Comics

[Brian G Turner]

Time to bring this subject up more fully.

Never bothered much with Marvel - and only toyed with basic DC for a short while, before discovering the Vertigo mature series lines.

Some amazing writers in there - Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, and Jamie Delano, to name a few names.

I collected most of the original Sandman Series, along with most of Grant Morrison's writing of Doom Patrol. I didn;t start proper with Hellblazer until around issue 20 - but it is a matter of great pride that I do have issues 1 and 2 of it. (None of you have ever heard of it, have you? )

Anyway, I did miss out on the original issues of the later classic graphic novels - Frank Miller's "Dark Knight Returns", and, of course, the inimitable "Watchmen" series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. My second pride is having a Watchmen T-Shirt somewhere, showing the main characters lined up - too precious to wear more than once (besides, it shrunk in the wash!!).

Anyway, comics...

 

[Sci-fi_gEEk]

Cool!!
I was thinking about starting a thread about comics. More specifically on the literary and artistic value of the comic. I did a pretty informal report on it in an english class I had, and from what a read, it seemed to be a topic of great debate. A lot of people still look down on the comic book as a lower form of writing. Personally I can't see how, after reading a some of the comics out there, one could think them a lower form of anything. Sure there are some trashy comics, but hell there's plenty of trashy books. The Sandman series and Watchmen were awsome and every bit as thought provoking as any book that I've read.

I've read the Sandman series and Watchmen (though I think I need to read it again) and I've read some of the other more popular comics, Spiderman, Superman, Batman, a lot of the "man" comics They were awsome, both in terms of artwork and story. But the comics that I read the most are the ones in the newspaper. Yep, I don't know what I'd do without the funnies, the paper would be too depressing without them.

One comic in particular, for me, stands above the rest: Calvin and Hobbes. I've almost got all the books and once I'm not a broke college student I plan on getting the rest. I think that a lot of people underestimate the funnies type comic, seeing them as just another way to tell a joke. But if you look deeper there's a lot more going on than a smart punch line.

One example is in Bill Watterson's use of frames. Watterson went through quite a battle so that his strips were no longer confinded to preset frames. He felt that it was essential that he be able to manipulate the frames for each of his strips. You can see the progression in his work, from the traditional squares to his later use of circles, long narrow rectangles, and even sigle frames. Just by manipulation of frames Watterson enhanced his story telling abilities to the point where sometimes he didn't even need words.

Well then I think I've said a little more that I originally planned like I said I've done some reading on it so I've kinda put a lot of thought in to it. I stop now so that I don't take up a whole page

the gEEk

 

[Twelve]

Ever since my mom read a Spider-Man comic to me, I was hooked....hooked as can be.

I looooooooooooooooooooooooooooove comics. I'm a true Marvelite...over the years, I've collected MAINLY

Spider Man
Iron-Man
Avengers
Thor

But, I've bought so many comics in the Marvel universe that it would be impossible to make a list.

I've taken a pause from the hobby these past few years, due to financial causes having to do with complications of the opposite sex, but I plan to come back to collecting with a vengeance.

Heck, I want to write for Marvel one day. My latest attempt to beg for a job there was just this past summer...

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