Big issues. Um, hmm, not sure. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by big issues (like, high concept projects like From Hell? Political commentary/satire? Dealing with social issues?), so I don't know whether or not I agree. (By the way, did you mean translated manga--of which you are the current champ--or all manga? Translated manga, yeah, not much of it's high concept or socially ambitious, untranslated, totally unknown quantity to me, and I have to remind myself that publishers are picking titles that will sell--even when it's Vertical publishing eight-hundred tomes by Tezuka dealing with human corruption and whatnot, they're banking on the prestige of his name, and no one ever tried to claim Tezuka wasn't entertaining--and therefore will almost invariably pass over ambitious, commercially unpromising works that would be more challenging than most of what's on our bookshelves right now.
I also know I lack the context to be able to pick up on much in the way of existing satire/commentary in manga as it pertains to Japanese politics, and if it's not too blatant, even commentary as it pertains to global politics, so I'm not entirely comfortable saying it's not there at all.
Even as I type all this, I can think of titles in translation that contradict all this, but not very many, and mostly older, and therefore not really relevant to the point.
It's kind of hard for me to examine contemporary American comics with an eye towards "big issues" because when I think about the part I know best, superhero comics, I'm mostly blinded by rage and disgust, and that naturally does not lend itself to making thoughtful observations. I see what you mean about giving them credit for trying, no matter how badly they do it, but if they're trying and they keeping screwing it up, maybe that says something about the wisdom of making the effort. Can comics handle intellectual rigor and depth and big issues? Absofuckinglutely. Can superhero comics? I don't know. There have been some wonderfully readable results from attempts made over the decades, but you have to consider context as well--if a political superhero comic works as a political discussion by subverting the superhero part, it's not really succeeding on all the levels it's trying, and it's not proof of success, even if it's good. And vice versa.
As for the non-superhero stuff, I don't think I know the field of possibilities well enough right now to be making sweeping generalizations about content. I've been slowly broadening my horizons for years, but I feel like I'm in a body of water where I still don't know the depth.
pt 2
I also know I lack the context to be able to pick up on much in the way of existing satire/commentary in manga as it pertains to Japanese politics, and if it's not too blatant, even commentary as it pertains to global politics, so I'm not entirely comfortable saying it's not there at all.
Even as I type all this, I can think of titles in translation that contradict all this, but not very many, and mostly older, and therefore not really relevant to the point.
It's kind of hard for me to examine contemporary American comics with an eye towards "big issues" because when I think about the part I know best, superhero comics, I'm mostly blinded by rage and disgust, and that naturally does not lend itself to making thoughtful observations. I see what you mean about giving them credit for trying, no matter how badly they do it, but if they're trying and they keeping screwing it up, maybe that says something about the wisdom of making the effort. Can comics handle intellectual rigor and depth and big issues? Absofuckinglutely. Can superhero comics? I don't know. There have been some wonderfully readable results from attempts made over the decades, but you have to consider context as well--if a political superhero comic works as a political discussion by subverting the superhero part, it's not really succeeding on all the levels it's trying, and it's not proof of success, even if it's good. And vice versa.
As for the non-superhero stuff, I don't think I know the field of possibilities well enough right now to be making sweeping generalizations about content. I've been slowly broadening my horizons for years, but I feel like I'm in a body of water where I still don't know the depth.