When’s the last time you took a real chance on what you were about to read? A one hundred percent, eyes-closed leap of faith in an arena where you’ve been buying the same books every month for years?
Lately, I have been racking up some serious frequent flyer points on Seat of Your Pants Air, checking things out after nothing more than hearing the right person say, “It’s good.” After Paul Montgomery and other members of the intelligentsia sang arias of praise about the TV show Luther all winter long, I recorded it off of BBC America with no idea whatsoever what I was about to watch; I was almost positive it was going to be about the Protestant Reformation. (What it actually was, I will leave you to discover for yourself; why should I have all the fun?)
Sometimes, I don’t even wait to hear the “It’s good.” This weekend, I went to see The Adjustment Bureau, and when I left the house all I knew about it was that it was showing at a time when the babysitter was going to be around. After parenthood has broken your spirit like a foal, that can be all the information you need. I have now reached the point in my movie watching career when recognizable cast members are a nice surprise. “Hey, this is a Matt Damon movie, it turns out! So I probably didn’t just buy a ticket to some hentai musical. That’s a relief.”
One of the nice things about having kids and being left at the side of the road by popular culture is that the world starts springing things on you for the first time since you got a modem. “Land sakes, but this Battle: Los Angeles certainly looks exciting. When does this come out, next summer?… Oh, six days from now? And I’m literally hearing about it for the first time right now? I see.”
Even if you’re childless and aware of your surroundings, however, comics still routinely give you opportunities for this kind of discovery. As much as we talk about Previews and solicitations and the post-spoiler culture, the fact remains that your comics shop is full of vast troves of little gems that got no publicity whatsoever. Generally speaking, if the book isn’t Wolverine- or Batman-adjacent, it will spend its entire existence just trying to get anyone to notice it. I work here, for crying out loud, and I still see half a dozen titles a week that don’t so much as ring a bell.
This weekend, I read a graphic novel by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon called Tumor. It was published by Archaia at some point in the distant past; as I click around the web researching it, it looks like it may be as many as two years old. I have no idea how it came to be in my house. It’s like the noir elves heard that I had been a good, hardboiled boy and left it in my office one night. In the spirit of Luther and The Adjustment Bureau, I read it because it was there. Thank God I did.
Tumor tells the story of private investigator Frank Armstrong, who is attempting to track down a crime lord’s missing daughter while suffering through his final days with an inoperable brain tumor. Because he lives in crime fiction, Frank can’t trust anyone around him, but now he can’t trust his own senses or perception either. All he knows for sure is that this is his one last chance to do something right after getting it horribly wrong years earlier. Tumor takes the classic detective story mold and fills it with grief and revenge and loss and redemption. It uses a genre and a premise you think you’ve seen a hundred times and shows you something you’ve never seen before. You’ve probably walked past it on a shelf dozens of times on your way to half-heartedly grab an X-book you only buy at this point because it’s familiar. Tumor is there when you’re sick of what’s familiar. If you don't believe me, you can see for yourself: as it happens, the whole damn thing is online for you to check out.
It looks like Tumor has a movie deal now, but I can’t help thinking that if it had started out as a movie script it never would have made it in front of a camera lens. This is the kind of story that really has to be told as a comic. If you had to raise a million dollars in financing to make Tumor or pitch it to network executives, I’m not sure the story would ever get told, at least not in a recognizable fashion. I can see the exec in the meeting room now. “I’ll stop you right there: you had me at ‘inoperable brain tumor.’ Specifically, you had me calling security, to escort you out of this building. No teenager would pay to see that.”
Libraries and shops are full of comics like this, books like Tumor or The Suicide Forest or Days Missing, just to name a few I’ve grabbed blind in the last few weeks. There’s stuff out there that’s completely outside your weekly routine waiting to thrill you, move you, and make you think. The next time you’re in a store or library with more than two indie books to rub together, I challenge to pick one up sight unseen and report back. Getting a little diversity in my diet has added years to my readership.
Jim Mroczkowski misses Marc Guggenheim’s Resurrection, and there’s just nothing to be done about it. Except maybe whine on Twitter.
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I’ve been trying to take more chances, and it’s mostly working out. I kept hearing about great things from this site about Chew. Has absolutley no idea what it was about, picked up the first trade read it, and then went and picked up the other too. I’ve been actually picking up a number of books that ifanboy has suggested and loved them.
I think the last thing though i picked up blindly was Codebreakers from Boom! Studios. I really enjoyed it; very much like a niche polic procedural like numbers or criminal minds. I got two issues of that then my LCS stopped getting them and i ended up forgetting about it until now and ya, i should go find the remaining issues.
The suicide forest was great! Glad I randomly decided to pick that one up.
Did Resurrection get the ax?!?! I’ve been getting it in trades and absolutely loving it…any chance our joined whinning will bring it back?
I am not trying to be a debbie downer jim, but I feel as if comics are too expensive to take a chance. The only time I buy something new is when I hear something good from this or one of the other sites I trust. This might not be as fun as flying by the seat of your pants but it does prevent me from feeling let down. That is my two cents.
I tend to do it with collected editions and Graphic Novels more than floppies, which makes no logical sense. Recently i took a flyer on Tumor (haven’t read it yet) but based on what the people in my shop said about it, the really nice binding and paper and price i thought it was a good bet. Also the Marquis by Guy Davis. Its always fun for me to check out the new things, but usually its because there is some good buzz behind it.
Well written, Jim. I try and do this as much as I can. Recently, I randomly picked up WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY recently and really liked it. Having only heard the title THE KORVAC SAGA, the Avengers story from several decades backs, I read that one too. What the hell was a Korvac? Before cracking that trade open, I had no idea. I fell in love with the two HAWAIIAN DICK trades after randomly borrowing them from a friend.
Good stuff is out there. I heartily recommend your local library for finding new titles!
Glad you discovered TUMOR, Jim! That’s a good one, deserving of the recognition. As I recall, Tumor started as one of the first comics I remember being serialized specifically for the Kindle. I picked it up as a graphic novel, and it is indeed good stuff. I also like that it’s a nice thick book with good paper (and a great design — the brain under the dust jacket?). Good stuff!
I’m another one whose budget isn’t such that I will take a chance on a thoroughly unknown property. BUT my library is great for this, especially OGN’s & manga.
i recently picked up all four trades of seven soldiers of victory with out knowing much about it. and i am super happy i did. what a great book.
The cost issue is always a looming one, but then I think of all the money I’ve spent on books that I barely liked. Maybe I should do a part II, “Cut a Bunch of Books.”
@Jimski This is very true — buying something you KNOW will suck is in no way better than just spinning around and grabbing something off the rack at random.
Try Persepolis, pride of Baghdad and asteroid polyp…. Fantastic left field surprises.
Suicide Forest is fantastic.
Last month I blindly funded El Vocho by Steve Lafler and it turned out to be terrific and right an alley I didn’t even know I had (wow that’s ripe with innuendo). That got me to check out some of his older Bughouse stuff from Top Shelf, and that’s fantastic as well. I love a good surprise.
I accept your “Luther” challenge Jim. Never heard of it and now only know who stars in it from the picture on Netflix. Even moved it to the top of the queue.
i tried out the Intrepids last week when i saw that it was an image #1 and it featured a giant mind controlled bear on the cover! Although it wasn’t great, i still enjoyed and always make a point of at least looking over a new #1 from any company