"It works in the comic book, but as the audiences have gotten older and more sophisticated, I think the stories need to grow up with them. This is a story about a couple of rival gangs and what goes wrong in a couple of days"
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The subtext is also about control. McFarlane came up fighting corporate constraints at Marvel and later co-founding Image, where creators promised each other ownership and fewer editorial training wheels. “More sophisticated” isn’t only about the audience. It’s a creator staking a claim that he can deliver something leaner and sharper than cape-operatic sprawl: a contained, time-boxed narrative with human stakes. The phrase “a couple of days” is doing heavy lifting, telegraphing urgency and inevitability. No cosmic resets, no endless continuity patchwork - just the pressure cooker of bad decisions.
Framing it as “rival gangs” is a strategic translation. It pulls the story out of genre niche and into a recognizable social template: tribal loyalty, escalation, collateral damage. He’s not abandoning comics; he’s insisting they stop apologizing for being comics by borrowing the discipline of crime drama and tragedy.
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| Topic | Writing |
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| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
McFarlane, Todd. (2026, January 16). It works in the comic book, but as the audiences have gotten older and more sophisticated, I think the stories need to grow up with them. This is a story about a couple of rival gangs and what goes wrong in a couple of days. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-works-in-the-comic-book-but-as-the-audiences-98205/
Chicago Style
McFarlane, Todd. "It works in the comic book, but as the audiences have gotten older and more sophisticated, I think the stories need to grow up with them. This is a story about a couple of rival gangs and what goes wrong in a couple of days." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-works-in-the-comic-book-but-as-the-audiences-98205/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It works in the comic book, but as the audiences have gotten older and more sophisticated, I think the stories need to grow up with them. This is a story about a couple of rival gangs and what goes wrong in a couple of days." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-works-in-the-comic-book-but-as-the-audiences-98205/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2026.
