Thoughts on comics
It's been a year now since I first got interested in comics and superheroes and whatnot. And now I want to articulate some thoughts of mine. After reading all twenty-four issues of the current run of Outsiders in one go, something struck me. Comics work infinitely better if I can read an entire storyline together. I can't stand the stop-and-go nature of comics where I get to read a chapter and then am forced to wait a month to read the next chapter.
I think the problem is this: when I have to wait, it gives me way too much time to dwell on how things could have been better or which bits didn't work and/or make sense or how my favorite characters got shafted somehow. If I read a story arc together rather than piecemeal, then I can see how things work out before condemning them. Or my favorite characters may be ignored for the first half of the story but not the second, so it's all good. And it's a lot easier for me to focus on the enjoyable bits that way too.
A good example would probably be The Titans, which ran from 1999-2003. By the time I was interested in reading this title, all the issues had already come out. I was able to read it at my own pace, which took about a month to read fifty-seven issues. And yeah, there were things I disliked in this title. The orphan kids were pointless and slightly annoying most of the time. I adored Grant, and he ended up shuttled off to live with the Navajo never to be seen again except for two rather bad issues. I didn't particularly like Jesse having an affair with her mother's fiance. And yet, I'd say that I enjoyed the title quite a bit. If I'd been forced to read one issue a month, if nothing else, I would have been ready to stab the orphan kids several times over by the end. I probably would have either given up at some point, or I would have had to force myself to keep reading since if I start a series, I am very determined to finish it.
And then I wonder why my mind works this way where the inherent nature of comics makes thhem frustrating for me. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because these are the reading habits I've formed over the past twenty years. I've never read any comics other than those that appear in the newspaper until last year. And with books, there's never anything forcing you to stop at a chapter unless there's something else you need to be doing. Me, I often say I'm going to read one chapter of my book before bed, and I end up reading five.
And then the obvious comparison would be to say that, well, most books are self-contained while comics aren't designed to be. So comics would be more like a book series and sometimes you have to wait years for the next book in the series. Except, then the problem is that the books in a series are still self-contained. Yes, a book may not make sense without having read the previous ones, but I don't think I've ever read a series where there isn't an ending of some sort for each individual book. (I'm quite sure there are fantasy series where this is not true. My brother says the Wheel of Time series is like this, but I refuse to read it until it's finished if I ever do.)
So obviously comparing comics to books does not work for me. However, there are lots of tv shows where the entire season is a story arc and the episodes aren't self-contained. This does not mean shows like Buffy, since while Buffy has story arcs, it still feels like there's some sort of ending even if nothing gets resolved. No, I'm talking about shows like Lost or Desperate Housewives for two ready examples. Except... I never watched those shows religiously. Desperate Housewives pissed me off, so I try and avoid watching it. The few episodes of Lost I've watched with my mom made it seem like a show I could definitely enjoy, but I don't know if it's non-endings would start to frustrate me or not. And I can't think of any show that I enjoy watching where the episodes don't have endings of some sort, barring two-part episodes and the like.
And all this rambling ends with me having to say that individual comic issues are like chapters to me and it bugs me when I can't read chapters in my own time. So unless I want to stockpile comics until a story arc is finished, reading them is bound to be an exercise in frustration for me. And I wish I could find some way around this because I really do adore so many of the characters I meet in comics.
I think the problem is this: when I have to wait, it gives me way too much time to dwell on how things could have been better or which bits didn't work and/or make sense or how my favorite characters got shafted somehow. If I read a story arc together rather than piecemeal, then I can see how things work out before condemning them. Or my favorite characters may be ignored for the first half of the story but not the second, so it's all good. And it's a lot easier for me to focus on the enjoyable bits that way too.
A good example would probably be The Titans, which ran from 1999-2003. By the time I was interested in reading this title, all the issues had already come out. I was able to read it at my own pace, which took about a month to read fifty-seven issues. And yeah, there were things I disliked in this title. The orphan kids were pointless and slightly annoying most of the time. I adored Grant, and he ended up shuttled off to live with the Navajo never to be seen again except for two rather bad issues. I didn't particularly like Jesse having an affair with her mother's fiance. And yet, I'd say that I enjoyed the title quite a bit. If I'd been forced to read one issue a month, if nothing else, I would have been ready to stab the orphan kids several times over by the end. I probably would have either given up at some point, or I would have had to force myself to keep reading since if I start a series, I am very determined to finish it.
And then I wonder why my mind works this way where the inherent nature of comics makes thhem frustrating for me. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because these are the reading habits I've formed over the past twenty years. I've never read any comics other than those that appear in the newspaper until last year. And with books, there's never anything forcing you to stop at a chapter unless there's something else you need to be doing. Me, I often say I'm going to read one chapter of my book before bed, and I end up reading five.
And then the obvious comparison would be to say that, well, most books are self-contained while comics aren't designed to be. So comics would be more like a book series and sometimes you have to wait years for the next book in the series. Except, then the problem is that the books in a series are still self-contained. Yes, a book may not make sense without having read the previous ones, but I don't think I've ever read a series where there isn't an ending of some sort for each individual book. (I'm quite sure there are fantasy series where this is not true. My brother says the Wheel of Time series is like this, but I refuse to read it until it's finished if I ever do.)
So obviously comparing comics to books does not work for me. However, there are lots of tv shows where the entire season is a story arc and the episodes aren't self-contained. This does not mean shows like Buffy, since while Buffy has story arcs, it still feels like there's some sort of ending even if nothing gets resolved. No, I'm talking about shows like Lost or Desperate Housewives for two ready examples. Except... I never watched those shows religiously. Desperate Housewives pissed me off, so I try and avoid watching it. The few episodes of Lost I've watched with my mom made it seem like a show I could definitely enjoy, but I don't know if it's non-endings would start to frustrate me or not. And I can't think of any show that I enjoy watching where the episodes don't have endings of some sort, barring two-part episodes and the like.
And all this rambling ends with me having to say that individual comic issues are like chapters to me and it bugs me when I can't read chapters in my own time. So unless I want to stockpile comics until a story arc is finished, reading them is bound to be an exercise in frustration for me. And I wish I could find some way around this because I really do adore so many of the characters I meet in comics.