When I think about it, the only shows that I end up liking in the long term are episodic – set up the characters and scenario, then provide the problem and conclusion in single episodes. Otherwise, I end up angry at the writers for messing up the characters that I like.

But, like you mentioned, I’ve become really selective about what I buy because I can’t shell out $3 per book if the story is ultimately going to fail. I end up waiting for the trades to come out (which is technically cheating the pure serial system). There’s something about writers who can “humanize” superheroes that’s really compelling, though.

Thanks for the comment, Brian, great analysis of that market!

It does an excellent job of “starting in the middle” and “forgetting complexity” (they refuse to tell us how the zombie infestation started!), but for the most part it drives pretty slow and only occassionally ends on a cliffhanger. Of course, the writers do such a good job with the characters and the conflict that it makes up for those other points. It’s a really good show.

I haven’t seen “Game of Thrones” yet, but I’ve read the first two books, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out on TV.

Leave Them Hanging: For sure, the cliffhanger is a staple of the comics industry. (Digressing from superheros I always thought one of the main reasons for Walking Dead’s huge success as a comic was Robert Kirkman’s mastery of and total commitment to a serial structure and pacing – pretty much every single early issue ends with a cliffhanger, a dramatic reveal or an OMG moment, which all the preceding pages kind of exist to bring into being).

Drive Fast: An instruction that not enough modern superhero comics adhere to, I suspect. They acquired a fascination with ‘decompressed’ story-telling a while back which has resulted in comparatively slow story-telling – a potential problem when you’re asking readers to hand over $3+ for just 20 or so pages of stroy once a month.

Avoid the Soap Opera Trap: Aside from actual TV soap operas, superhero comics have become pretty much the most soap operaish thing around, I suspect? Their entire reason for existence is the endless complication and recapitulation of the lives of a static, if vast and occasionally rotating, cast of characters. This is what the hardcore superhero comic fans want, apparently; maybe not so much what the wider public is after. All endings are temporary, and subject to later retcon, because the whole business model fundamentally requires that this costumed superhero soap opera is never going to end, or even change in any fundamental or lasting ways … if it did, what would happen to those precious merchandise sales and movies?

Start in the Middle: Good advice for most writers in most media, I think. Superhero comics struggle with it – whatever their writers’ best intentions – because their entire industry is based on ‘backstory’, but there are nevertheless some talented creators around who construct scenes brilliantly.

Forget complexity: Superhero comics don’t attempt hard sf, of course, but they’re burdened by a different kind of complexity: that of narrative. Their world-building consists of the gigantic history of story and character interactions upon which any current story is nowadays founded, and the spider’s web of interconnections dictated by a shared universe. It’s a particular kind of complexity that, again, appeals to the long-term fan but maybe not the general public.

So … superhero comics: failing serials or a special case that’s adapted to the commercial realities of a changed world?

And, contrary to the impression the above might give, I actually like quite a few superhero comics!

* Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* The Cugel the Clever Saga
* Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, etc..
* The Sandman Graphic Novels
* Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run.
* League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
* The Filth
* Firefly
* The Elric Series
* The Amber Series

I think that the only tip left missing here is that most compulsive serials are based on a unique and fascinating character. You mentioned Jack Bauer, for example. What would The Hunger Games be without Katniss? I’d imagine that any seriously successful serial would have a similarly unique and captivating central character that comes to define the series as much as the action/plot does.