Wednesday, November 13, 2002

 
COMICS I'M READING.
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Here are some of the comics I read every month (or whenever they come out), along with some notes. This list is certainly not complete.

I always read all the comics written by Brian Michael Bendis. That includes
Alias, about a detective who explores the dark underbelly of the Marvel Universe, in which superheroes have the same personal flaws that other celebrities do.
Powers, about a police force that has to deal with a world with superheroes.
Daredevil, which has been spectacular lately, and is now being made into a movie, on the basis of Bendis's work; and
Ultimate Spider-Man which really get's inside young Peter Parker's head in a very realistic, believable way.
Bendis's scenes are very cinematic, and his dialogue rings really true, and is always compelling.

Everything by Alan Moore, including
Tom Strong is an homage to the adventure comics of the 40s and 50s.
Top Ten hasn't been published in a while, but it's about a police force in a world where everybody has superpowers, but not everybody fights or causes crime.
Tomorrow Stories also hasn't had a new issue in a while. It's a collection of short stories, which usually satirize the medium of comics.
Promethea is about two women exploring a world of myth; and
The League of Distinguished Gentlemen is about a team of 18th century science fiction characters (the invisible man, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll, etc.).
I don't think any of these are quite as good as his best work, which was the 1985 series Watchmen, and his 80s work on Miricleman and Swamp Thing, which inspired the not-so-good movie. He's got a bunch of books of his work out.

Everything by J. Michael Straczynski. Unfortunately, that's only
Rising Stars, about a town where a group of young children get super-powers and grow up to be seen as a threat by a paranoid U.S. government; and
The Amazing Spider-Man
He's also got a series that just finished called Midnight Nation, but I missed it. It's supposed to be published as a collection soon.

Everything by Grant Morrison, including
The Filth, which I don't understand to well, about a super-secret organization; and
The New X-Men

His best work was in the 80s, on Animal Man and The New Doom Patrol.

Also,

X-Statix by Peter Milligan and drawn by Michael Allred is a look at a world in which superheroes are treated like spoiled celebrity athletes.

Incredible Hulk is really good lately. It's really "think-y".

Green Arrow is also very smart. Until last month, it was written by Kevin Smith, the screenwriter of Clerks and Chasing Amy.

Uncanny X-Men is pretty good since Chuck Austin started writing for it.

Spider-Man's Tangled Web. This clever series, which features a different writer-artist pair each month, focuses on the "marginal" people in Spider-Man's life. What do his enemies do when they're not fighting him, for example? It's hit or miss, since the creative team is always changing, but it's usually pretty good.

The Fantastic Four has been pretty good since Mark Waid started writing it a couple months ago.

Captain America is interesting in light of the events of 9/11.

The Ultimates is a retelling of the Avengers. It's just okay.

The Call of Duty. These three interlocking series are kind of mediocre. I was going to stop reading them, but then they said there would be just a few more issues, so I figured I'd stay 'til the end.

Some comics that are not published very regularly, but I love are

The ACME Novelty Library by Chris Ware. It's absolutely brilliant, and one of the very best things I've ever read. The main story arc was published recently as "Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth", and it might be the saddest thing I've ever read.

Optic Nerve by Adrian Tomine. I think it's been a year or so since an issue came out, but there are great. They are so emotional and real and compelling. Why can't TV be this good? Some of his stories have been published in book form

Various titles by Pete Bagge. He used to publish Hate, but now there's only the occasional annual or one shot. Though his recent series Yeah! was very disappointing.

I've left out a bunch that I didn't think were worth mentioning, and, I'm sure, some that I've forgotten. And I usually check out one or two new titles every week, though they don't usually pan out.

As you can see, one of the things that unites the comics I read, is that they take a new, and more realistic look at what the world would be like if people really had super-powers, an idea pioneered in Alan Moore's brilliant and ground-breaking book Watchmen. This is the basic premise of such comics as Alias, Powers, Top Ten, Rising Stars, and X-Statix, but it is also a major theme of every one of the super-hero comics I still read. In the 80s and early 90s, the great writers were all doing "alternative" comics about the occult or weird, misunderstood aliens or forgotten 60's characters. In the mid to late 90s, there weren't many good comics and I stopped reading them. But just a couple years ago, Marvel hired all the great writers away from D.C., and put them to work writing their mainstream superhero comics, and they're great. I never thought I'd be reading superhero comics again. I stopped when I was a kid, like everyone else. But, at least the ones I've recommended, have gotten really, really worthwhile.

This is The Official Record. 2:28 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/11/comics-im-reading.html


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