Rambling Man

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, I’ve been engrossed in other media forms for about a week and a half – much to my delight=) lets see- on advice from my friend Evan I checked out what was happening in the DC comics universe and the new Stephen King zombie novel (ty Shareaza, you slow-assed but incredibly wealthy bitch) along with a few others. So for the last few days I have been lost- immersed, if you will- listening to Clive Owen reading “Cell” to me or watching the interactions of some of my favorite comic book characters. Btw, if you haven’t given comics a fair shake as a story-telling medium you should- forget whatever misconceptions you have about crappy, four-color, melodramatic serialized storylines that always seem to end with a villain caught in a bat-rope or with a steel girder wrapped around him and go over to Evan’s blog and pester him mercilessly about a tale that’s right for you. Truth be told, all of my positive comic book experiences comes from his wealth of knowledge with only one or two exceptions.
If you are feelin’ frisky and want to try exploring on your own, here are a few suggestions:

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
-Thoughtful, compelling and thoroughly absorbing- if you are a fan of Neil Gaiman’s fiction you should not miss this.

The Watchmen by Alan Moore
-A multi-layered narrative about superhero archetypes and how they would function in a semi-realistic world. If for no other reason you should pick this up for the chapters dealing with Rorschach.

The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman
-Zombie movies generally deal with the event, i.e. the thing that causes the zombies to get up and get their groove on, and the ensuing 48-hr struggle for life… this book asks the obvious (and less explored) question, “What do we do now?” If you like the zombie genre you should definitely give this a shot.

The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
-Ah, everyone’s favorite Caped Crusader (with all ‘POW!’ and the ‘CLANG!’ and the ‘BIFF!’) has retired and is living the good life… until Frank Miller steps in and describes for us in details both stunning and subtle just how frickin’ crazy Batman is. Not a little crazy like how if my car isn’t perfectly centered between the lines when I park, I’ll sometimes spend a minute or ten straightening it, no… deeply disturbed like with the gradual realization that there is no Bruce Wayne and that there may have never been one to begin with.

Starman by James Robinson
-I remember when Evan suggested this title to me I tried to figure out if it was someone I had heard of before and I said, “Oh, you mean that guy with the staff and nothing else interesting about him, right?” Well, being the good’un that he is Evan didn’t react violently or even caustically (as I prolly would today in any similar situation), he even went so far as to dig his entire collection of Starman comics out and piled them neatly on my desk. And I am very glad he did because I still haven’t read a story that appeals to me in as many ways as this one did. Very funny, very poignant, very human and all in a visual medium that had some familiar faces as well as new ones.

The only warning I may throw at you concerning this particular medium is this: whenever possible read the stories in the graphic novel form rather than as a collection of serialized monthlies. I was fortunate enough to have Evan as my guide for the most part and was therefore able to either read for myself entire story arcs or posit questions at him to fill in the holes. Not so with monthly serials…. Not only do you have to wait a month for your next 22-page fix but also often there are major story devices or dramatic elements that are not resolved in the title you are reading. Now, I understand the reasoning behind this and I’m cool with publishers making an extra buck or adding extra exposure to other titles but to me it’s a little like the crossovers that you see on television (something happens on Law and Order that gets concluded next Tuesday on SVU) with this glaring exception: you have to pay extra to get the rest of the story. That sucked. It could be said that this is all moot cause I get my comics free off of P2P systems but I don’t think it makes the point less valid. The little bit of Catholic guilt that’s hard-wired into me and usually tells me to go buy or at least rent the things that I bootleg was entirely silent in this instance. In fact, it made me not want to go and buy them, at least in the monthly form. So, stick to the graphic novels and save yourself the heartache. Or, at least the neurosis.