On Reading Graphic Novels discussion

I fear that I may be outgrowing my childhood love of comic books, or least my ability to stomach badly-written comics about superheroes.

I still eat up the well-written ones, like Invincible or Madman, but the general ones just aren't grabbing me anymore, and I find I'm enjoying older comics more, and in a historical context, rather than for anything else.

Yes, this does in fact make me feel old. :(

I just don't get quite the enjoyment out of them lately, and have been more likely to look for underground and indie stuff instead, or at least stuff that's not from the big two. I'm even a little non-plussed on the Vertigo material.

So yeah, I may be at a comics crisis of my own at a time when DC seems to think that's a yearly occurrence. I'm not exactly sure what to think about it, either. Any ideas from the peanut gallery?

-Rob

Don't think of in terms of getting old, think of it in terms of your tastes maturing resulting in getting more selective, which I think is a good thing.

"Surrender gracefully the things of youth..."

When I was a kid, I was really into Daredevil comics, and Transformers comics, and Firestorm, and X-Men, and some others like that. I still have a bunch of them, and my son has enjoyed them, I'm glad I kept them. But they no longer really interest me, the superhero genre seems relatively facile and shallow overall. I moved on to comics with more substance, more literary value, though comics in general no longer hold such a high place in my life as they did when I was a kid.

I still enjoy them, though, and still keep a collection. I still pick up new issues of Fables and DMZ; and I keep a good sized collection of more substantial comics, mostly Vertigo, in long boxes on shelves. The Sandman books still captivate me when I re-read them every five or six years; V For Vendetta is still brilliant, a classic, and Watchmen is still as relevant and bitingly satirical as ever. Shade The Changing Man still seems as weirdly and disjointedly relevant as it used to, as do my Invisibles books. Early Hellblazer still thrills me, Ghostdancer still wins me over, Minx and Mythos and The Girl still intrigue me. 1602 still seems fun and clever. Strangers In Paradise is still quirky and funny and haunting and fun. And of course the Indie lines have good stuff coming out.

There's still interesting mythology, social commentary in comics out there, and even the spandex superhero genre that I have mostly left behind seems to be reaching for substance when it can -- the Civil Wars stuff seems to be an interesting commentary on the modern political split.

I think what it comes down to is a balance -- growing out of just accepting every brightly-colored action-fest spandex rag that comes your way, but not overcompensating by getting jaded and closed and unable to find any pleasure in stories that use imagery as well as words. =)

But if you ever do get so ultra-mature and jaded that you can't enjoy any comics anymore, then just sell your collection off cheap to those of us who still do. *grin*

I've never been one for the Superhero genre. Although I did enjoy Transformers, X Men, and a few others in my youth. Now I find myself buying them for my 7 year old and wondering why I ever read them in the first place. My taste in comics have matured over the years too. Now that I've gotten back into reading comics, I read stuff like 300, Witchblade, Lost Girls, & larger graphic novels instead of the superhero genre. What led me back to comics was the fact that I started turning my prose novel into a graphic novel. I was not happy with prose writing as it was a very strict form, but writing comics has so much more freedom. It's helped refresh my memory on panel construction and the various effects of different layouts.

The problem with the big 2 is they have become too formulaic with their story lines and are starting to rehash old crap especially in the theaters. It's like they're afraid of try something new. New writers have a hard time even getting their foot in the door and a lot of them are turning to smaller Indy presses or they're self-publishing like me. I find the best comics and stories are on the web and some of them are free. Hmmm, maybe I should go post a new thread listing some of the places to find good comics on the net...

Lynn

regardless of superheros or not as long as its a well written well drawn engaging story it doesnt matter if its captain america or jimmy corrigan. if you really love superheros support good writers and artists rather than characters.

I find you have to look to the smaller houses for the titles that will interest you again. That is why I go to the comic con every couple years. I always spend time and money at the smaller publishers and bring home gems I relish--that often later become major bigtime hits.

Trebro: Why be loyal to a medium of story telling? Enjoy the tales.
Having said that, if the whole of cinema was written off because (for example) you were sick of saccharine cartoons aimed at children that would be a fairly extreme reaction. So don't write off the whole comic thing just yet. Look for things that interest you expressed though the medium.
In the meantime you could just read books with no pictures...or go to the movies.

try reading manga. stuff like Bleach, Inuyasha, and Naruto are my favorites. I've never really liked the superhero comics. If you're looking for something funnier i suggest One Piece.

