- Clearly, a gross injustice was perpetrated against the good people of the world last evening,
and the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl XL. As far as the Seahawks losing, yeah that sucks.
The proper trash has been talked, razzing has been razzed, and general shaming delivered.
The gross injustice is the fact that there was this huge deal about the lame ass doctor show
that my fiancé loves being about Code Black! I was thinking, “Man, at least this crappy show
could be good this week. How can anything called Code Black be bad?” Well it turns out
that Code Black is just a stupid bomb and now some chic has to hold it in this other guys
chest cause Christina Ricci (who is looking hot as balls) couldn't hack it. The only cool thing
at all about Code Black, is that the explosive device is a mortar shell that two jack hole WWII
re-enactors shot themselves with.
So as you cam imagine, I needed something to do in a hurry, other then cry myself to sleep
cause of the lameness of Super Bowl XL. So I plugged in the head phones and watched
Batman Begins again. I have been slowly getting back into comic books. I kinda missed
the boat growing up cause my family was poor. Even the fifteen bucks a month to follow
your favorite titles was hard to come up with. I dabbled a little in high school with collecting
comics when I was making my own income, and then in college when I was blowing my
student loans on stupid shit. Now, so much cool stuff has happened in comics that there is
no way I could ever catch up, and I have to be choosy with what I go in for.
For those of you like me, that have an interest in comics, but are not interested in adding
another money consuming addiction to your repertoire of things that currently or will one day
piss your wife off (pending you want a wife, which is cool if you don’t, there is no hate at
DaMommasboyz for the gays, seriously, everyone hates childofkorn128376985704 cause
he is an idiot, they could care less that he is gay) I will offer up what I have been doing. It is
an affordable way to get a good comic read.
The name of the game is graphic novels. The bummer part about graphic novels is that they
only tend make really popular titles into collections. The cool thing about graphic novels is
that they tend to only make popular titles in a collection. What you lose in obscure, but great,
one or two book titles, I am sure you make up for by missing thirty issues of crap.
Collections are pretty great too cause, even thought they set ya back twenty-five bucks, it is a
good couple days reading, and maybe a week if ya just read them on the john.
There are a lot of crappy comic books out there. So content wise I tend to go pretty main
stream. Go for things that suite your taste. From the stand point of the casual reader, DC
Comics tends to be your story stuff, while Marvel is your bashing crap, glitzy, super hero
fare. I am sure that there are exceptions on other side, but my sweeping generalizations are
safe enough. Both are important for getting you comic book fix.
For lots of superheroes doing lots of cool shit you are safe with the mutant books. X-men is
good shit, and lots of cool stuff has happened to them. The title is also a big draw for some
of the best artists, so X-men books tend to be prettier then most others. Spiderman is also a
really good source. Basically if you know the name already, you are prolly in for a good read.
Same goes for DC. I really like the way that Batman gets drawn most of the time. And
Superman’s artists tend to stylistically mirror the image of the super hero himself. Even
when Superman gets an avant garde penciler, it still hints at traditional. However, the
stories of these two heroes kick a lot ass. That is not to say that some stupid shit hasn't
happened to both of them, but that is the nature of the beast.
Now for the good stuff. I don’t want to take away from any of the aforementioned stuff. It is
all cool as hell. Neil Gaimen is pretty much my favorite living fiction writer. He wrote for DC’s
Vertigo label and reinvented Sandman. But that is just the beginning. The Vertigo label
boasts some of the most ass kicking anti-heroes out there. Preacher (Where a very blond
and British John Constantine rears his demon hating head.) are just a few. These graphic
novels pretty much float my boat. They are some of the coolest stories I have had told to me
in any form of media. The art is often stylistic, which takes some getting used to.
Lastly for shout out purposes I will mention Sin City, of course, and anything Matt Wagner
does.
If you follow comics even a little I haven’t told you anything you don’t know I am sure. But for
those who were in the dark as I am, this little guide could help you out with some pretty good
reading. As I wrap this up I realize that I have not been near subversive enough in this week’
s installment, so let me let you on the last, and best tip for reading comics. If you are ever
wary about buying a graphic novel from a mega-media distributor that is located near you,
do what the Baron does. Park your ass on one of their comfy, over stuffed, coffee shop
looking chairs with the book, and read it. All of it. For free.
