‘The zombies killed capitalism!'
There is a lot of discussion in the comic book world about how we can arrange things in terms of readers and money and sales, etc. All of these are important and useful – but there is one aspect which is, I think, the main cause of most of these problems: capitalism. ‘The Big C’, as I like to call it. Most of the views and discussions I have seen about the economy of comics are based on the idea that what we need is more READERS; the basic problem is a lack of readers. I want to say something quite radical: actually we have enough readers already. What we lack is PROFIT. And by that I do not mean therefore we need to get more profit. What I mean is that the problem is the very idea of profit itself. The need, the compulsion, to make profit within a capitalist style economy. That’s our real problem.
This is why I say it’s the main problem: because in a capitalist economy the main focus is on making profit. Not on making things people want or need. And it’s a system based on making profit which is controlled by a tiny elite of people who have a huge influence on what gets made. So, in capitalist economy human creative energy – in the arts, sciences, education, etc. – is focused on what will make a profit. So, if some good comic does not sell enough then it does not make enough profit, and it’s cancelled. Or some good idea never gets made in the first place because the publisher knows that it probably won’t sell enough. It won’t make enough profit. They would like to publish it but they can’t. The ‘economic reality’ stops them. How many of us comic book creators have heard that from publishers? How many of us have therefore had our great ideas wither on the vine?
So, if this profit obsession is such a barrier to our creativity, in many fields, why don’t we get rid of it? Why not set up another, better system? Some think because we can’t. We are not capable of any system other than ‘the Big C’. I don’t have time to go into that now, so let’s presume that we CAN come up with a better, alternative system. Probably one that draws on elements of socialism and anarchism and green politics, etc. Let’s just call it a ‘Better System’. In that better economic system private profit will not be the main focus. Instead we will focus all of our energies towards creating good societies, towards creating well-being, healthy lifestyles, good education etc – all the things that we human beings need for a decent standard of life. And art is part of that. Comics are part of that. So, in that better society what will matter is not ‘Will this comic make enough profit?’, but ‘Is this a good comic? Is it interesting? Is it funny? Is it moving?. When those are the criteria comics will flourish far more than now, when the poison of profit no longer taints our efforts.
There is also the issue of WHO decides. In the Big C that tiny elite of the power get to decide most of what happens in our economy. In a better system decisions about what gets made and how we make it, and how we use our resources, will be made people in general – by us all, as equals, working together in some kind of local democratic council type groups. Again, I’ve no space here to say much more about how they would work. Anyone interested to know more can mail me. Basically, we comic book folk could bring our ideas to the arts council of our area and try to persuade them that the book is interesting. It won’t be some elite group of councillors who decides – that would be little better than things are now. It’s a council, or collective or community that WE are also an equal member of, and that decides things in a truly democratic way.
I said we have enough readers. A Facebook study found that 24 million Americans have noted ‘comics’ as a an area of interest on their Facebook accounts. What this means is that we already have enough people interested to read comics to influence those local arts groups that comics are something worth focusing some of our limited resources into. If there are, say, just 1000 people interested to read your comics that’s plenty – that’s one thousand real flesh and blood people, all of who matter, all of whom are part of society and get a say in how it’s run. We already have enough people interested in comics to allow for many, many comics to be given the backing of those arts councils up and down the country. And by backing I mean money, yes! In this case meaning some kind of credits for ‘useful work done for the community’. Credits that can be used for your living expenses, etc. Again, I’ve no space to go more into how that would work.
Lastly, in that better society, it is highly likely that that amount of readers of comics will go up. Because there will also be less of a barrier of having to BUY comics. Many of those councils backing comics that we creators could make would be available for free, just like the local play park is free. So, many more readers will check them out. And we creators would not get MORE credits if our book is read by 100,000 people instead of just 1,000. So, there would be far less of a problem of the silly desire to become ‘rich and famous’ too. The focus would be on something very simple, but rather healthy: on making good comics that people value. And since the horrible profit issue would be out of the way we would all be more free to focus on experimenting, flexing our artistic muscles, trying new ideas. Or simply making good comics.
I was interviewed on a radical podcast recently, and we got to discussing the politics of The Walking Dead TV series, and what kind of economy and society then had after the zombies started. On the spur of the moment I summarised it by saying:
‘The zombies killed capitalism!”
