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{"id":3592,"date":"2003-12-10T23:10:00","date_gmt":"2003-12-10T23:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2003\/12\/3592\/"},"modified":"2003-12-10T23:10:00","modified_gmt":"2003-12-10T23:10:00","slug":"3592","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2003\/12\/3592.html","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

COMICS LIKE WHAT YOU LIKE<\/strong>: I get a lot of people asking me, essentially, What\u2019s a nice girl like you doing in a semi-comics blog like this? This is because people generally think of comics (a medium) as superheroes (a genre\u2013even a subgenre); see below for more on that. So I figured what I\u2019d do is go through the really fun\/powerful comics I own and tell you what they\u2019re like, and if they\u2019re like what you like, maybe you should check them out! Adding the visual storytelling really does change the shape of the stories in a way I find totally intriguing\u2013if you like the ways movies differ from books, you probably will also like the ways comics differ from books.<\/p>\n

So, in alphabetical order, and with no attempt to keep genres together:<\/p>\n

Brian Bendis, Alias<\/em>: \u201cSweet Smell of Success\u201d meets the chick version of a Graham Greene antihero. The visual acuity of Lee Miller, the ferocious dialogue of \u201cGilda\u201d run through a shredder. (Is that one of those meaningless critic-sentences? I hope not. What I mean is that the content of the dialogue is as furious as in the best noir, but the style is more realistic, less repartee-ish. Some people are distracted and irked by Bendis\u2019s attempts to mimic real speech patterns while making his dialogue much snappier than what real people say; I think it\u2019s the best of both worlds, and it definitely makes me more attentive to how people talk out here in real reality. Oh, reminding me! if you like Pat Cadigan\u2019s Mindplayers <\/em>you have no excuse for not picking up Alias<\/em>. Alias <\/em>is better.)<\/p>\n

Grant Morrison\u2019s Animal Man<\/em> is like Jorge Borges goes to Disney World with Peter Singer. Crazy metafictional stuff, less symmetrical than Borges but, frankly, more fun. Fans of The Counterlife<\/em> might also dig this. What you should do to know if you want to read it: a) read this column <\/a>(which spoils significant bits of plot, but which does give you a great sense of why this comic is cool) or b) stand in a comics shop and read \u201cThe Coyote Gospel,\u201d from the first book.<\/p>\n

Brian Bendis, Daredevil<\/em>: \u201cSweet Smell of Success\u201d maybe? Am I just saying that because I like both DD <\/em>and \u201cSSOS\u201d a lot? Bendis in general has a real SSOS feel, and it\u2019s probably my favorite noir, so that\u2019s high praise.<\/p>\n

Wendy and Richard Pini, ElfQuest books 1 through 4<\/em> (but not after): What\u2019s your favorite children\u2019s fantasy epic? Artistically better than the Alanna <\/em>books, more blunt and contemporary (yes, despite the elves) than Lord of the Rings<\/em>. Get this for a kid you know, then read it yourself before you wrap it. (Am I right in thinking they re-colored the new editions? Try to get the old ones, if so.)<\/p>\n

Carla Speed McNeil, Finder: Sin-Eater 1 and 2<\/em>: Samuel R. Delany, only with more vivid characters. I wish I had more to say about this, since if you like science fiction or want to read about gender or guilt this is a must-read.<\/p>\n

Human Target: Final Cut<\/em>: \u201cThe Usual Suspects,\u201d or \u201cL.A. Confidential.\u201d Slick neo-noir-y-type-thing. Fun, not wildly meaningful, but fun. It has plot\/theme points in common with both those movies.<\/p>\n

Like a River<\/em>: I can\u2019t think of anything this is \u201clike,\u201d but it\u2019s a ramshackle Russian story of little lives, exploring the chasm between father and son. You know what it really reminds me of, sort of? Patti Smith\u2019s song \u201cBirdland.\u201d And \u201cElegy.\u201d Both together.<\/p>\n

Los Bros. Hernandez, Love and Rockets<\/em>: Hard to describe this series, in part because it does everything it does about a million times better than anyone else attempting the same genres in different media. So\u2026 imagine if magical realism were good, instead of crap like it mostly is. Imagine if telenovelas <\/em>grabbed your heart and squeezed, kept you on the edge of your seat with real psychological insight and real human drama rather than sentiment, cliched suspense, and melodrama. Imagine how you felt when you heard that first punk record, then the second one, and it was like a whole world of people insane the way you were just opened up. Then imagine if someone remembered that feeling and grew up anyway. Mix one shot \u201cCheap Tragedies\u201d with two shots Flannery O\u2019Connor and a jigger of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil<\/em>, and shoot. Best place to start is maybe The Death of Speedy<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Alan Moore, A Small Killing<\/em>: Brightness Falls<\/em> in the hallucinatory style of Marc Chagall doing the design for \u201cJacob\u2019s Ladder,\u201d and with the attention to sexual corruption of \u201cThe Ice Storm.\u201d A small but harsh story.<\/p>\n

Brian Bendis, Torso<\/em>: If you like true crime and\/or those newspaper noirs starring Edward G. Robinson, you will almost certainly like this. Next try Bendis\u2019s Jinx <\/em>(better overall, more visually distinctive, but with a flaccid midsection and a short bit of most interest to superhero fans) or Goldfish<\/em> (lowlife criminal\/family drama).<\/p>\n

EDITED TO ADD: Junji Ito, Uzumaki <\/em>vol. 1 (I wasn\u2019t so into 2 and 3, but you might be): Eerie, haunting horror. Not \u201cMisery\u201d or even \u201cBlair Witch\u201d-style horror; much weirder than that. Very Japanese Magritte, with an assist from the titles and music of \u201cVertigo\u201d??? The Hitchcock it feels most like is \u201cThe Birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alan Moore, Watchmen<\/em>: You know, I don\u2019t really know what to compare this to\u2013which is a good sign. My advice is to check out some of the other stuff on this list, or on somebody else\u2019s comics list, and if you don\u2019t react weirdly just to the whole pictures plus words combination, read this. Does for superhero comics what Measure for Measure <\/em>did for Elizabethan romantic comedy\u2013does that help? Probably not. It\u2019s much more hopeful than M4M <\/em>but has some of the same sense of drawing out the corruption underlying a genre. And just as you should read M4M <\/em>even if you\u2019ve never read Eliz. rom. com.s, in part because ERCs\u2019 sensibilities still shape our perceptions of romance, so you should read Watchmen <\/em>even if you\u2019re not into superhero comics, in part because superhero comics\u2019 sensibilities\u2013like it or not\u2013still shape our perceptions of power.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"