Comic-Con Panel: Wild Cards or Recommendations from Friends
By Jason McClain (@jtorreyMcClain)
I know what I like and I think most people do as well. We often don’t go looking for things that are going to go against that grain and instead look for things that reinforce our beliefs. For example, people labeled with the generalization of “liberals” generally will not watch Fox News and conversely those labeled as “conservatives” will generally not watch Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow. Why watch something that will just anger you or go against your beliefs that you have worked your whole life to create?[i]
Politics is an easy example as people tend to avoid the other side. However, it is just as easy to see in popular culture[ii] or in comics.[iii]
We find what we like and we go with it. How do we find what we like though? Sometimes it is at home (my father brought home copies of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Oftentimes it is because of a recommendation of a friend. Because a friend from college, Jason Teiken[iv], lent me Wild Cards
However, at the time I first read the Wild Card books, I remember thinking, why would I want to read about superheroes in a book and not a comic? Once I started reading, I remember thinking who in the hell is this guy Fortunato? Powers from tantric sex and building up a giant orgasm? What the #$%? Is this pornography? Daredevil wouldn’t do this. Oh God, can the villains out there sexually take advantage of Daredevil? Won’t someone think of Matt Murdock?[vi]
Years later in graduate school, having drifted away from comics, I found them again thanks to “Kingdom Come”, a recommendation from a fellow student, Matt Massey, and it still is my favorite mini-series/graphic novel of all time. Moving around the country tends to prohibit you from accumulating things beyond what can fit in your car, comics included, and if you aren’t going to be buying comics, there isn’t a point to going to a comic book store to keep up with what is out there.
Coming back to comics at several different points always leads to new things. Once I had a more stable existence, a friend who worked in a comic shop[vii] turned me onto Brian Michael Bendis and J. Michael Straczynski. My good friend, the editor of this site C.J. Bunce, turned me onto the Neal Adams/Denny O’Neil Hard-Traveling Heroes
This doesn’t just lend itself to comics either. Books (my friend David Popham recommended On Writing
Now, I feel I can recommend these items to people everywhere. Then I suppose they’ll recommend and so forth. I suppose I’ve really just outlined the inner workings of the ever-elusive word of mouth marketing in pieces of art that relate to me. However, it’s still my friends that end up giving me some of the best recommendations that I’ll ever have and those help to shape my tastes. When you start to think about it, isn’t that what friends are for on the larger levels as well?
So, thanks to friends I still see and friends that I don’t. I thank you for the time you take to let me know about the things you love and sharing them with me. No matter if it is forgotten how those loves got to me in the first place, they are there because of a good friend and that won’t be forgotten.
[i] Assuming people work for their beliefs because some might just take some beliefs and be happy not having to worry about working for them. It’s the whole division of labor thing.
[ii] If a friend recommends to you that you really need to give Justin Bieber a listen because you don’t understand the beauty in his music, would you be more likely to listen to the Biebs or refuse to listen to your friend talk about music? What about Ke$ha? Phish? Lady Gaga? Motley Crue? AC/DC? Prince? Oasis? Nickelback? Is there a band that would cause you to kick your friend to the curb?
[iii] I won’t say more than “Marvel or DC?”
[iv] He also introduced me to Twin Peaks
[v] The panel had all the different contributing authors talking about favorite characters and possible future routes of the series and it was pretty interesting to just reminisce. However, the people that were just waiting for the next panel with Nathan Fillion gained an interest in the series just from listening to the authors. That was probably the most intriguing part of the hour. I mean, isn’t Comic-Con just a big gathering of “friends” sharing their different loves of fantasy/sci-fi/comics/pop-culture with one another? I would go on, but any pronoun use in this sentence with the verb “share” would just lead to an unintended double-entendre.
[vi] Yes, that is an overreaction on behalf of Matt Murdock because he can take care of himself. Plus, the language was probably different from a generally naïve Midwestern undergraduate but the idea of reading about tantric sex, delaying orgasms or even mentioning orgasms felt weird within what I knew about comics. I think at that point I had yet to put together the meaning of the band name “Queen,” let alone read about sex in comics period especially when comic heroes are supposed to be saving the world and drinking their milk. Needless to say, I had yet to find Alan Moore. My friend Jason Vivone changed that later.
[vii] Kind of similar to the whole “is a drug dealer a friend” thing as the only times we interacted were in his comic store as he fed my addiction to “Planetary,” “Powers” and “Rising Stars.”
