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Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 8, 2023 18:20:57 GMT -5
There's no tension.. you know the main character is going to progress/win in the end, and most long term sports comics are a series of levels the character progresses through, so it typically quite obvious which games/events will be won and which will be lost. I also find it incredibly annoying when they twist the rules or try to be tricky to give the main character an extra challenge.
I fully realize the appeal is the journey/character, but that just doesn't interest me. There are plenty of real life sports players that have interesting journeys/character that I can read.... Superheroes, not so much.
I can enjoy a good sports comedy (I love Major League, and Bad News Bears is fun) but otherwise,no.
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Post by commond on Apr 8, 2023 18:29:25 GMT -5
There's no tension.. you know the main character is going to progress/win in the end, and most long term sports comics are a series of levels the character progresses through, so it typically quite obvious which games/events will be won and which will be lost. I also find it incredibly annoying when they twist the rules or try to be tricky to give the main character an extra challenge. Couldn't the same thing be said about superhero comics? |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 8, 2023 18:38:21 GMT -5
yeah, but there aren't real superheroes  Also, they are a BIT less predictable.. you do get illusion of change stories. |
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Post by arfetto on Apr 8, 2023 18:42:35 GMT -5
There's no tension.. you know the main character is going to progress/win in the end, and most long term sports comics are a series of levels the character progresses through, so it typically quite obvious which games/events will be won and which will be lost. I also find it incredibly annoying when they twist the rules or try to be tricky to give the main character an extra challenge. I fully realize the appeal is the journey/character, but that just doesn't interest me. There are plenty of real life sports players that have interesting journeys/character that I can read.... Superheroes, not so much. I can enjoy a good sports comedy (I love Major League, and Bad News Bears is fun) but otherwise,no. Thanks for explaining. I will mention that in the Japanese sports comics, there are a number of examples where the main characters do not win in the end (if "winning" is measured by winning in a particular sports tournament, game, etc). I am not sure if I should post them due to spoilers, though.
To me I think sports comics thrive on tension, and I believe the large audience they garner accurately reflects tension as being a huge part of their appeal. But, I understand not caring for the subject matter. It is just when I think of sports comics, one of the first things I think of is "intensity". Even in, say, a comic about the strategy board game Go (if including "mind sports").
This is rambling, but at times I wish some superhero comics would be injected with the same kind of intensity and emotional tension I see in sports manga.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2023 18:50:04 GMT -5
Looks like I’m going to have to check out some of those manga storylines, they look interesting. What about newspaper strips? Any sports strips in the US? The UK had some, such as “Scorer” in the Daily Mirror:  |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,161 
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Post by Confessor on Apr 8, 2023 18:58:53 GMT -5
I voted "Other" because I hate sports comics and, frankly, anyone who reads them needs to be hung, drawn & quartered...or at least needs to wear a badge declaring that they're a sports comic reader so that I can avoid them!  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2023 19:01:49 GMT -5
What about sports that might not be exciting visually on the comic page?
I like watching snooker, but I cannot imagine how that’d work in a comic. Only so many angles of snooker shots that an artist could draw, and I just don’t think it’d be compelling.
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Post by commond on Apr 8, 2023 19:17:32 GMT -5
Another aspect of Japanese sports manga/anime is that because the mangas are so popular in Japan, they become inextricably linked to the sport. Captain Tsubasa played a large part in the rise of popularity of soccer in Japan. When Ryoko Tamura represented Japan in judo at the Barcelona Olympics, she was seen as a real-life Yawara and was soon nick-named Yawara-chan and Tawara. Touch is closely associated with Koshien, the Japanese baseball high school tournament. I doubt that type of cultural phenomenon could occur in the States, but there's no reason why someone couldn't create a compelling comic about an athlete. There have been successful sports films, and if film can do it, then comics can as well.
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Post by arfetto on Apr 8, 2023 19:20:31 GMT -5
What about sports that might not be exciting visually on the comic page? I like watching snooker, but I cannot imagine how that’d work in a comic. Only so many angles of snooker shots that an artist could draw, and I just don’t think it’d be compelling.
To me, I think sports like that are a good challenge/opportunity for a comic artist to really let loose and see what they can do to keep the reader interest.
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Post by commond on Apr 8, 2023 19:29:46 GMT -5
I just remembered how much I liked it when the X-Men would play baseball in their downtime.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2023 19:30:22 GMT -5
The more I think about it, I would actually LOVE some more historical based comic books about sports. If they had a "Life of Reggie Jackson" comic book back when I was a kid, I would have picked that up in a heart beat. And I'm thinking Gold Key type straight shooter stuff, nothing too sensationalized. I'd love "Baseball Thought the Decades" or something of that nature.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2023 19:39:11 GMT -5
I remembered one more that I own/have interest in...Will Eisner's Baseball Comics  but it's because it's Will Eisner, not because it is a sports comic. -M |
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Post by commond on Apr 8, 2023 19:40:45 GMT -5
I can't vouch for any of these, but it looks like Europe also has some interesting-looking sports comics. link |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 9, 2023 3:12:37 GMT -5
I can't vouch for any of these, but it looks like Europe also has some interesting-looking sports comics. Croatian comics and children's book artist Frano Petruša has done several sports-related comics, mainly focusing on basketball... Including a children's comic about the childhood of the late, great Croatian basketball star Dražen Petrović: Petruša has a really interesting art style that makes any story he does quite visually striking. I think a few of these have been translated into other languages, like Spanish and French, but not English.
Otherwise, I don't have a specific interest in sports-focused comics, but if they're done right and there's an interesting topic or twist, they can be good. Someone above noted Strange Sports, and I've enjoyed many of those stories. There's also material like Trevor von Eeden's two-part, somewhat fictionalized biography of boxing legend Jack Johnson, called the Original Johnson: It's really good, but that's because a) von Eeden is a great storyteller, b) Johnson was a fascinating figure, and c) the focus isn't restricted to just the boxing. This is the cover to the second volume, by the way:
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Post by Cei-U! on Apr 9, 2023 3:47:00 GMT -5
Okay, I would read Von Eeden's The Original Johnson, because I like Trevor's work and because The Great White Hope is one of my favorite movies. And now that I know it exists, I would also check out Eisner's Baseball Comics.
Cei-U!
I summon the exceptions!
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