Occupy Main Stream

What does it mean to become “mainsteam” when you belong to a medium such as comics? To me, the spitting image of pop-culture comes in the form of storyboarded action heroes, with loud sounds and colors escaping from their mouths and surroundings. The image looks, feels, acts like a billboard topper. However, as there are pop bands who are born independently from the grind of the Mtv music-mill and yet eventually team up with it, there are also creators of comic books who choose to avoid that cluttered world yet mimic it within their work. Only so much distance can be maintained. It makes me ask the question, “why fight it?”

I won’t be the first to mention the influence of Alan Moore when it comes to the topic of mainstream art and media. He is a living symbol of the simultaneous push and pull of success and popularity. In order to make a living doing what you love, in some ways you must also adhere to the logic of your followers, even if you never asked for them to show up at your doorstep. When that moment arises, the moment many artists wait for (or see as a mere pipe dream), you suddenly are given a gift.

Open it up, and it’s a beautiful little baby creature. You can see it breathe, but you can’t quite tell what it is. It’s glowing though, radiant in its excitement over you. You, the new owner. It wants to be yours.

In some ways you must also adhere to the logic of your followers, even if you never asked for them to show up at your doorstep.

You feel a little spark in your chest and think that this could be a wonderful coexistence for both of you. What is this creature? Well, that’s the artist’s audience. And as it begins to grow like any living organism it must be kept clean, fed, and listened to.

We see what happens to any creature that is neglected or abused, either through human example or the fierce lack of it. Little humans lash out at their parents, dogs which were once puppies begin to destroy their homes. In this way, the audience will revolt if attention is not given to the things they care about.

Willingness to listen is paramount, and what comes after that is up to the artist. In the case of Alan Moore, he made the choice to abandon his creature instead of listen to it. There are reasons for his anger, but when paralleling his actions with a writer such as Grant Morrison, the logic seems impaired.

The Invisibles was probably the least mainstream thing on the market when it was released in single issue, beginning in 1994. Not knowing what to do with it, many people put the book down after a few issues (if not the first), mistaking it for lunacy and reverting to the typical storyline of hero-fights-bad-guy. The Invisibles started out as a much more complex story, and appealed to a different breed of audience.

These people became the Morrison creature, following his logic as something they related to. Many of these people watched the film The Matrix and maybe recognized the similarities, maybe didn’t, but more than likely enjoyed what they saw. In the documentary, Talking With Gods, Morrison makes it well-known that he was aware of what had become of his original concept, and how he could be called the inspiration to the plot and characters within The Matrix. He appears to find the whole thing comical, whereas Alan Moore may have a less than jovial response to such a situation, as he has had in the past.

The Matrix received notoriety unlike The Invisibles ever did. Why was this? Perhaps The Invisibles, though acting as a clear inspiration for the film, was simply too dense for many readers. The mainstream can, in cases such as this, relieve readers who find abstract notions soaring far above the reaches of their personal paradigm. In other words, the mainstream can at times help people understand a story, since it’s typically the more easily digestible, watered-down version of whatever the original thought was.

Even if a piece of art is garbled and misunderstood in its common translation, it should at least be appreciated that the public wants to understand. I suppose with this in mind, becoming one with the mainstream shouldn’t necessarily become a goal, but if it seems to simply happen on its own, take it as a compliment, lightly dashed with a grain of salt.