START // 12.12.02

NOT ALL THERE IS
By Dave Potter

I've never gotten used to the holidays in Southern California. I grew up in the Plains states-Pierre, South Dakota specifically-and by this time of year, its usually well below freezing as the high temperature for the day, the wind chill is making it feel about 20 degrees colder, and there's usually a couple inches of snow and ice covering everything.

Its shitty weather by any standard in winter months. I bitched about it when I lived there. But I miss it. I have fond memories of using an ice scraper in the morning to clear the windshield, of having to shovel walks and chip ice, and the winter storm where the wind chill went below -100 degrees and the times it was literally too cold to let us walk home from school are experiences I want in my life again-even though I wanted to get far away from them at the time.

People hate me for saying it, but my biological clock always rebels against waking up Thanksgiving morning, Christmas morning, and New Year's morning and having the sun shine brightly as we reach a balmy 72 degrees in Los Angeles. I could go to the fucking beach for Christmas, and its just wrong to me. It's supposed to be snowing, for God's sake. There's always a part of my brain that just shorts out, because I know this is the type of weather and lifestyle that most anyone I grew up with would KILL to be living.

This feeling of vague dissatisfaction is one I've encountered often in talking with people the last several months-and I'm not just talking about the weather.

Activism in comics was an idea that had a lot of attention back when it was being hatched and discussed online a few years ago. It's been fading a bit over time, with other fun ideas coming out and Marvel's resurgence, coupled with the more recent and somewhat annoying resurgence of nostalgia comics.

Its easy to look around and see the best selling titles are all this retread crap from cancelled TV shows and comic books that (for the most part) weren't even that popular in the 1980s when they first appeared, and ask "Is this what we've been working for? Expanding comics so we can once again support SECTAURS: THE NEXT GENERATION?"

I can understand a general sense of, "Is this all there is?" What I don't understand, what I honest to God hate, is people getting tired of activism and leaving it behind because they don't realize the difference it makes.

I guess people were expecting a revolution, but the problem is, there weren't any palaces to storm nor was there a monarchy to behead. We probably nailed a few documents to the church doors, but it took a long time for Lutherans to develop into the thriving denomination they are today. Did we really think it would go that quickly for comics?

We should be happy no one's feeding us to the lions at this point in our evolution.

Maybe the fact that this is all being done via the internet culture has something to do with it. After all, The internet is 24/7/365, and change is as quick as switching out a few lines of code on a server. So I can understand how realizing the need for change and trying to help achieve that change must seem like we've just been running on a damn treadmill for the past few years.

Real change, lasting change, takes place gradually over time due to the unflagging commitment of a large group of people. Anyone who was expecting big, cataclysmic events should understand-most of the time, this is going to be like watching paint dry. It'd be nice if the streets could flow with the blood of the non-believers, but it ain't going happen.

Because for starters, the non-believers are who we need to start reading comics in the first place for any of this to work. But that's another column.

This is our time. Our artform is slowly emerging back into public consciousness, and yeah, it isn't showing its best side all the time. You know what? It never will. NOTHING in the public consciousness shows its good side all the time. Government, the church, big business, Hollywood-hell, your own family-what we see of them more often than not is bad anymore. It's part of being out there and on the radar. People can see the flaws, and when you're in the eye of the public, flaws are going to be picked up on that you haven't even thought of yet.

So fuck it. Don't worry about it. 2003 is going to be about using mental judo to turn the awareness into actual interest. Its simple yet painstaking, and I warn you; the effects will be the same as planting grass in a big ass barren field. Eventually, over time, you'll see the little plants popping up from the ground. Then the field will look almost mossy; some of it will die and begin to grow again, while the surviving original crop is getting stronger and healthier around it.

That could take a season to accomplish. And that's a far site easier than the task of restoring comics to their rightful, equal place as legitimate mass media vehicle.

But this is our time to accomplish it. This is our quiet revolution, so don't go leaving the party just because the chips have run a little low and several people are off making a beer run. Right now, everyone needs to remember three little words: This. Ain't. Over. 2002 had the good and the bad, but it was more good than bad. We have forward movement. We need to keep it up.

We're not living in California yet. But believe me, we're down the road a bit from Pierre South Dakota, and there's still gas in the tank. This isn't all there is. We're going to achieve so much more.

* * *
And with this issue, we mark yet another passing of the torch. SAVANT Editor Gus Dahlberg has decided to take a step back from the day to day grind of editing and webmastering SAVANT. Gus stepped up to help out in a lot of areas earlier this year, and I know I'll miss having him around all the time to bounce ideas off of and talk to.

Dan Carroll, the editor/co-publisher of E-volution comics (a web based anthology at www.evolution-comics.com) has stepped up to assume Gus' editorial responsibilities, and I couldn't be more pleased that Dan is on board. If you haven't checked out E-volution yet, or Dan's Art Class work at the Small Press magazine (www.thesmallpress.com), you really should.

Dan, Al and I are committed to bringing you even more SAVANT enjoyment in 2003 than you had in 2002. So join us next week for our last issue of 2002, and then we'll see you next year!