ESSAY // 10.17.02

BEING ROY NEARY
By Alasdair Stuart

I think in films, always have done. Even as I write this, I'm hearing Sir Nigel Hawthorne saying, "You must think in RUSSIAN...in RUSSIAN," from FIREFOX.

It's odd, but it's something I've always done. Don't get me wrong, I don't couch every single aspect of my life in pat Hollywood narrative or try and place my shopping in the context of a David Lynch movie. No, it's just a constant backdrop, sometimes obvious, sometimes not, to whatever I'm thinking at the time.

And I've been thinking a lot about Roy Neary recently.

Roy Neary, played by Richard Dreyfus in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. An electrician who sees something astounding in the sky, becomes obsessed with following it and, ends up obsessively sculpting massive replicas of Devil's Tower, using whatever's around him at the time.

It's become a visual joke, as much shorthand for the paranormal as Mulder's flashlight or Mark Snow's foreboding string arrangements. Think UFOs, you immediately think of Richard Dreyfus, a plate of potatoes and Devil's Tower, or Richard Dreyfus, about a metric ton of earth and Devil's Tower.

Reminds me a lot of a certain mindset amongst comic buyers.

To be specific, the mindset that leads people to buy titles because they feature a character they always liked, or were good two years ago, or feature a creator they like. People who buy these titles even if they don't like them, occasionally bemoan the fact in public but continue buying them to the bitter end.

Why? Why do this? Financially it's the equivalent of throwing two bucks out every month and you're getting no pleasure from the title. Bottom line, it hurts to buy, hurts to read and does nothing but depress the reader. Like my father always says, hitting your head against a brick wall is only nice when it stops.

My own theory as to why people do this is simple. They're being Roy Neary.

Think about it. Some people get so fixated on a character or creator that they'll follow them anywhere regardless of change in circumstance or quality. The only thing that matters to them is that Issue 118 follows issue 117 and that issue 119 be fitted in just ahead of that. For Roy, it's Devil's Tower, for some comic readers it's the "complete set" but the basic drive, the basic myth is the same.

The puzzle. These people are convinced that if they can just stick with a character or title through a rocky patch, then all will become clear and at some point, it'll stick it's head out from the clouds and get back to being entertaining. More importantly, the faithful who have stuck with it through the fill-ins, crossovers and general mucking about will be rewarded when their complete run grants them absolute knowledge of the character and absolute peace along with it.

Or something like that.

This is an immensely damaging mindset for every single level of the industry. From the point of view of readers, this really is a road to nowhere. Everyone has their breaking point and sooner or later, people who do this will reach it. They'll have read so many shitty comics that they won't CARE about the good stuff and will simple drift away from the industry altogether.

From a retailer's point of view, in the short term this is a good thing. After all, dead stock is the bane of my life and if I'm seeing standing orders for Anaphylactic Man remain steady even AFTER the crossover with Lesbian Surf Nazis, then in theory I'm going to go home a happy man.

Of course in theory I'm also going to be going home to cruise the internet for STAR TREK porn and polish my action figures.

If anything, this mindset is worse for retailers. We survive as much off people who are already interested as new arrivals and anyone who reads this way will, as I said above, ultimately burn out. On a more basic level, if we know a series is rubbish and could spend the money on more deserving stuff but can't because Customer A is still buying it even though they hate it, then it blocks a potential path for new books and new sales.

This in turn hurts the creators and companies. I'm constantly aware that I'm tremendously lucky as a retailer, considering we have a relatively large budget for PREVIEWS orders. We've not had to scrimp, yet, but to be placed in the situation I described above is, frankly, the stuff of nightmare for me.

Similarly, if Anaphylactic Man is continuing to sell despite being printed on toilet paper, written in crayon by a monkey and packaged with a free dead rat then that's what we'll get.

If the demand is there, then the supply will follow even if it's shit.

Ultimately, this is a tremendously dangerous mindset for the industry as a whole. We get too short-sighted and fixated on the idea rather than the quality or names behind it and the entire industry is threatened. Things may be better, but we're still a very long way from being able to take the short term view. So, to sum up.

If you don't like it, don't buy it.

If it's a character you've always loved, then go and read some of the older material or, odds are they'll be another title featuring the same person that's more to your taste.

If it's a title you've always collected, deal with it. If it's crap then you don't want it and you certainly don't want to spend your money on it.

If it's a creator whose work you love and you're not enjoying it, drop the book. Everyone has off days, no one has the same taste and the odds are the same team will have something else out before long that you'll like just as much.

It's really that simple. If you've bought the issue and don't like it, the next time you're in your local store, ask them to take the title off your pull list.

If you've paid a deposit, ask them nicely how things can be sorted out. Odds are they'll either credit you for another title or refund you the difference. Be nice and they'll be nice.

But don't be Roy. There's no big answer at the end of a series you don't enjoy reading, no prize for collecting the whole thing and certainly not enlightenment. Just a lot of comics you don't want and a lot of money you don't have.