even more powerful than before. Stuff like that exists but they tend to only happen once per story as part of the typical Heroes Journey. Those are common in Shounen Battle manga(young boys stories that are focused on action & battles). But they certainly don't happen to the same extent that it does in comics. Generally speaking theres a lot of "almost" deaths in stories meant for younger boys. But an author will go through with a death if it's meant to be important for the story.

Nor paying attention to continuity is a major problem, but I feel that continuity itself causes it's own share of problems in modern comics. Stuff like the Krakoa era of X-Men changes so many characters in such drastic ways that, as a fan of some of them, I would rather not have some of that stuff be canon and influence the future of those characters. Also, speaking as someone who would love to write for some characters at Marvel or DC, it can be pretty disheartening to not have caught up and have plans for a character who is dead. For instance, I just started reading Iron man and I would like to write books with Happy Hogan or the Mandarin; however, both are dead in continuity and death is something I think writers shouldn't undo haphazardly, so it sucks to think these characters may never come back and are unusable for future writers.

My pull list is primarily indie books right now. 1 DC and a handful of Marvel (mostly Ultimate, though I may be dropping them). I agree there seems to be no long term planning at either of the big 2. Wally West is one of my favorite characters and I still am not over how his character was treated. It took Lobdell, Williamson and Adams years to try and undo what was a terrible decision/book.

How many times in the past few years has Gotham City been taken over and destroyed by Batman's rogues gallery only to be reset immediately by the end of the story like it never happened?

and to the point of manga yes one piece is one of the few exceptions runtime wise (with the outset of it being one big story). Most end long before keeping a inner competitiveness amongst its own writers fall of too much your cancelled or once you gain enough succes you can be serialised. This means many many many new stories ideas and tests that can be done. Hence why manga has such a diverse and great backlog to go through where indeed stakes matter and the content is well pushed I've read manga that are fucked up to say the least and amazing to boot. In regards to indies well it's logical that short term/ or one shots essentially or slightly bigger one shots like 4 books like image does from time to time that these writers and stories can go balls to the wall as there is almost no chance of there being a reboot or a contuinance so that leaves maximum creative freedom. In regards to today's climate even if you got a writer who want to push the envlope with the big two they will not be able to do it hence the bland story telling and general nothing happens vibe.

While I like the stories that have been told beforehand I think the problem the franchise as a whole has run into is essentially inbreeding. Characters that have been rebooted, reused and essentially written into death and into a creative corner without using the children or stories themselves to set up the next generation of characters. Sometimes its good to let the past die as long as you have created the next good creative idea or outlet instead of well incestious story telling with heroes who's lets be frank most stories have been told. Unless you want to break from the mainline and go elsewords and essentially create very bad/good stories that are left to be told but unfit for the continuity

Yeah I think everybody accepts that the gimmicks need to stop. They make everybody loose faith in the writers/company.