Re: Questions on the Daredevil run

Posted By: MACK!
Date: THU, 6/28/01, 3:59 p.m.

In Response To: Questions on the Daredevil run (Frank)

: Hi Mack,

: greetings from Cologne. I just wanted to congratulate you
: with this incredible run you did for the Daredevil
: series. I know that it's only a superhero story and,
: according to mr. Crumb, it's only lines, but for some
: reason I found it to be, er, personal in a certain
: way, and it has a certain, er,for the lack of other
: words, intimacy. I can't wait for you to tell me that
: you were just trying to do a good job.

Hi Frank,

I was just trying to do a good job. Seriously, I'm very glad that you got something personal from my DD story. There really isn't any point in me writing or drawing a story unless I am putting something personal and intimate into it. I'm really glad that you were sensitive to that.

: As for the run you're drawing, I've been talking to some
: other fans of yours, and the gereral opinion is that
: the
: very genuine aesthetic of yours might scare of the
: average DD/superhero reader. What reactions have you
: been receiving so far?

The overwhelming amount of response that I have recieved has been very positive. Some times I might get the implication that some younger readers or fans of the more standard fare comics work might have some struggle to appreciate some of the parts that they think are more "abstract" or when the story is told in a different way than they are used to.

But how else are there sensibilities going to grow, unless they are introduced to something differnt. I bet that five, ten years from now they will remember those stories and look back on them fondly. Usually I find that when people grow, the stuff that they tend to really love may also be stuff that disturbed, confused, or scared them when they were first introduced to it.

What I love to hear is when a reader says that at first they did not know what to think of it. It made a big impression, but it did not fit into thier paradigm. And then after reading more they have really grown to appreciate it.

Readers have to meet me half way. As a writer and as a reader, we are both going to get more out of it, the more we put into it. I'm not interested as a writer, artist or as a reader myself of reading something that is a passive experience. As a reader, as a viewer, I want to be involved. I want to be figuring it out. I want to experience it and not just have it told to me. So I can only write and paint the stories that I, as a reader, would enjoy. I can't bring myself to talk down to anyone.