Why Are UK Comic Writers So Edgy?

Comments · 772

• MA

  @malcomalexander9437 · 1 year ago · pinned

  Garth Ennis is Irish. I bring this up because there are a lot of Irish people who will want to fight you if you call them British.

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• KA

  @Kaiserhawk · 1 year ago

  They grew up in 70's and 80's Britain

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• L0

  @l0stndamned · 1 year ago

  I feel another contributing factor is how the UK was less limited by the comic's code than American writers, so they'd already been bouncing around the edgy ideas for a bit longer. As other commenters have mentioned, 2000AD gave them a lot of chance to work with this.

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• JO

  @Johnnysinsyt-vb5vd · 1 year ago

  Watchmen is so densely packed and well-structured that any re-read of the series is a daunting task

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• KA

  @KadenQuinnAgain · 1 year ago (edited)

  There’s also something to be said about how all these authors got there start in comics working on 2000A.D., a British sci-fi anthology comic which created characters like Judge Dread, Rogue Trooper, Zenith and so on. <br><br>The appeal of 2000 A.D. was that it was an anti-authority, anti-status quo comic book series - still published today. It was influenced heavily by British punk and the anti-establishment British political scene at the time (you’ll be hard pressed to find any writer there who would’ve been a fan of P.M. Margaret Thatcher). All the writers and artists for 2000 A.D. were disaffected Baby Boomers and Gen Xers crafting stories meant to wake people up in sometimes very crass and shocking ways. <br><br>Edgy shock value was something new for Boomers, Gen X, and early Millennials. It was about breaking taboos polite (mostly conservative) society would find offensive.<br><br>Gen Z and younger were born into the shock value produced by prior generations, so it’s just annoying and over done. A 40 year old comic book fan might have thought it was cool to see Old Man Wolverine rip his way out of inbred hillbilly Hulk’s stomach when he was young because it was so rare to see, but to us it’s just grotesque.<br><br>To former generations, what was gross and nasty and bloody and dumb was cool because it was taboo. To us, it’s just morbid. Life sucks already - I don’t want to see Superman pull Lex Luthor’s entrails out. The sentiment among most readers now - they’re ready for something light and fun, for Clark Kent to save the day and pull them out of whatever cloud of depression that’s been hanging over their heads

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• GA

  @gasmonkey1000 · 1 year ago

  It&apos;s not just comics. A lot of UK writers are pretty bleak too. Hell, Tolkein himself had a lot of dark themes in the Silmarilion. If I had to guess why it&apos;d be World War 2

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• RA

  @randommodnar7141 · 1 year ago

  &quot;Dr doom is just aura maxxing&quot;<br>So nothings changed with him

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• JU

  @judemanr7814 · 1 year ago

  They&apos;re not edgy. They&apos;re just projecting what it&apos;s like to live in Britain.

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• RO

  @rogueknight77 · 1 year ago

  I always find it funny that Garth Ennis favorite superhero is Superman

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• SH

  @shmeggalicious · 1 year ago

  Talks about Garth Ennis... doesn&apos;t mention Crossed. Two issues down you get a detailed scene of a man and his child being split in half after a few panels.

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• J0

  @J0hnny8bstract · 1 year ago

  I wouldn’t say watchmen is edgy, yes it deals with dark subjects but it handles a them with Grace and it actually contributes to the theme/story of the comic

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• CR

  @CropCirclePictures · 5 months ago

  Alan Moore refuses to sign my copy of Watchmen Babies

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