RANT: ONE CHANCE
BY JOHN CECIL

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The dawn of a new age. The millennium. Not just a brand new year, not just a brand new decade or century. A brand new thousand years. In the history of Western recorded time, you belong to the second generation of human beings to have witnessed this transition.

So what are you gonna do?

I suppose you could do the same things you've always done. Wake up on Wednesdays and go to work, school, whatever. Afterwards go down to the comics shop and hang out with the guys. Buy your X-book and your Green Lantern book, go home and read it. Talk about how cool it is that the latest Vertigo guy is going to be skipping over and writing something a bit more accessible. Speculate about the Spider-Man movie, about how it's just what the industry needs.

Alternatively, if you're really cool and Into Comics, wake up on Wednesdays and go to work, school, whatever. Stop by the comics shop on the way home and silently make fun of the guys there. Purchase your Cerebus and your Murder Me Dead, go home and read it. Complain about Garth Ennis selling his soul to Marvel. Speculate about the Spider-Man movie, about how it's the last thing the industry needs.

Or you could make a New Millennium Resolution. Far more important than any New Year Resolution. I mean, a new year comes along every three hundred and sixty five days. Not too terribly long until another one hits us. It'll happen three times before someone steals the next presidential election.

New Year's resolutions are no big deal. If you resolve to stop eating meat and then gobble down half a hot dog before you remember your new vegetarian status, you only have to wait a relatively short period of time before you get another chance to forgo animal products.

But unless science comes up with something pretty amazing in the next forty years or so, this is the last time you'll ever see a new millennium come by.

This is your One Chance to make a New Millennium Resolution. The last chance you'll ever get. The weight of the situation demands more respect and solemnity than we give to those dime-a-dozen New Year's Resolutions.

One Chance. You could resolve to lose weight, and mean it this time. One Chance. You could resolve to be a kinder person. One SAVANT editor, believe it or not, has resolved to swear more often. [Editor's note: You're goddamn right, fucko-Dave]

Or you could resolve to try out something new.

Something you've heard about, perhaps, but still felt intimidated by. You know that Frank Miller is cool, he did Dark Knight and you've liked some of the Sin City stuff you've seen. But that Elektra: Assassin looks pretty weird. You typically enjoy serious stuff, and you really loved Maus, but that Safe Area Gorazde thing looks pretty heavy. Well, this is your chance to be different. Buy it if you have to, borrow it if you can. Try out something new, something the Twentieth-Century You wouldn't have tried. This is the Twenty-First-Century You. Expand your horizons. You've been a DC reader or a Marvel follower since you knew how to read. You feel at home around these characters, these fictional cities. You take offense at elitist snobs saying that the superhero genre is for kids. You LIKE the Marvel Universe, damn it, and no one can tell you it isn't worth visiting.

But it's the New Millennium. One Chance. Make a resolution to leave Gotham or Metropolis or the (trust me) make-believe New York City of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. Just for a little while. Take a vacation to the Fright Side of Jill Thompson's Scary Godmother. Visit the beehive of Clan Apis. Take a stroll through another make-believe (albeit a far more realistic take on) New York in Channel Zero. You used to read that childish shit, or you grew up on the Sci Fi tales in 2000 AD. You have zero interest in anything published by a subsidiary of Time Warner. It pisses you off to hear an otherwise intelligent adult defend sub-literate entertainment. Anything of worth in the comics medium, by definition, is published by Gary Groth.

But it's the New Millennium. One Chance. Make a resolution to not be so serious all the time. Understandably, you have no intention to start watching Sesame Street again (or, if you were the aforementioned 2000 AD reader, you have no intention of watching Fingermouse again), and most comics are on the same literary level, but where's the harm in reading something silly and fun and maybe even owned by a corporate giant? Just every once in a while. Pick up one of the ABC line, even the throwback Tom Strong. Why not check out Ennis' take on the Hulk? By no means should you take out a subscription unread, but why not try one issue?

Here's a thought: you know that friend of yours who reads that weird Johnny the Homicidal Maniac stuff? The one who acts like you probably drool and shit your pants because you read Daredevil? One Chance. Tell her you'll giver her JTHM: The Director's Cut TPB a shot if she'll read the Frank Miller issue of Daredevil where he's sitting in front of a prone Bullseye with a gun to his head. She'll like that one. And you might end up liking Johnny.

The next time you're in the shop and the two fat guys are arguing over Star Trek Vs Babylon 5, approach them and offer to read Rising Stars if they'll read Astronauts In Trouble. One Chance. At best, you'll all find something new. At worst, you'll have tried to find something new. No shame in that.

Sometime very soon, you'll be standing before some racks of comics, maybe a shelf of trade paperbacks. You might be at a local comics shop run by a guy and some of his pals. You might be at a chain of bookstores that's recently been carrying graphic novels. Your decision in this regard is important, the very nature of distribution depends on it. In front of you will be a selection of different stuff. Some of it you've already read. Some of it you've been meaning to pick up. Some of it you wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. There'll be superhero stories, crime stories, historical fiction, true-life drama. There'll be stuff from established professionals and stuff by newcomers. Whom you choose is important, do we like the way things are, or do we want change? There'll be the titles you've always followed, there'll be the books you've never tried out. There'll be the arty stories girls and college kids seem to like. There'll be the toy-spinoff children's books. There'll be the superheroes you know all about, regardless of how you feel about them.

You may argue their merits and detriments over the internet, the greatest tool of change the industry has ever seen.

There will be the knowledge that you stand at the beginning of a new era for the comics medium and industry. The choices you make will help shape it. There will be the safety of what you know, and the uncertainty of what you don't.

So what are you gonna do?