Article: How I Became a Comic Book Consumer, Part 5
Originally published at A Singularity. You can comment here or there.
This is the final part of an ongoing series inspired by Faith Erin Hick’s article “How I Became a Comic Book Consumer“. To read any of the prior parts, click here.
Last time I discussed the Marvel comics that started how I became a comic book consumer as an adult. I also made mention of Brian K. Vaughn, writer of a comic called Runaways. Like Warren Ellis, Craig Kyle, Masashi Kishimoto,Phil Foglio & Kaja Foglio, and Shirow Masamune, Brian K. Vaughn led me into other comics that would soon have a permanent position on my book shelves.
It was through Brian and a few friends of mine that I discovered Y: The Last Man and it quickly became one of my favorite comics next to Elfquest, Girl Genius, and Transmetropolitan. It focused on, literally, the last man on earth and the subsequent apocalypse society. It sounds like a cheesy b-movie plot or perhaps the start of a really bad porno but it instead molds itself into an epic story of survival. If you need proof, Y: The Last Man was nominated for a Hugo award and won an Eisner award.
In the comic we follow the story of Yorick who manages to survive a mysterious event that simultaneously kills off every other mammal possessing the Y chromosome on the planet, save for him Capuchin monkey, named Ampersand. We follow him and his friends and enemies, as people come to gripes with such a staggering event. Lasting sixty issues, the ending is something I wish I could get everyone to read.
Brian K. Vaughn then led me to Ex Machina, a currently on going story by him focusing on a retired superhero known as The Great Machine who wins the election to become the mayor of New York City in the wake of 9/11. The story explores his term in office as well as gives flashbacks to his life as a super hero and how the two bleed together, creating yet another compelling, and rather adult, drama.
By this point I was very much into reading comics again. I used the names of writers and artists I had collected through the years and began making lists of comics, using Wikipedia and Amazon to piece together what graphic novels I needed to complete story arches. Now, at least, I could read comics without worrying about missing issues! as long as I was willing to spend the money and/or hunt through good used book stores.
This actually catches us up to more or less modern days. I’m still reading comics, obviously. Here are some examples.
I still collect Masashi Kisimoto’s Naruto and a regular subscription to the American version of Shonen Jump keeps my interest in various other mangas such as One Piece, Dragon Ball, and Bleach. Shirow Masamune has made sure that I am always on the look out for some kind of Ghost in the Shell product, comics preferred but anime and books, I’ll gobble up. One of the current manga series I would like to read is called Bakuman, focusing on one teenager’s attempt to become a manga writer, and another is Hikaru no go, focusing on another teenager’s slow mastery of the Japanese game Go.
Craig Kyle and the Marvel Messiah Complex/Second Coming story-lines have kept me collecting X-Men graphic novels as they came out and introduced me to the re-start of X-Factor (Vol.3 ), which has quickly become my favorite X-Men title with its awesome writing of the character Jamie Madrox/Multiple Man and the introduction of the character Layla Miller (she knows stuff, be careful). There is also an ongoing X-23 series being published that I’m eagerly waiting to be collected into graphic novels.
I, of course, never stopped reading web comics. They’re the cheapest and most accessible of all the comics I love to read, plus I can easily share them among my friends and readers. Here is a small list of some of the best comics you can find online in no particular order.
Girl Genius, Scholock Mercenary, Gunnerkrigg Court, Templar, Arizona, Goblins, Guilded Age, Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic, Weregeek, Scenes From A Multiverse, Order of the Stick, Erfworld, Dominic Deegan, Something Positive, Evil Diva, Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi, Darwin Carmichael is Going to Hell, El Goonish Shive, Demonology 101, The Adventures of Superhero Girl, Freakangles, Bob and George: The Comic Strip, 8-Bit Theater, and many more.
So looking over it all, I guess you could say I’ve always been a comic book consumer. My initial entry into comics was due to overlaps between the comic industry and other media, and while I’ve taken hiatus, the adoption of collecting comics into graphic novels proved to be exactly what I needed to sustain a comic habit. Combine that with excellent writing, varying genres, and stories for all age groups, and I will likely be a comic reader for the rest of my life.
The future of comics, like almost all forms of entertainment, will be undergoing changes in the digital age. Right now it seems to be trying to re-invent the old model, renting individual comics for prices only slightly less of their print versions for different reading platforms. One or two have adapted a subscription model. Both still DRM their content to make it inaccessible by means other than approved, and usually constrictive, methods. And there are still online comics, the particularly popular ones effectively earning their creators a living through donations, merchandising, and advertising. It’ll be interesting to see where this heads but unlike the music or movie industry, I suspect comics will fare better overall.
So I hope you enjoyed this article and found something in it you liked. Keep subscribed to this feed or keeping checking back now and again, as more articles of this type will appear, sooner or later.
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