soniaharris

July 9, 2009 1:30 pm

@bansidhewail: Definitely with you there. Like I said to WonderAli in the comments, I really love to talk to people who're genuinely interested, as apposed to people who pretend that they're already comic fans, but don't read any books.

@roadcrew1: You just said you were shorthanding it, which means that you know you're missing out on a hyphen. It's the knowledge that counts (in my opinion), not the ability to exhibit it.

July 9, 2009 1:08 pm So happy you're back Mike, I really missed your articles and was deeply envious of your travels. Sounds like you hit a few of my old comic book shop haunts in London, so that's nice to hear. It really isn't that different from American these days, so it's good that you got to move around a little on the continent and soak up some actual culture (and prosciutto... mmmmmm.)

July 9, 2009 1:06 pm

@whirlwindx: Maybe so... I dunno though, seems like hipsters are all very happy to be seen in public with their bloody Scott Pilgrim t-shirts or whatever, but they wouldn't be caught dead picking up a copy of the Flash and admitting they enjoyed it. But you're right, and open-minded approach does show a sustained level of interest.

@theronster: Listen to yourself! Picking and choosing is part of growing up, but you're clearly more than well informed about this stuff.

@WonderAli: Asking questions, that's the big difference between you and any number of weirdos who say the like comic books and proceed to tell me all about the damn cartoon version of a character. If they were asking questions, that could lead to an interesting conversation (like theronster up there, I'm a big comic book evangelist, so I do get it.) What I object to is them pretending they already know comic books.

July 4, 2009 11:59 am

@Jim: From what I've read, there's contention there, since he practically asks her too, and has that subtle mind control power. As it happens I don't believe she was under mind control either, but it was funnier to cry foul. Have you ever argued with Josh? It's disturbingly enticing, I can't seem to stop myself once I get started. It's even more fun than arguing with Ron.

@josh: I think the word you're looking for is "trainspotter" ;)

July 3, 2009 10:49 am

@snaf00: I realize that Josh is actually writing comics, so his perspective is really different from mine, but I have to admit that I like words, so maybe it's also just a taste thing. I want to savor my comics, I want them to last a while, sometimes I read them multiple times to slow myself down.

Sorry if I offended you (or any Archie readers), I was just teasing Josh. He's a smart, literate bloke, I know that. And yes, I agree, more definitely does not equal better. I'm a huge advocate of quality over quantity in almost all areas of life.

July 3, 2009 9:48 am @cromulent and @MacAoidh: There's a follow up called "Heart of Empire: The Legacy of Luther Arkwright". It's bloody good, and in color too.

July 2, 2009 5:46 pm @peekay: Yeah, good list. Everyone and their mum should read "Blankets", "Maus", "Persepolis" and "Concrete"! Can't believe I forgot them. I liked a lot "Maxx" too, and for some reason haven't yet read the others. I wanted to mention Stray Toasters, but apparently it wasn't an independently published book (even if it felt like it). I think maybe the Moore and Sienckiewicz book you're talking about is "Brought to Light", which I very much enjoyed... God, there is SO MUCH good stuff out there.

July 2, 2009 1:37 pm @TNC: That extra stuff in the back took me about a week. I'm not superpowered!

July 2, 2009 12:48 pm

@stuclach: Ones I didn't have room for were pretty much everything by Robert Crumb (again, another one I used to steal from my dad's collection), "Naughty Bits" by Roberta Gregory, "Why I Hate Saturn" by Kyle Baker (now published by DC I believe), "Madman" by Mike and Laura Allred, "Cerebus" by Dave Sim and Gerhard, "Plastic Forks" by Ted McKeever, "Grendel" by Matt Wagner... there are more, but I those were the ones that popped into my head. I didn't even know they were considered independent when I picked them up, I just like them. Now I see that it's hard to uncover these things and so I figure we can all help out by talking about the good stuff (I find this site so damn useful).

For all you Optic Nerve fans: A lot of it's complied in books ("Summer Blonde", "Shortcomings", etc), so if you missed the comics, you can find the stories there.

June 28, 2009 3:08 pm

@Smasher: I mentioned the comics that I did because I wanted examples that are widely acknowledged to be great, not just ones that appealed only to me. I asked a few friends to name me some outright classic books. Those are the names that came up. I do read books that do this, but they're unfortunately mraginalized as "for "mature readers" only. For example; I'm reading Ennis' "The Punisher Max" and I think Ennis does an amazing job of presenting a good guy who's damn close to a bad guy. But a lot of people haven't read that, and would consider the character somewhat ridiculous, so it's not really an appropriate universal example in this instance.

You're right; Some comics do create characters with more depth, but only a few. As brattyben said right before you - it's about relatability. What I'm saying is that it can work as a storytelling technique in any comic, but for some reason it's still the expection, not the rule. I don't agree with that; I think that our approach to current events shows that we are all interested in this. Just because a character has been around for 30 years, doesn't mean that the technique used to depict them can't evolve. If it couldn't, we wouldn't have the new versions of old stories being published.