The Modern Day Comic Book Hero
By Jacob Malewitz
We’ve all heard it: I want to be famous or I want to be rich. You don’t hear them saying I want to be a super hero that many times. But for the modern idea, who is the modern hero of the comic book world? What do heroes do in comic books that is different from other fiction? And who are the modern heroes of today?
Get Real, How Heroes Started
Heroes in comic book fiction may have started in the 1930s with Marvel and DC starting to break out the modern day comic book hero as we know. Superman in simple, or a character similar and still known, is perhaps of your earliest and most successful modern day heroes. A hero from another planet, powers beyond the mortal man, and who had a hero side and a “I’m Clark Kent” side. He was a hero who started in Action Comics, and was big success for the youth movement of comics in the golden age. There were pulp heroes before that, for example like Tarzan and Conan. However, Superman is your earliest of modern day heroes to last. For more information on the heroes of old, read Les Daniels interesting histories in Marvels and DC.
Move it, How The Growing Comic Marketplace is Thriving
The modern day hero takes a few extra steps beyond superman. Superheroes. Fantasy. Magic. Villains. Horror stories. These are all here. The modern day hero can be far from simple and is a fun and interesting idea; for example, how many published heroes have there been. The best selling comics in the industry are still the ones in the classic super hero model: a hero, a story, a villain, a fight.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Joseph Campbell is a genius writer, and it’s interesting to compare modern day Star Wars film to how super heroes are developed by their creators. A youth origin. Bad guys. The coming of age story of a hero. All heroes have an origin, a villain, and the backdrop of a world of good vs. evil that they have to show. To Joseph Campbell’s ideas, heroes are myth, heroes are story, and heroes are in thousands of different stories with these simple beginnings.
Writing With Your Hero
If you ever wanted to be a writer, try comic book and graphic novel authorship. The writing is fun. You can publish full stories in a complex fashion. And you can make money. To write your heroes, study how the hero concept is used in other forms of story like fiction and film. Study your genre for comics too. See where your hero starts, who he has to fight, and how your story can best be told.
Read Forever
There are possibly millions of stories you’d have to read to try every kind of comic and read every one with super heroes ever published. However, that kind of idea is amusing, fun, and interesting. You have author canons to read, maybe possible, and sole super hero canons to read, another possibility. Read up on your favorite author. Study their earliest story. Read up on your favorite hero or team. Study early issues you might have missed.
Coffee and A Comic Eye
The graphic novel industry is booming. From written word to pen to a finished piece, no writer has it as fun as a comic book writer sometimes. And simply put, readers are in for a vast selection of different stories they can read from day one. Stay on track with your shop. Focus on perhaps one hero to study. And keep reading your favorite fiction. You might try too to read on different subjects in your sale section at the comic shop--picking up cheap issues with stories better than you might think. A Comic Eye always encourages trying new authors, new heroes, and new stories of form.
--You're a hero, he's a hero, they're all heroes. Stay tuned for more tips and fun in the reading and writing world of comics. Check out A Reader's Eye for commentary on modern fiction as well, at AReadersEyeOnline.blogspot.com. And for new writers, services are available to coach new writers in the field of copywriting, blogging, and other freelance writing, at graphittidesignspublishing.blogspot.com.
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