quotations about comic books
Comic books are losing their audience not because they have failed to keep up with changes in American culture but because American culture has finally caught up with them.
BRADFORD W. WRIGHT
Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America
There's a sense of frustration that comics are always struggling to be taken seriously. Like anything else, some will and some won't.
BILL SIENKIEWICZ
interview, CBR, July 17, 2001
My brother had a big comic book chest, and he kept the key in the exact same place. So when he would leave for camp or be gone for a few days at a friend's house, I would totally sneak into that room and open the comic book chest and see X-Men and Sandman and all the Neil Gaiman stuff.... That was my happy place, because there were all these superheroes who like totally didn't fit in.
SABAA TAHIR
"Q&A with author Sabaa Tahir, the brightest light in young adult fiction", The Oklahoman, September 11, 2016
Watchmen was said to actually provide an alternative to the superhero story as an endless soap opera. To turn that into just another superhero comic that goes on forever demonstrates exactly why I feel the way I do about the comics industry. It's mostly about franchises. Comic shops these days barely sell comics. It's mostly spin-offs and toys.
ALAN MOORE
"Alan Moore On Watchmen's 'Toxic Cloud' And Creativity V. Big Business", Fast Company, February 14, 2012
I'm no prophet, but I'm guessing that comic books will always be strong. I don't think anything can really beat the pure fun and pleasure of holding a magazine in your hand, reading the story on paper, being able to roll it up and put it in your pocket, reread again later, show it to a friend, carry it with you, toss it on a shelf, collect them, have a lot of magazines lined up and read them again as a series. I think young people have always loved that. I think they always will.
STAN LEE
Brandweek, May 2000
See-monkeys, do-monkeys
Story of my life
Send three bucks to a comic book
Get a house, car, and wife
LIZ PHAIR
"Gunshy", Exile in Guyville
Deviants and losers and mutants and the loveless ... were the proper readers of Marvel comics.
RICK MOODY
The Ice Storm
I understand that films are a different medium to comics, but if one is going to adapt a specific story, arc or character then one should be honest and faithful to the origin. No one seemed to feel it was necessary to rewrite Game of Thrones, no-one seemed to think it was necessary to rewrite Harry Potter, so why should they re-write X-Men? The stories are written as stories in a certain way where the characters are very specific focused characters for a reason. Don't undermine that and throw that away just because you come from a different reality and your idea is better. If you your idea is better, create your own characters and your own stories. If you are going to adapt my characters and my stories, do it right.
CHRIS CLAREMONT
interview, Big Comic Page, November 28, 2018
He likes to pretend he lives inside the comic books. I guess a fake life inside a cartoon is a lot better than his real life.
SHERMAN ALEXIE
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
When Elektra: Assassin first came out, there was a newspaper article that came out in a Dallas-Fort Worth paper with a full-color image of the first issue of the cover. The article was written by Clara Tuman. I remember the name because I was engrossed in the O.J. trial. She was one of the reporters on the air. She started doing cultural commentary. She wrote about what comics are doing to our kids. Elektra got ripped pretty badly by her to the point where she was saying we must protect our children from this. We ended up using that quote on the back of the book to help sell it.
BILL SIENKIEWICZ
interview, CBR, July 17, 2001
I'm just a comic book boy
There's nothing scary to enjoy
Freak admission, stroll inside
I was born on a roller coaster ride
RAMONES
"Come on Now"
The disparity between the necessities to produce a film and what is required to produce a good comic story, are unimaginable. And yet, the paradox is, without the good comic story to produce source material, to keep the perception of the characters alive in the reading audience, how fresh can you keep the films? That's the brute reality.
CHRIS CLAREMONT
interview, Salute Magazine, March 15, 2018
When I was eight, I would look at the cover of the Ghost Rider comic book in my little home in Long Beach, California, and I couldn't get my head around how something that scary could also be good. To me it was my first philosophical awakening -- "How is this possible, this duality?"
NICOLAS CAGE
interview, The Scotsman, February 15, 2012