If they can do it, so can we.
********************
NB: Here is more to add on, from the comments section of that article. My replies to some comments posted there. In this case to a gentleman called Daniel:
Thanks again Daniel. Sorry my reply below is rather long, I wanted to try to address all or most of your points:
"I'm an artist. I love selling my work…..’
-I think that is a bad habit we have all got into, of associating appreciation with money. "It isn't a bad thing when an artist wants people to enjoy their work." Did i say it was? That is a completely different point. Of course we enjoy when people APPRECIATE our work - my point is that there is no 100% NEED for a sale, for an exchange of money, for profit, to happen for that appreciation to be shown. That is a fact, surely?
In the current system, exchange of money is normal, yes, and it does mean that the readers enjoy the books or value them somehow. Yes. but only in the current system, its not a 100% necessity. Plants don’t grow without rain and sun - thats a necessity. But books CAN be made without money/selling. There are better ways of doing it, that don't hold us back like the current profit focused one does.
“I love when I sell a large amount of my books, as it means my art and story is connecting with a large amount of people. It feels like the hard work I put in to my art and stories 'pays off.' “
- It is exactly that pleasant aspect that will be increased in a non-capitalist society. That is my very point. We as artists/writers will be MORE connected to our readers and feel a greater sense of having done something worthwhile. That whole aspect, the central element in creative work, will become hugely more free and powerful once we overcome capitalism. The present system is holding that back, much more than we realise (its a whole other question as to who/what has misled us on these issues!). The need to SELL for profit, in a capitalist system, is holding back the aspect of ‘connection and feeling its worthwhile’. It’s not helping it. We can reach a large enough NUMBER of people, and get that feeling of appreciation, and connection, and having done a good book, without needing the profit/selling/money aspect involved.
“When I have made books in the past that didn't sell, and didn't connect with an audience, I didn't blame capitalism for my failure.”
Actually, in a non-capitalist, better type of society, all the things you support here - adjusting to readers views, working hard, taking responsibility, making good stories, developing skills, etc - will become MORE important than they are now, not less. Those will become the main things we focus on, when we are free of the shackles of the profit/selling/capitalist system which distorts all those efforts towards what will sell and make profit for the elite.
Therefore: “It is better to take responsibility for your self IMO rather than blame capitalism every time you put a book out there that people don't want to buy.” is a complete miss-understanding of what I am saying.The anarchist system that i prefer is based on taking responsibility for your actions, life, work, community - that is its basic, bedrock point of view. Thats a good one line definition of anarchism: ‘a system of organising society based on taking responsibility for your actions, life, work, community.’
As to why people don’t want to book A or B book, that is a complicated issue. The key point here would be the distortion of people’s consumption habits by big corporations and media, and distribution channels, etc. We are not in a situation of ‘well informed rational consumers’ when there is such massive power of marketing, advertising, media, etc to influence consumers decisions. But, again, in the better society i think we are capable of making we really WOULD have ‘well informed rational consumers’. Because one other key element of that system is that we would all be equal ‘consumption/production’ deciders. There would be yearly ‘votes’, if you like, as to what we think our self/family/workplace/community needs in terms of consumption and also what that we can come up with it terms of production. with no distorting influence from marketing/advertising/corporations - none of that crap would exist anymore. we would decide it for ourselves, truly. that is really taking responsibility!
“People can create good work AND make profit without pandering to an audience and sacrificing the quality of their work’
Yes, they can, sure. I hope you can and I hope that i can too. the key point is that we all do it DESPITE the present capitalist system, not because of it. It hinders that aim, it does not help it.
My view is basically this:
1 - It is simply not a necessary aspect to have to SELL our books in order to get those positive aspects of connection and feeling our effort is worthwhile. There are other ways we can organise the production and distribution of works of art. More fruitful ways.
2- The slave like need to make profit via selling in a capitalist system actually holds back the full expression of those positive aspects. It's specifically a hinderance. So, lets ditch it and make a better system instead.
Nice!
