Some of my favourite comics...
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Right. Now that I've had my fix, on to the meat of
this page: comics! Instead of waxing lyrical about this hobby,
which many may think strange for a grown man to indulge in, I shall
defer to Travis Johnson's article in Grok magazine, who explains,
far better than I ever could, the joys and pitfalls of grown men reading
comics:
"A big chunk of it is down to the perception of comics as a juvenile product. You know, kid's stuff. Well let's nip that in the bud right now. For the record: comics are a medium, not a genre. There's a whole range of stuff being published, from your classic Marvel tights 'n' pecs superheroes to the products of Alan Moore's twisted little mind. There are even porno comics, for chrissake. Not reading comics is like not watching movies, or not listening to music. You are cutting yourself off from a whole vista of experience."
Frankly, I can't put it any better.
(Travis Johnson's article appeared in vol. 32, issue 3 (2000) of Grok magazine, published by the Curtin University Student Guild.)
The article goes on to wax lyrical about comics, and is really a very good read in its own right. Allow me to quote some more:
"Are comics literature? Good question. A better one would be, can comics be literature? Or, refining the point, serious literature? Hell yes. Neil Gaiman picked up a World Fantasy Award for his work on The Sandman. Grant Morrison deserves a tin cup for The Invisibles. Alan Moore should get something for, well, pretty much everything he's ever done. But these are the cream of the crop. Remember, we're speaking of a medium, not a genre. There are good and bad movies, there are good and bad novels, and the same follows for comics. You've just gotta look around."
Well, that's my justification in a nutshell. Another
is that no less a "serious" publication than Time Magazine saw
fit to publish a top 10 list of Graphic novels. Their 2007 list:
- Achewood
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier
- All Star Superman
- Marvel Zombies 2
- Jack of the Fables, Vol. 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape
- Erfworld
- The Principles of Uncertainty
- Exit Wounds
- Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm
- The Complete Peanuts, 1963-1964
And also consider Roger Ebert's best animated films of 2010.
Now, justifications aside, I can get to the serious stuff. My tastes in comics are eclectic; they range far and wide, from the European-style BD (Bande Desinées), such as Gaston Lagaffe, the British tradition of 2000 AD, Judge Dredd Megazine and Warrior, to the more well-known American comics, such as Spawn and Batman etc.
As this page is still under construction, I haven't had the time to include details on everything I like, so I'll concentrate on a couple of titles for now: 2000 AD and the Megazine.
These are not a single series, but a brand name that covers many titles; ABC Warriors, Judge Dredd, Slaine, and two of my favourites: Shimura and Anderson, PSI Division.
A very good fan page for 2000 AD has been put together by Justin Smith (it requires a Java-enabled browser for full functionality) which, amongst others, contains a database of 2000 AD characters, and the issues in which they feature.
As I said, this page is still under construction, so I'll stop here with, once again, a quote from Travis Johnson:
"...at least take a look. There's some strange shit out there. In a medium where flying men in tight underpants, strange beings from another world and psychotic, revenge driven vigilantes are the norm, the stories pushing the envelope are on the semtex end of the Mindblowing Scale. Give 'em a shot."
