THE HYBC MANIFESTO
IT IS A FACT, KNOWN TO ALL BUT SELDOM ACKNOWLEDGED BY MOST, THAT COMIC BOOKS ARE THE SINGLE GREATEST STORYTELLING FORM MANKIND HAS EVER CREATED.
That knowledge is instinctual. It goes back to the dawn of mankind, to the birth of language, and to everything that has led to our great becoming. Comic books are a creative force so powerful and so amazing that the rest of the world has been trying (and failing) to catch up to it. It’s the sagas and cinematic universes of film, it’s the cross-over events in television, the lore drops in video games, and countless other things, everywhere, in the media you like. Surely then, as the times cry out for experienced navigators in these primordial waters of storytelling, the field of comic book criticism must be thriving, right?
If you are reading this, it’s probably because you know that no one is thriving right now. The changing landscape of online journalism, and the culture wars that were birthed in the vacuum left by the greats (Comics Alliance Forever) have left the discourse in the most sorry state it’s ever been in. Fascists trying to monetize the violence of their daily two-minute-hate sessions because it’s the only thing they’re able to do. The know-it-alls who locked themselves atop an ivory tower because it was the best place they could find to hock loogies on the people below. The rest of them, in a perpetual siege mentality, pouncing on anything that threatens to disrupt their status quo, and tear at the scars of slapfights past. And in the middle of all this, the grifters, the instigators, the peddlers of strife who believe in nothing but their page hits.
I write these words, sitting in the metaphorical armchair, because, in my heart of hearts, I know you deserve better, and I know that I can deliver better. I will save the field of online comic book criticism, or I will die trying. How many critics can say the same? How many critics will tell you with absolute conviction that they would die for comics? Can you trust any critic that wouldn’t?
My credentials are these: first, that metaphorical armchair from earlier? It’s also an actual armchair. I will NEVER lie to you. Not now, not ever. I will, when appropriate, goof, spoof, and throw all manners of satirical jape, and jape-like materials, in this newsletter, but I will never lie to you.
Second, and most important of all: I have never been wrong in my entire life. Not once. Not ever. I don’t know why. I don’t know how. I have spent almost a decade thinking about comics and writing about them in various ways to various audiences, and I have never been wrong even once. The journey has taken me to many strange places, and I have had many trials and tribulations, but let the record show that I have never been wrong, not a single time.
I cannot be stopped, and I cannot be negotiated with. Starting in 2021, I will, on a regular schedule, write long-form studies of the new comic book releases, as well as of events in the culture surrounding them. All that I ask for is an audience, because it gets lonely here, in this very literal, very grey, IKEA armchair. Here’s a button. Do with it what you will.