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This is Why We Love Comics
fredzilla
Posts: 2,131
This week is Geek Week on YouTube (you know, because geeks are so underrepresented on the interwebs and you can never find geek related media anywhere). This was posted the other day and I thought it would make for an interesting thread.
http://youtu.be/PPkP12w9b3E
I love comics because, to me, they can be a metaphor for the spiritual state of man, that life's frailty requires the supernatural for sustainability.
But that's me. What about you? Why do you love comics?
http://youtu.be/PPkP12w9b3EI love comics because, to me, they can be a metaphor for the spiritual state of man, that life's frailty requires the supernatural for sustainability.
But that's me. What about you? Why do you love comics?
Comments
Nowadays, I still REALLY love comics, but I think more for the nostalgia aspect. Oh, I still love some of the newer stuff, but I think just the act of reading a comic or graphic novel reminds me of simpler times, with fewer burdens and responsibilities.
*please note that the shy-guy blinking emoticon is also being used in an attempt to disarm any potential anger or frustration you may have with the obvious joke just prior to said emoticon. ;) **
**oh, you get the idea...
Adding another thing you love about comics keeps it on topic.
Adding criticism, even lighthearted criticism, just turns it into a meta discussion. Which I am guessing was not your intention.
There was a time in the late 90s when I would go into a shop with money in my hand, and not find anything I wanted to read. In retrospect, there were some gems I was missing then. But these days there are more books, creator-owned and corporate, than I have time or money for. I never leave a shop without finding something to try or catch up on. Which is great. I feel like all the books I pick are ones I am excited to get. And some titles I am not doing now will be stacked up and waiting for me later.
I think it is a great time to be a comics fan.
Then they became my salvation, I had literally just left an abusive relationship when I discovered Oracle and the Birds of Prey. I was left with nothing from the relationship, I had lost all my friends, broken ties with a lot of my family and had to leave a lot of belongings with him just to make a quick break. I felt emotionally crippled and then there is Barbara Gordon who is physically paralysed and still manages to run a superhero team and kick ass. It gave me hope, the strength of superheroes became my goal to build myself up again.
Then when I met fellow geeks like the CGS UKers and Geoff Johns I began to feel like a human again, and comics helped do all that.
I especially love that I can share that excitement with my two daughters, who share in my passion for comics, and I can experience some of my favourite issues again through their eyes.
Comics do in fact rule.
3-4 years old - "My sisters have these cool things with colorful pictures in them. I must destroy them, but first I will look at the pretty pictures."
5-8 years old - "Oh, these things tell a story. Well, that's pretty cool. Hey, here's a word I don't get. I should go look it up. Supergirl is awesome!"
9-12 years old - "Well, now I have an allowance and they made a comic out of these Micronauts toys I love. Oooh, and Shogun Warriors! And Godzilla!"
13-16 years old - "I don't know if I'll ever get a girlfriend, but if I do I hope she's Kitty Pryde...or maybe even Terra! Holy crap I just saw up Supergirl's skirt!"
17-18 years old - "You can take your Kerouac and Salinger and keep 'em. I have Frank Miller and Alan Moore. The world sucks, and I've written a song about it."
19-21 years old - "God I can't wait 'til I have money again so I can afford my hobby! Also, what do you mean I can't write my thesis on Moore's impact on storytelling? Is this an institute of higher learning or what?!?"
22-30 years old - "Well, I can't afford the variant foil-wrapped poly-bagged version of the X-Men...but that frees up plenty of funds for Maxx, Strangers in Paradise, Azrael (hey, it was good!), and other fun books."
31 - 33 years old - "You mean I no longer have to special order manga or seek it out in the back room or bargain bin of my LCS? It's right out here in public view? O, thing of wondrous beauty!"
34 years old - "I just cracked a Namor joke and that girl knew what I was talking about. She will be mine. Oh yes...she will be mine."
35 years old - "And so we stand here, on the bridge of the Enterprise (yes we did), to ensure this man and this woman live long and prosper..." (And yes...the honeymoon was SDCC!)
36 years old - "I don't know that I can really afford my hobby anymore. I mean, I have a wife now, and other commitments. What's this DCBS thing the guys on this podcast keep talking about?"
37 - 38 years old - "Hey Al. I understand you like comics. I want to draw one. Get off your ass and write it. We'll call it Thugs!, and eventually it'll be a multi-million dollar franchise..."
39 - 44 years old (aka present day) - "Hi. I saw your artwork at this convention and I wonder if you'd look at my portfolio and give me some advice on what I could improve on... (this is said to me, not me saying it to someone else)"
That...is why comics rule...
I still remember buying bootleg dvds of the Maxx and the Tick off ebay shortly after I went up to UGA. It was a great day.
What was cool about them was they were "interchangeable" - you could pull parts off of them and make different vehicles or characters depending on how creative you could get.
Around the same time, Marvel comics got the license to create a comic book series about them, and Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden got the job to do it. Rather than just make a book about toys, they created a whole universe with new characters unique to the comic, and it developed into a life all its own, long after the toy line died out. I can't recommend this series enough if you like old school Sci-Fi/Fantasy tales with fun characters who've stood the test of time (they recently showed up in the Hulk Gamma Corps series).
How much of an impact did they have on me? I met Michael Golden at SDCC this year and spent a small mint to get a commission of one of the main characters - Marionette: