A Unit of Continuity

May 12th, 2006

Filed under: Comics

We need a new way of looking at continuity. It seems to be me that there needs to be a standardized score given to comics rating their continuity requirement. That way a new reader (or even an established one) will know before a comic or storyline starts exactly how much backstory they are required to be familiar with to enjoy and “get” the story.

Therefore, I am proposing a standardized unit for scoring comic book continuity. I suggest we call it the Geoff (abbreviated G). The standardized unit will be set as equal to Silver Age Batman. Therefore 1 Geoff (1G) is equal to the amount of continuity required to enjoy Silver Age Batman.

The Geoff score is set on a straightforward scale. A comic with a score of 2G required twice as much knowledge of continuity of a 1G comic. A book with a 0.5G score requires half as much knowledge.

At the basic score of 1G, the reader should be familiar with the main characters and their back-story, as well as familiar with the main villains and a little of their history. Only minimal knowledge of specific past storylines is required.

A story that that has recurrent characters with minimal backstory and no required knowledge of previous issues would be about 0.5G. These would include most children’s comics such as Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse, as well as many Golden Age comics.

Stories such as Scott Pilgrim or the initial Ex Machina storyline, which require no previous knowledge, have a continuity score of 0G. Generally, these scores don’t last long as backstory is fairly quickly accumulated, raising the scores for subsequent storylines to 0.5G or even higher.

At the other end of the scale would be the James Robinson’s Starman, Geoff John’s JSA, or pretty much any non-Conan story by Roy Thomas. These comics would all earn continuity score in the 3-4G range, depending the particular storyline. Most of Claremont’s X-Men stories would be in the 5G range, as would a large chunk of Legion of Super-Hero series.

Personally, I think this score should be displayed prominently on the cover (next to the S.C.R.U.B.S. score for Batman storylines, of course).

The Geoff Score is a surprisingly flexible concept:

  • There could be negative scores. These would be given to stories that purposefully throw out or ignore previously established continuity. Some readers would view these scores as a good thing, while established readers probably won’t. Strange would be a good example of a comic with a negative G score.
  • Just like computer games, dual ratings could be given for certain books. There would be the “Minimum Continuity Requirement” and the “Recommended Continuity Requirement.” For example, take a look at Sandman: The Doll’s House. For basic enjoyment, little knowledge is required other than who Morpheus himself is, so the minimum requirement at 0.5G. However, to fully understand all the intricacies of the storyline, it helps to know who the Silver Age Sandman was, who Hector and Lyta Hall were, and even who Matthew Cable was. This increases the Recommended Continuity Rating to 3G. So Sandman: The Doll’s House would be rated at 0.5G/3G.

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14 Responses to “ A Unit of Continuity ”

  1. tomthedog
    May 12th, 2006 at 11:30 am

    I like it! I wish there had been a continuity score on the Green Lantern Corps comic, so I wouldn’t have bothered (it’s got to be around 5-6 Gs, where I was hoping for more like 2). And Infinite Crisis gets infinity Gs.

  2. Anonymous
    May 12th, 2006 at 11:30 am

    These would work for non-comic books too. For example, Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age could get a Minimum Continuity Requirement of 0.0G (you don’t need to have read Snow Crash to get the main story) and a Recommended Continuity Requirement of maybe 0.3-0.4G (you need to have read Snow Crash to appreciate some of the setting details).

  3. David Campbell
    May 12th, 2006 at 3:19 pm

    What a great idea. You so smart, Dr. Scott.

  4. Canton
    May 12th, 2006 at 3:51 pm

    This is a great idea in theory, but would it work in practice? Certain companies need to smooth out their current rating systems before implimenting new ones. (e.g., How is She-Hulk rated A while Runaways is rated T+? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?)

    Don’t get me wrong, a continuity rating system would be very useful. But only if it worked.

  5. gorjus
    May 12th, 2006 at 4:00 pm

    I worry that Scott is going to want to start an “Approved by the Continuity Code” imprint so’s he can screen all comics early. I swear, though, there’s some logic in this. Some of the comics coming out right now ought to just say “don’t read this, you won’t frickin’ understand it unless you have been reading comics since ‘83.”

    She-Hulk is like Sandman, I think: you can get the concept in about .5G, but full maximum continuity pleasure is reached at 3 or so.

  6. Steven
    May 12th, 2006 at 4:19 pm

    Shouldn’t all fiction work that way? That you can enjoy it even if you know nothing else about it, but being versed in previous work deepens one’s understanding? Sticking just to comics, Watchmen should have a rating of 0 Gs, because it is a stand alone mini-series. But you understand a lot more about the characters and their deeper meaning by knowing them as their Charlton versions; as well as knowing some Bob Dylan songs and Coleridge’s minor works. In a perfect world, all comics would have a duel rating of 0 and infinity, so that the more you know, the more you can come back and get more out of the work.

  7. Redhead Fangirl
    May 12th, 2006 at 9:35 pm

    Continuity code! Ha! Perhaps that would stop me from trying to understand
    infinite multiverses and characters, where I feel like I need a “debriefing”. Well,
    that’s why we comic bloggers always have things to write about. This is why I love
    a new series, issue 1. Then you don’t get the “sigh, back when Claremont was writing
    Xmen in the 80s”…

  8. Ragnell
    May 13th, 2006 at 12:16 am

    Well, when I started out I preferred the well-into-their-history ones, about 3-5Gs, because it gave me stuff to research and back issues to find.

    But to each their own, I say this is a pretty good idea.

  9. Maire Smith
    May 13th, 2006 at 3:51 am

    The Dolls House was actually the first Sandman I read and almost the first DC comic I read. It was quite enjoyable enough to hook me firmly.

  10. Do You Feel Loved?
    May 13th, 2006 at 10:22 am

    links for 2006-05-13…

    Polite Dissent ยป A Unit of Continuity: comics, medicine, and medical comics Being a proposal to create a unit……

  11. Anonymous
    May 13th, 2006 at 8:03 pm

    Steven said “But you understand a lot more about the characters and their deeper meaning by knowing them as their Charlton versions; as well as knowing some Bob Dylan songs and Coleridge’s minor works.” Dr. Scott can dish out negative ratings this way too(”but you understand a lot more about how incompetent the characters are when they do surgery by having gone to medical school…”). Speaking of bad character surgeons, when’s the next Medical Review? Even I caught a mistake in Y #45, but I’m no doctor.

  12. mrmanatee
    May 16th, 2006 at 11:18 am

    I’d debate you on that Sandman: The Doll’s House score. I read it with no familiarity with the silver age Sandman, and I’ve gotta say, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, purpose-wise.

    More importantly, what about books that are heavily entrenched in backstory, normally rating 3+ Geoffs, but also throw out or debunk a previous storyline or two? Nothing comes to mind immediately but I’m sure they exist. How would that get rated?

  13. mrmanatee
    May 16th, 2006 at 11:23 am

    Also, if it the publisher could spare a bit of space inside, they could have a list of recommended reading for high-G comics.

    And there’s also the issue of comics that require lots of non-comics knowledge.

  14. Dr Archeville
    May 29th, 2007 at 2:30 pm

    Conveniently, “G” can also stand for “Gruenwald” (Mark Gruenwald) whose fanzine explored the concept of continuity (and he himself had almost all Marvel’s continuity and trivia memorized).

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