Propaganda Piece - the Diamond Catalog game

PROPAGANDA PIECE

The idea of comics is so universal that you really wonder why it is treated with such disdain around the world. With a combination of great literature and the beauty of great art producing a unique medium how is it possible that everyone you know thinks you're some sort of imbecile for talking about how good the latest comic you read was?

So, why is it?

Here's a game you can play at home.
It' s called the Diamond catalog game.

Get a copy of Diamond Comic's Previews - the advance listings magazine for the comics industry and essentially our sales window onto the wider world. This is the only magazine widely available that tells you what to expect from the majority of publishers in comics over the coming months.

Now turn to 10 pages at random in the fist half of the magazine where the comics are.
If you're results are anything like mine you found the following:
10 double pages of dross, a few pictures of scantily clad badly proportioned women, hideous design work and pretty much nothing to convince the average person in the street that comics are anything but a juvenile male fantasy medium, something purile and worthy of their scorn and derision.

Possibly - if you were very lucky, you found a page with a tiny entry for something wonderful - maybe the latest Kyle Baker or Andi Watson, but you may have missed it.

Go on – try telling me I’m wrong.
NO CHEATING.

(And no, I don't hate comics - just how we often present ourselves to the world.)