Virgin Comics

[MarvTMartian]

This has been bugging me slightly....
I'm in no way racist, and I don't even believe that this is a race issue, but don't you think it's a shame that 'Virgin' (a UK company) is producing Indian/Asian Type Comics/Titles. I'm sure that the UK must have many talented writers & artist, and all we really have is (crappy) 2000AD.... Face facts, some of the most popular artists & writers at Marvel & DC are English or Scotish! OK, Com X died on it's @rse, but we need some proper/decent UK comics.

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Well it all boils down to the market, doesn't it?
If people don't support/buy indie titles then they go under.
2000AD, though you denigrate it, has stood the test of time when a lot of other comics & branches (do we even still have Marvel UK publications?) died.

As regards Virgin comics, I cannot comment as I have never read them. It seems that they're specifically targetted at the young UK asian population however, so good luck to them. Time will tell if it lasts the course or fades away like so many others.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Although it is a long time since I read 2000 AD - and I did stop reading because of the continual price hikes and the quality was dropping - it does have one major thing going for it, or did have in the past.

Marvin notes that there are a lot of top British names working at Marvel and DC at the moment, but most of those names came through 2000AD. It may well be the only dominant British comic but it has produced the talent: Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, Dave Hine, Pete Milligan, Dave Gibbons and of course Alan Moore. Looking back over the last (gulp 20 years was it really that long ago..) all those names and many more, appear in the pages of 2000 AD before taking the hike across the Atlantic.

The problem seems to be we can produce the talent but can't afford to keep it... and none of the creators will stick around when any new companies can't afford to match the pay of the big US companies.

 

[Cobolt]

Totally agree with Tim, its about time we started backing our own people more, maybe even have a arts foundation for this thing.

 

[Monkey Man]

The UK may have talent, but the cost of setting up here and the fact that the UK comic market is on a heavy decline means, quite simply, theres no money to be made! It doesn't matter how good the artist is, and how talented the writer, if people aren't willing to buy comics, it doesn't make sense to set up shop here. But Virgin comics, despite aiming their product to Indians (a population of 1 billion - equals kerching) it is on sale around the world, and with artists like Garth Ennis writing, it's bound to be a success. As far as I can tell, all the comic shops I've visited have sold out of issues 1 and 2 of Devi, Snake Woman and Sadhu. Branson will no doubt develop UK talent through Virgin comics, but primarily, he is just the money man. The whole set-up has been thought up, developed, and implemented, by Indians. Although, its a global world, and so long as the product is great, I don't care where it came from.

 

[JRBeasley]

Why would it be racist for them to produce comics involving and inspired by Indian people and stories? Like saying Marvel is racist for all the members of the Fantastic Four to be white.

Virgin has stated in the back pages of some of their titles that they are bringing stories out from around the world. And fortunatly, there are quite a few non-white kind of people in the world.

And to be honest, they are putting out books with good art and good stories.

 

[Connavar]

I dont see what so racist about it.


Most of american comics are about white people and nothing wrong with that but its good to see comics like those from Virgin about Indian/asian people.

It made me interested to see what they are.

 

[Inkreator]

Virgin did a quite good play there. I'm hooked on Sadhu, Devi, Snake Woman, Ramayan Reborn... they're all amazing. I understand some may not like this type of comic, oriented about some other culture, but I'm happy there is Virgin and Deepak Chopra releasing great stuff like this and India Authentic