Here is a related article:
http://www.sociologyinfocus.com/2013/02/24/the-zombie-manifesto-marx-the-walking-dead/
There is a lot of discussion in the comic book world about how we can arrange things in terms of readers and money and sales, etc. All of these are important and useful – but there is one aspect which is, I think, the main cause of most of these problems: capitalism. ‘The Big C’, as I like to call it. Most of the views and discussions I have seen about the economy of comics are based on the idea that what we need is more READERS; the basic problem is a lack of readers. I want to say something quite radical: actually we have enough readers already. What we lack is PROFIT. And by that I do not mean therefore we need to get more profit. What I mean is that the problem is the very idea of profit itself. The need, the compulsion, to make profit within a capitalist style economy. That’s our real problem.
This is why I say it’s the main problem: because in a capitalist economy the main focus is on making profit. Not on making things people want or need. And it’s a system based on making profit which is controlled by a tiny elite of people who have a huge influence on what gets made. So, in capitalist economy human creative energy – in the arts, sciences, education, etc. – is focused on what will make a profit. So, if some good comic does not sell enough then it does not make enough profit, and it’s cancelled. Or some good idea never gets made in the first place because the publisher knows that it probably won’t sell enough. It won’t make enough profit. They would like to publish it but they can’t. The ‘economic reality’ stops them. How many of us comic book creators have heard that from publishers? How many of us have therefore had our great ideas wither on the vine?
So, if this profit obsession is such a barrier to our creativity, in many fields, why don’t we get rid of it? Why not set up another, better system? Some think because we can’t. We are not capable of any system other than ‘the Big C’. I don’t have time to go into that now, so let’s presume that we CAN come up with a better, alternative system. Probably one that draws on elements of socialism and anarchism and green politics, etc. Let’s just call it a ‘Better System’. In that better economic system private profit will not be the main focus. Instead we will focus all of our energies towards creating good societies, towards creating well-being, healthy lifestyles, good education etc – all the things that we human beings need for a decent standard of life. And art is part of that. Comics are part of that. So, in that better society what will matter is not ‘Will this comic make enough profit?’, but ‘Is this a good comic? Is it interesting? Is it funny? Is it moving?. When those are the criteria comics will flourish far more than now, when the poison of profit no longer taints our efforts.
There is also the issue of WHO decides. In the Big C that tiny elite of the power get to decide most of what happens in our economy. In a better system decisions about what gets made and how we make it, and how we use our resources, will be made people in general – by us all, as equals, working together in some kind of local democratic council type groups. Again, I’ve no space here to say much more about how they would work. Anyone interested to know more can mail me. Basically, we comic book folk could bring our ideas to the arts council of our area and try to persuade them that the book is interesting. It won’t be some elite group of councillors who decides – that would be little better than things are now. It’s a council, or collective or community that WE are also an equal member of, and that decides things in a truly democratic way.
I said we have enough readers. A Facebook study found that 24 million Americans have noted ‘comics’ as a an area of interest on their Facebook accounts. What this means is that we already have enough people interested to read comics to influence those local arts groups that comics are something worth focusing some of our limited resources into. If there are, say, just 1000 people interested to read your comics that’s plenty – that’s one thousand real flesh and blood people, all of who matter, all of whom are part of society and get a say in how it’s run. We already have enough people interested in comics to allow for many, many comics to be given the backing of those arts councils up and down the country. And by backing I mean money, yes! In this case meaning some kind of credits for ‘useful work done for the community’. Credits that can be used for your living expenses, etc. Again, I’ve no space to go more into how that would work.
Lastly, in that better society, it is highly likely that that amount of readers of comics will go up. Because there will also be less of a barrier of having to BUY comics. Many of those councils backing comics that we creators could make would be available for free, just like the local play park is free. So, many more readers will check them out. And we creators would not get MORE credits if our book is read by 100,000 people instead of just 1,000. So, there would be far less of a problem of the silly desire to become ‘rich and famous’ too. The focus would be on something very simple, but rather healthy: on making good comics that people value. And since the horrible profit issue would be out of the way we would all be more free to focus on experimenting, flexing our artistic muscles, trying new ideas. Or simply making good comics.
I was interviewed on a radical podcast recently, and we got to discussing the politics of The Walking Dead TV series, and what kind of economy and society then had after the zombies started. On the spur of the moment I summarised it by saying:
‘The zombies killed capitalism!”
