The 10-year Fad

Trends seem to come and go faster than ever. Perhaps it's the new, Internet era that we all live in, where information and ideas can quickly spread across the country (and world). Perhaps it's the new short-attention span we've all been infected with.

If you think of things like style (which my wife thinks about a lot, she being the fashion maven of the Cheli house), it's even more drastic than before. In the late-70s/early-80s, a new fashion sense came out of New York City, with adidas sneakers (with the fat laces, of course) and track suits, thick gold chains, and more (you can see what I'm talking about in the book Back in the Days, a terrific photographic history of the fashion of that era by Jamel Shabazz). While that was the style of the city of the time, it didn't hit Chicago or Miami or L.A. until later as it slowly worked its way throughout the US, taking even longer for it to reach the heartland.

Eventually it did, and it took over. Kids -- white, black, Hispanic -- all started to wear those shoes, those pants, those skirts. It certainly blew the preppies to bits. But it took years to happen. And, by the time it reached Des Moines, New Yorkers were on to something else.

Now, however, a style can pop up in New York or Palm Beach or wherever, and (especially if it's being shown off by the latest "it" guy or gal) within a week it's splashed throughout the Internet, in the pages of US Weekly, or on Entertainment Tonight. And, because the saturation is so quick, it's just as quickly gone from our collective consciousness.

Look at those stupid Von Dutch hats and t-shirts. For 3 1/2 minutes, they were all the rage. Why, if Ashton Kutchor wanted to wear his trucker hat cocked to one side, then you should too. Off course, 3 1/2 minutes later, they were 80% off at Marshall's.

It's no different when it comes to comics.

Today, comic book news is right there in your face. You know what's coming up (at the earliest) 3 months in advance, and in many cases a year. You see what the popular creators are going to be working on, what new mini-series or company-wide crossover is going to sap your money, and there is little or no "new" when you walk into a comic shop or bookstore. You already know what to expect.

And because of that, there is very little room for something different. Fans (and retailers) already decry something a hit or failure (more likely in this pessimistic industry) before you even have a chance to read it. So we often end up getting the same things from the big publishers.

Super heroes.

A little horror now and again.

More super heroes.

And the failed sci-fi series that runs 6 issues.

And, of course, more super heroes.

Things were different in the comics industry in the 30s, 40s, 50s, and even 60s. Sure, there were still a ton of copycats (every company had their costumed crime fighters), but instead of looking for more of the same, they were looking for the NEXT BIG THING. And because lead-in times for comics were much longer then (the content of a comic had to be completed months before its publication date, compared with weeks or even days now), publishers weren't able to be so quick to jump on the bandwagon.

Look at the return of Marvel Comics to publishing super hero titles, for example. National (DC) had been very sucessful with their return of costume crime-fighters like the Flash, Green Lantern, and others, and it was years before Stan Lee and Jack Kirby matched it with the Fantastic Four.

Years.

Today, when there's a hit, within a week a competitor can get something together and, within a couple of months, get it into the shops.

Of course, this quick-to-copy mentality can make for a) boring comics and b) the quick extinction of those types of comics. (Look at the recent 80s revival for a second. G.I. Joe? Transformers? He-Man? They've all died or are in the process of dying [and being resurrected].)

But when Joe Simon and Jack Kirby launched Young Romance in mid-1947, it was a year before something else was on the shelves. And it wasn't until 1949 when there were more than a handful of the titles out there.

And they were selling like mad. Romance comics were regularly out-selling many of the quickly dying super hero comics. By 1952, there were as many as 40 romance comics out on the newsstand any one month.

Of course, by 1957, nearly all were gone, reduced only to the best selling or the throwaways.

But that's 10 years. Ten years where a genre, a style, either dominated or was an integral part of an industry.

When was the last time a style lasted that long, and do you honestly think it will ever happen again?

It might if it's given a chance to grow and progress and develop.