Do You Enjoy... Comic Books?

Two peanuts were walking down the street. One was a salted.*


Lets go back in time. The year is 2001. The season is Fall. The place is a bus. The event is a trip to a football game. There I was, fitting the mold of a diligent student athlete. My textbook was in my hand. I was reading. We have officially set the scene. I glanced up to rest my eyes and noticed a fellow freshman lineman who, upon that first glance, appeared to be even more studious than I. His bag was near to bursting with what I imagined to be various educational materials. Further inspection proved that to be a false assumption. My friend (and future best man) was in the midst of a Batman comic book. His bag? Full of comics. Being the serious minded student I was, I tossed my book into my bag and asked Chris a) if he would lend me some reading material, and b) what he recommended. That was the day I got hooked.

This was by no means the first time I'd been exposed to panels and word bubbles. As a kid, I loved reading Spider-man. Calvin and Hobbes books were read and reread for most of my life, as was The Far Side. But that bus ride was the first time since puberty that I had picked up a superhero based comic book. That trip I blasted through a bunch of Batman. Chris was a big fan. Over the next four years, I checked many a trade paperback out his library. Batman, X-Men, and Justice League were some of the first I devoured, but soon, my friend handed me The Authority, Top 10, and Conan the Barbarian. My mind was blown.

Before you poo-poo the world of comics and write me off as a geek, I would like to offer you a challenge. Head down to your local comic shop and wander around a bit. Are you a fan of Grimm's classic stories? Pick up Fables. Want a new spin on the idea of a superhero team? Read Authority. Need a laugh? Calvin and Hobbes or Lio will be happy to oblige. Not every comic is full of adults in spandex punching bad guys. Though, if you take the time to peruse a few titles, you may find that costumed heroes are not all cut from the same cloth. While, I'm not the biggest fan of Reed Richards and his irradiated family, I eagerly stroll to my mailbox each month to pick up my newest issue of Deadpool**.

Some titles are pretty straight forward "good guy beats up bad guy" stuff, but every once in a while you run across something like Goon, an Eric Powell masterpiece, or Preacher, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, that leaves you with the same warm glow and racing thoughts you get when you put down a Heinlein classic. A good comic (and this applies to superhero slugfests as well) is characterized by deep, three-dimensional characters, art that supplements and enhances the story, and a story whose elements could work just as well were they not set in a City*** full of heroes .

The next time you're in need of reading material. Look around for your friendly neighborhood comic book geek and ask him or her what's good. You might be surprised.


p.s.

They weren't mentioned individually, but other AMAZING comic writers and creators include Alan Moore , Frank Miller, and Chris Brimmage. I recommend reading anything and everything written by any of them.



* That joke is for you Kammie.

** My brother-in-law got me subscriptions to Deadpool and Thunderbolts for Christmas (Thanks Troy!).

*** To my fellow grammar Nazis, that capital C is intentional.