{"id":1803,"date":"2016-01-19T12:49:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T20:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/?p=1803"},"modified":"2023-12-20T12:51:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T20:51:23","slug":"devourer-of-words-034-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/devourer-of-words-034-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Devourer of Words 034: Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MARC BERNARDIN’S DEVOURER OF WORDS<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devourer of Words 034: Legacy<\/h1>\n\n\n
Marc Bernardin<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Toucan<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Marc<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a thought that sneaks into every writer\u2019s mind at one point or another, no matter the kind of work you\u2019re doing or the kind of medium you\u2019re operating. \u201cDoes this piece of work matter, in any way? Will anyone ever remember it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve got TV writer friends who\u2019ve been doing it for a quarter of a century, who\u2019ve worked on shows you have absolutely binged, who will still lament the fact that they haven\u2019t created \u201ctheir Lost<\/em>.\u201d All of us are working in the shadow of titanic comics like Sandman<\/em> or American Flagg<\/em> or Maus<\/em>, knowing that by and large what we\u2019re doing will never be spoken of in the same breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be hard to find the light when other things are casting such long shadows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the same way that no one ever sets out to make a bad movie, no one can possibly start working on something that\u2019s destined to be the Great American Whatever while actually being aware of that destiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about this recently, especially in the wake of David Bowie\u2019s death. Looking back on the breadth and depth of his work, there were a couple of albums released before Space Oddity<\/em>, but they\u2019ve been largely forgotten by the non-completist because they\u2019re not the Bowie we know to be Bowie. He hadn\u2019t discovered who he was going to be yet. He hadn\u2019t found his authentic self. (And, yes, \u201cauthentic\u201d even applies to someone who seemed to shapeshift before our eyes\u2014his desire to refashion himself, to treat image as much like an instrument as a guitar, was actually the removal of artifice and not the other way around.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho is your authentic self\u201d is a hard question to ask anyone no matter what their profession, but I wager it\u2019s even harder for someone in a creative pursuit. And even harder still if that which we make is so defined by the conventions of the work itself. While the types of comics being published today enjoy a greater variety than they ever have before, we\u2019re still dealing with\u2014for the most part\u2014a serial medium that tells genre stories. Many of us have to deal with capes and continuity, with house styles and corporate mandates. All of us have to deal with reader apathy and market forces that push stories down one road or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But all of the great works that will stand the test of time were created by someone with something to say. And the first step to having that something to say is to understand who you are. (That\u2019s not to say you\u2019ll have all the answers\u2014the joy of a serial medium like comics or television is that you can grow as the story grows. I don\u2019t for a second think that the Neil Gaiman who started Sandman<\/em> is the one who finished it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great art is created by great artists, and great artists have uncovered that thing about themselves they know to be true. The frustrating part is that, occasionally, that discovery is subconscious and they don\u2019t know it until it starts to surface in the work itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all want to leave a legacy behind us, be that one great book, or a section in a library. There\u2019s no cheat code that\u2019ll unlock legacy, besides to do the work and try to lead an examined life. Nor is there anything wrong with not being Stephen King. It should be the mark of a life\u2019s work if just one person comes up to you, unbidden, and says, \u201cI loved that book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I dunno, really. It\u2019s a constant struggle. Maybe the answer is, ultimately, to make the best stuff you can and let Crom sort it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marc Bernardin\u2019s Devourer of Words appears the third Tuesday of every month here on Toucan<\/em>!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Written by<\/p>\n\n\n

Marc Bernardin<\/div>\n\n\n

Published<\/p>\n\n\n