Continuing again with a special double-shot of Witless Dictionary fun for the week and another term of art inspired by the Prattle's bestest friend, the superlative Diana Kingston-Gabai:
Third Alternative--Term (in relation to comics) used to describe anything that comes along in opposition to the Big Two companies who upends the stagnant binary structure and injects some life into things again.
The best example of this in recent memory would be the rise of Image Comics in the early 90's. While it may not have led to anything we would recognise as "good comics" (whatever that means now) the energy and vitality Image brought to the medium ended up, in general refreshing the entire genre of superhero comics.
I don't argue it was all for the good, mind you, but the rise of Image forced the Big Two to try things they might not have done otherwise and it allowed some new blood a chance to make their mark in superhero comics.
It wasn't all for the good, but it was necessary, it can be argued.
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You know, if we apply the principle of the Third Alternative to genre, it seems there should be a middle ground between Silver Age Bwah-Ha-Ha and the current Crapsack World mentality. But nothing comes to mind.
Unless you cross mediums and say that something like "Something Positive" or "Starslip Crisis" is the Third Alternative by virtue of being influenced by those two modes and yet refusing to fully commit to either of them...
There should be, but it hasn't been tried, and sadly the market's not large enough to launch it with enough volume that it can drown out the signal-to-noise from Marvel and DC.
Well, it could be, but that's more an example of the form generating an alternative rather than an industry.
True... and even then, it's not really an Alternative because there's no impetus for readers to choose one or the other, since webcomics are free (mostly) and print comics are not. With TV (particularly SF), there seems to be an unspoken rule that you can't be both a Padawan and a Trekkie, and God only knows what would happen if you tried to combine all three options...
If you combined all three, well obviously the space-time continuum would rupture. ;)
Well, no impetus and no clear provider of an alternative view at the moment (the days when you could have companies like Image and Valiant, both of which, for all the crap I talk about both of them--and will in the future--very much had their own "voice") doesn't help. Also, you have to push against the fact that people are by nature very lazy and would rather have something hand-delivered to them sooner than make it themselves or sift around looking for it.
Sad, but true... :(
Isn't it just?
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