Comic books are cool

Old roommate sent me this product review from a Marvel comic t-shirt on Amazon.com.

He particularly liked the last section -- as did I.


"I was at school one day and a beautiful girl walked up to me.  She questioned my shirt and asked what was a "marvel".

I then proceeded to say that Marvel was a comic book franchise and named every character on the shirt and explained their superpower. The girl then proceeded to call me a no-life then walked away from me furiously. 

Would buy again."


--GG

Graphic novels I recommend

In my youth, I used to collect several titles of comic books.  Then I drifted away.

Maybe ten years ago I started collecting certain titles of graphic novels.  Most of them are ones that I happened across at the library, and liked well enough that I bought them for myself, to keep.

Plus -- when you borrow books from the library (nothing wrong with that; it's what libraries are for), the author doesn't get any royalties.  When you purchase the book, she/he does.  So you're a patron of the arts -- supporting the artist.  FWIW.


Note that the below are from my perspective.  If your aesthetics diverge sufficiently from mine, then you won't like these.

Also, all of these are "played straight":  they are not parodies or any-such.  And they're well-written.  Otherwise, I wouldn't like them.


Some of these are single-issue offerings, or only had a limited number of volumes and thus have no new offerings.  Dangit.


Brody's Ghost -- a slacker guy, set in the near future, discovers that he can see the ghost of a murdered teenage girl.

Daisy Kutter:  the last train -- steampunk western with a strong female protagonist, a sharpshooter.  Out of print, but good if you can get it. (Ah!  They apparently had a successful Kickstarter-funded reprint.  So used copies are now around $45 on Amazon.)

Strong Female Protagonist -- a small proportion of the population among a certain birth cohort develop super-abilities when they're 14 or so.  One of them, in her early 20s, abandons her super-identity and goes to college and tries to live a "normal" life, which doesn't completely work out.  Great writing and art.  It was originally a webcomic, but the first four chapters are available as a graphic novel.  Apparently they'll continue to bundle the chapters into graphic novels as they accumulate enough material.

Usagi Yojimbo -- a rabbit samurai in an alternative universe feudal Japan.  He is imperfect but honorable, and an excellent swordsman. 

Concrete -- kinda nerdy speechwriter for a senator gets kidnapped by aliens, gets his brain transplanted into a concrete-like body with strength and invulnerability (and excellent eyesight), but without a sense of taste and touch. 

Raina Telgemeier -- the author/illustrator, not the series.  Tends to write autobiographical pieces.  I have Smile and Drama.  Eventually I'll pick up her other works.

The Walking Dead -- inspired the t.v. series, which I refuse to see.  Probably more grim than the t.v. series -- but I wouldn't know.  More about survival in a post-apocalyptic world than about zombies.

Ex Machina -- a civil engineer gets zapped by some sort of alien device, and is able to communicate with -- and control -- machines.  Becomes mayor of New York.  More interesting than how I made it sound.

The Arrival (by Shaun Tan) -- no words, just pictures; a man immigrates to a new country, and has to adjust to a new culture; fanciful but plausible "alien" technologies (clearly does not take place on earth); a great book for anyone of immigrant stock; a little pricey, but still worth getting.


Honorable mention:  These are pretty good -- but not quite good enough that I actually bought them.

Fables -- various fairy tales and folk tales living together in a semi-hidden neighborhood in New York City.  Serious, and sometimes a little grim (pun intended?).

Powers -- a former super-hero lost his powers, and is now a cop.  Deals with various other super-beings.

The Shepherd's Tale -- tells the back-story of Book, from Firefly -- how he came to be a shepherd.


Again -- if you share my tastes, then you'll like these.  If you don't, you may not like 'em.


--GG

Read the kids a comic book

Surprisingly, until this recent weekend I had never read my kids a comic book! This is surprising, given that I still have my comic books from my teenage years, and I current collect (slowly!) a few series of graphic novels.

Read them an Uncle Scrooge comic -- and then the next day, a few stories from a Richie Rich digest. The Girl -- being older -- liked comic books the most; B1 (Blondie Boy) was the least interested: he wandered off.

Gonna have to dig some more of them out... :)


--GG

Accidental purchase

Well, it's looking like I've decided on "one graphic novel per payday", as I... "accidentally"... bought another one on Friday. Downtown, a lot of the shops -- including my comic book store -- stay open late. And I got off work late, which meant the busses run less frequently -- so when I arrived at the bus stop I had twelve minutes to wait, and the comic store is only two minutes away...

BTW -- just finished up my third week at the new job. Still enjoying it -- although a bit daunting to think that I may still be doing this in twenty years.


--GG

Stringing it out

Still developing personal rules for my increase in income.

I've decided that I'm now allowed to buy some graphic novels (i.e., anthologized comic books). The question is, should I buy one on a monthly, or half-monthly, basis?

For what it's worth, they're about twenty bucks each. So, it's not the money (although I want to avoid putting hundreds of $$$ on the credit card...). It's more about the savoring -- and the ritual.


My inclination is to do it once a month. There's a few series that I'd like to buy: Walking Dead (zombies), Usagi Yojimbo (samurai), Concrete (guy whose brain was transplanted into a rock-person alien body), and Ex Machina (former super hero who can communicate with machines, now the mayor of New York City).

According to Wikipedia, these series have 14, 24, 7, and 10 athologized volumes, respectively. Although the authors will create additional issues, I wouldn't expect more than four to six additional volumes per year ("Walking Dead" and "Usagi Yojimbo" appear to be produced regularly, while the others are more ad hoc).

So, that's 55 total volumes I'd like to get. At one a month, that's about four and a half years -- plus the 25 or so that would be produced in that time, so another three years for that backlog plus the backlog that's generated during that three years. So, seven and a half years, about.

Conversely, if I get two a month, then that's 24 a year, so two and a half years to acquire what's currently available, plus another six months or so for the backlog -- so three years total.

Either way, I'll be "caught up" in seven and half years, or three years. As part of this is the anticipation, and the ritual -- i.e., "the first of each month" or "each payday" going and buying one -- at a certain point I'll have maxed out. Although, presumably there will be other series to collect: other writers will come along that suit my tastes.


Hmm. My initial inclination was to do it monthly. But I hadn't realized how deep the backlog was for "Walking Dead" and "Usagi Yojimbo". OTOH, three years seems awfully fast (maybe not when you're in high school; but when you're forty, it does). But seven years seems like a long time to drag it out. Particularly, since, as I said, presumably there will be additional ones that come up.


Hm.


Thoughts/comments?



--GG

Well timed

Today is Saturday (local time).

Thursday, I began my "buy one book (usually a graphic novel) a month online". It was a used book, but because it was being shipped internationally, the shipping and handling was about a third of the total transaction cost.

Yesterday, during my lunch break at my new job downtown, I came across a comic book store. Same graphic novel, new, and the cover price was exactly the same as the total transaction of the book I'd bought the night before -- so I could've had the book **in hand**, rather than waiting a week. Gah.

Today -- Saturday -- I got up early to check my e-mail. Turns out my online order was cancelled.

That's actually handy: Monday I'm gonna go buy the same item from the comic book store. Plus, I'll be supporting a local business -- a small business.


--GG