Comic books and my Life - Part 1
I love comic books. Anyone who knows me, knows this. However, I dont think most people get why I love them. I'm going to try and fix that, by explaining a little what I love so much about them, the things they've made me feel, when they've made me feel them and why. I want to do what any writer wants to do and let you see things the way I do for a little while. I'm not saying that understanding my comics "thing" will open shiny new doors into the realms of my psyche and give you a new understanding of me. You just might not think its so odd. Fiona, Matthew, this post is totally optional for you guys. Everyone else, read on...
I'm going to start off like any essay would, and explain a little of what a comic is and how it does what it does. Everyone has seen a comic. You probably see them every single day and dont realise it. We've all read those little strips in newspapers (Nemi is my favourite, in the Metro). They may be small, but they're still comics. You'll have seen the Beano or Dandy or something in the newsagent. Comics. Traffic lights. Comics. Yes, thats right, traffic lights. You know how you push the button, and you see the little stationary red guy, then the walking green guy? Thats a comic. Maybe it'd make more sense to call it by its academic term, Sequential Art. Will Eisner, arguably the comic book's greatest analyst (its between him and Scott McCloud), defined comic books as "the arrangement of pictures or images and words to narrate a story or dramatise an idea." Superman just punched General Zod into the upper ionosphere? Hell we can show that. Nemi doesnt like her blind date? Note the disgusted look on her face in one panel, and her quick exit in the next. Walk? The green guy is walking, and before he was red and standing. The coolest thing about how a comic works, in my opinion, is in what they dont show. Eisner and McCloud both point it out, and its brilliant. The most important thing about a comic is that space between what it has shown you, and what its about to, because what happens in the middle is all in your head. Your imagination. How Superman gets from earth to the moon, how Nemi got that knife, whats happened between red/stationary and green/walk. It all happens in your head, and is only limited by you. I've pretty much made a habit of living in my head, so I can see why this form of media absorbs me so much. I'm right at home there.
I've loved comic books and their characters as long as I can remember. When I was a child, I didnt put my arms in my pyjama tops and buttoned the top button to make a cape. I wooshed about my room all night, and then re-assumed my secret identity. One of the earliest books I remember reading is a marvel comics annual from the 80s. Black suited Spiderman and Magneto led the X-men. Storm had a mohawk. I watched Captain Planet (a Superman knock-off, come on), and later, Power Rangers (which I would only later find out tied into my other great love, japan and its culture.) I had glasses as a child, which I will have to regain soon, and always knew they got in the way of my secret identity. I remember playing football in the playground, and taking my glasses off to "be better". And I was. Comic books have been ever-present in my life, and I would not have it any other way. There were different comics from my pre-teens, to my teens, to my nows, but they've always been there. And thank God for that.
Next post - Marvel Zombie, my early, moody teens.