If they can do it, so can we.
********************
NB: Here is more to add on, from the comments section of that article. My replies to some comments posted there. In this case to a gentleman called Daniel:
Thanks again Daniel. Sorry my reply below is rather long, I wanted to try to address all or most of your points:
"I'm an artist. I love selling my work…..’
-I think that is a bad habit we have all got into, of associating appreciation with money. "It isn't a bad thing when an artist wants people to enjoy their work." Did i say it was? That is a completely different point. Of course we enjoy when people APPRECIATE our work - my point is that there is no 100% NEED for a sale, for an exchange of money, for profit, to happen for that appreciation to be shown. That is a fact, surely?
In the current system, exchange of money is normal, yes, and it does mean that the readers enjoy the books or value them somehow. Yes. but only in the current system, its not a 100% necessity. Plants don’t grow without rain and sun - thats a necessity. But books CAN be made without money/selling. There are better ways of doing it, that don't hold us back like the current profit focused one does.
“I love when I sell a large amount of my books, as it means my art and story is connecting with a large amount of people. It feels like the hard work I put in to my art and stories 'pays off.' “
- It is exactly that pleasant aspect that will be increased in a non-capitalist society. That is my very point. We as artists/writers will be MORE connected to our readers and feel a greater sense of having done something worthwhile. That whole aspect, the central element in creative work, will become hugely more free and powerful once we overcome capitalism. The present system is holding that back, much more than we realise (its a whole other question as to who/what has misled us on these issues!). The need to SELL for profit, in a capitalist system, is holding back the aspect of ‘connection and feeling its worthwhile’. It’s not helping it. We can reach a large enough NUMBER of people, and get that feeling of appreciation, and connection, and having done a good book, without needing the profit/selling/money aspect involved.
“When I have made books in the past that didn't sell, and didn't connect with an audience, I didn't blame capitalism for my failure.”
Actually, in a non-capitalist, better type of society, all the things you support here - adjusting to readers views, working hard, taking responsibility, making good stories, developing skills, etc - will become MORE important than they are now, not less. Those will become the main things we focus on, when we are free of the shackles of the profit/selling/capitalist system which distorts all those efforts towards what will sell and make profit for the elite.
Therefore: “It is better to take responsibility for your self IMO rather than blame capitalism every time you put a book out there that people don't want to buy.” is a complete miss-understanding of what I am saying.The anarchist system that i prefer is based on taking responsibility for your actions, life, work, community - that is its basic, bedrock point of view. Thats a good one line definition of anarchism: ‘a system of organising society based on taking responsibility for your actions, life, work, community.’
As to why people don’t want to book A or B book, that is a complicated issue. The key point here would be the distortion of people’s consumption habits by big corporations and media, and distribution channels, etc. We are not in a situation of ‘well informed rational consumers’ when there is such massive power of marketing, advertising, media, etc to influence consumers decisions. But, again, in the better society i think we are capable of making we really WOULD have ‘well informed rational consumers’. Because one other key element of that system is that we would all be equal ‘consumption/production’ deciders. There would be yearly ‘votes’, if you like, as to what we think our self/family/workplace/community needs in terms of consumption and also what that we can come up with it terms of production. with no distorting influence from marketing/advertising/corporations - none of that crap would exist anymore. we would decide it for ourselves, truly. that is really taking responsibility!
“People can create good work AND make profit without pandering to an audience and sacrificing the quality of their work’
Yes, they can, sure. I hope you can and I hope that i can too. the key point is that we all do it DESPITE the present capitalist system, not because of it. It hinders that aim, it does not help it.
My view is basically this:
1 - It is simply not a necessary aspect to have to SELL our books in order to get those positive aspects of connection and feeling our effort is worthwhile. There are other ways we can organise the production and distribution of works of art. More fruitful ways.
2- The slave like need to make profit via selling in a capitalist system actually holds back the full expression of those positive aspects. It's specifically a hinderance. So, lets ditch it and make a better system instead.
Nice!
Here is a related article:
http://www.sociologyinfocus.com/2013/02/24/the-zombie-manifesto-marx-the-walking-dead/