[review] [ZUM!] Amateur

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reviews by Steve Edgell

Amateur

Once upon a time, in a comic community not so different from our own, 
it seemed that there were only two sorts of people. You could either 
be a 'fan', usually a buyer, reader and collector of US comic books, 
or a 'pro', a writer, artist or editor working to produce the comic 
books bought, read and collected by fans. The comic retailers and 
'dealers' seemed to be left out of this social relationship, unless 
they doubled as fans or pros, and pros often doubled as fans anyway. 
So the fan was the common element and the pro was a kind of superfan, 
with special contributory powers. This was, in effect, a fan's-eye 
view of social identity, with comics and their contents as its 
currency.
Fastforward to just after the comic collectors' speculator bubble 
burst. The slump in the direct market, the firm sales system of 
distribution built by fans - their bid to become 'pros' - that had 
grown to encompass almost the whole US comic industry, precipitated a 
questioning and a revaluation of the currency on all sides.
Amateur captures some of the feeling of that latter period. Chris 
Butler's written intro puts it in its very title 'Marvel Comics Were 
Ace' - ie they aren't anymore. It's not simply a matter of 
disappointment or desperation. It seems to involve a kind of yearning 
to have Marvel comics ' value restored. Amateur puts the yearning 
into practice, taking the next step and trying to reinsert Marvel 
superheroes into a history marked by personal understanding or 
brought by the passage of time.
First up, Steve Martin's treatment of Captain America puts Cap in 
1942 Russia following the Red Skull , but in a winter setting which 
could be derived from the Nazi's invasion of the USSR as they 
slaughtered their way through what is now Belarus. Martin puts in the 
scenes that would have been left out of a Marvel Cap story: bodies 
from mass executions taken away for a christian burial, soviet guards 
kicking crucifixes from graves, an old woman making Cap wear the 
military fur hat that belonged to her dead son before  returning Cap 
to the fighting.
The second story, New York 1966 by Gavin Butler and pre- Guardian 
Jonathan Edwards , features the FF with Johnny Storm as alienated 
youth in Lost Weekend mode who hides from his sister and Reed 
Richards in a friendly lesbian bar. In the last story, Chris and 
Gavin Butler have Peter Parker drag Matt Murdoch uptown to pull by 
impressing a pair of ladies with Pete and Matt's super identities.
All stories turn on common humanity and a lack of uncomplicated 
resolution - that is, truer to social identity as lived outside the 
classic comic fan community, or indeed the classic Marvel comic. The 
FF story contains the closest attention to illustrative detail, 
enabling Edwards create strong characters graphically. However, 
despite a trite ending, it's Cap's moment in Russia which is the most 
touching, in that the real history of Eastern Europe is still out 
there, and still haunted by memories made of the materials used for 
this story's background.


For more info please see:
http://www.zumcomics.info/a/amateur.html