Beginning the Exploration
Comics aren’t just about superheroes. It’s an easy mistake to make. And I don’t mean in the sense that Watchmen
has superheroes but isn’t really about superheroes. There are lots of different genres within the
comics medium. Name your favorite comic
book movie.
Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Was it a movie in the Avengers universe? Maybe one of Nolan’s Batman films. Maybe you really liked Hellboy. You might be surprised to find that your favorite
movie based on a comic is actually Road to Perdition, The Crow, Whiteout
or Red.
Comic book movies without the capes and tights! |
I know there are a lot of things that keep people from
reading comics and I’ll post about those another time but I think the major
element that keeps people from comics is a seeming lack of genre
diversity. Plenty of people think that
if they don’t like superheroes then there’s not much point to reading a comic. And to be sure the medium of comics isn’t as
diverse as television, movies, or books.
There are reasons for this (again perhaps the subject of a later post)
but comics are diverse enough that I’m certain there is something for
everyone. The trick is to find comics
that speak to your interests. And
without too much long windedness we have arrived at the point of this blog.
Physists, Teen Girls, Serial Killers, and Slackers are just a little of what's waiting for you in the land of comics. |
There are numerous websites devoted to making sure you know
what Spider-Man and Batman are up too but not nearly so many that point to what
else is going on in comics. Each week I
will post a review of a comic (whether ongoing or finite) that focuses on
something other than the cape clad clan.
Aside from that I want to address some of the myths that often surround
comics (IE: Comics make you nerdy, comics are for kids, Graphic Novels aren’t
comics). If you’ve never read a comic
before I hope to change that and if you have I hope to point you in the
direction of some comics you might have over looked. But mostly, I hope you enjoy the ride.