Or the epic Lone Wolf and Cub 1: The Assassin's Road series. This has ninjas...loads of ninjas.

Lynn wrote:" I find the best comics and stories are on the web and some of them are free. Hmmm, maybe I should go post a new thread listing some of the places to find good comics on the net..."

Please do.

http://onemanga.com

It's been a tough year for comics all around. With the disappointing conclusion to Secret Invasion it's starting to feel like Marvel is resting on its laurels this year after a number of interesting experiments over the last decade.

But on a personal level there's always going to be a moment when you realize that Superheroes are a genre where they never get older but you inevitably do...

It is great to see a newer evolution of forms in western comics, though. Ever since the movement of webcomics and newer forms of graphic novels, the comics community has become a lot more integrated. We're even seeing superheroes creating a subgenre in the newest comics generations, which gives a newly fresh look into the world of superheroes that Marvel and DC have helped define.

Of course, I don't really know what specifically helped define the change of superhero comics. For example, would it have been the creation of Neil Gaiman's Sandman or the start of Marvel's 1602 and Zombies stories?

i wouldn't know, because as i said before, i've never really liked the superhero comics. when i was younger i liked the whole disney princess stuff, but as i grew up and started reading regular novels, i was already too -i'm not sure- mature? for a lot of the corney lines in the marvel comics.

The superhero comics I liked when I was a kit were things like the Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the first few series from Image (Spawn, Wild C.A.T.S. book:Savage Dragon, etc.), but while the art is still pretty cool to me, I don't think I could manage reading too many of them. Even slightly older fare like Dark Knight Returns and Sin City seem pretty moronic as stories (tough guy does bad things, maybe feels guilty, the end), despite mindblowing artwork.

That said, comics like Elfquest and Sandman remain readable and wonderful to this day.

Anyone else have comics that survived childhood?

this may not matter to anyone else but i have officially finished reading INU YASHA!!!
that series was really good, but now that i finished reading it i'm disappointed that it's over.

anyone else finished reading a comic series and been sad that there's no more?

I wanted to be Wonderwoman when I was a kid. I made wristbands out of black construction paper and a head thingy too (I don't remember it as well. I thought she was this really cool crusader out to save her people and the woman. She was a strong character. I see it from another perspective now and I'm not so excited about Miss Save the World in my leotard. And also I listened to a history(this word is clickable) of comics where I learned about all the S&M stuff they were going for in designing Wonderwoman and it all really turned me off of even considering reading that junk or suggesting anyone else do so. Anyway, my memory of the comics wasn't too great anyway since my stepmother took all of them away back then, including my Spiderman comics and I think I had some Batman too... "A bad influence." :-(

i came to comics as an adult, through sandman primarily and a random fluke conversation with a long-lost friend who opened a (now-failed) comics shop in chicago.

having never been a devotee of the superhero genre, i can tell you, there is plenty out there beyond those stories, if they are no longer meeting your reading needs.

i have a few loyalties - to publishers, to a few particular creators, to a few series/stories.

drawn & quarterly (D&Q)
oni press
james kochalka
john porcellino
some of the classic manga creatoris - jiro taniguchi, yoshihiro tatsumi
bryan lee o'malley/scott pilgrim series
seth
david b.
manu larcenet
joann sfar
craig thompson
aaron renier
kevin huizenga
sammy harkham
anders nilssen

D&Q does showcase books, featuring various works from their stable of creators - always a good way to find something new and exciting. and sammy harkham and his friends publish a gigantic alt-comics collection called Kramers Ergot.

lest i betray my true calling, you might want to consider going to local public library - most public libraries these days have GN collections, having begun to recognize their cultural significance, and the great community of readers they have been neglecting.

I rarely read superhero comics anymore. I did enjoy All-Star Superman and still love reading my Starman graphics novels but, by-and-large, most of the superhero comics seem too childish for me now. It does amaze me sometimes though to go back and reread a very well written comic from when I was younger such as Kraven's Last Hunt or the Frank Miller run on Daredevil.

Something that is quasi-superhero but still has excellent storytelling and deep characters that I have been revisiting lately is Sandman MYstery Theater. It's sort of a cross between detective noir and old radio suspense dramas such as The Shadow and The Spider.

I have also recently been reading a lot of Fables.