The Comic Book Journey: Thoughts on the Industry
I’ve missed out on so much…
A few weeks ago I did some reading. I completed the entire run of the Amalgam comics series from the 90’s along with Y: The Last Man vol. 1.
If you’re unfamiliar with either of these, I get it and that’s kinda where this article is headed. But if you have heard of them or especially if you’ve read them you’ll understand how vast of a gap there is between the two.
Despite only reading the first of the ten volumes, I can already say that Y: The Last Man is one of my favorite comic stories ever. It’s different. It’s well written. It includes female IDF soldiers (go Israel!). It keeps me wanting more with every page like some of the best novels I’ve ever read. I devoured the first volume in a couple hours. Also, the writing and pacing of Y: The Last Man is providing a ton of inspiration for what I want to do with the #Surgeverse.
The Amalgam comics are… fun and nostalgic.
Don’t get me wrong, when I was a kid, the Amalgam comics were the greatest thing that ever happened in my life. I mean, DC heroes fighting Marvel heroes? And then THEY BECOME THE SAME PEOPLE! It was almost too much for my eight-year-old brain to handle.
That’s why I just had to have all of the Amalgam comics in my collection now that I’m getting back into the industry. I had to reinvigorate those childhood memories and also try to bring back some of the magic that helped instill my love for comics in the first place.
I feel like I’m in the minority within the comics world, but I’m one of those people who actually currently enjoy 90’s comics. The books were fun, they had colorful, shiny covers and were part of a greater universe that included early morning cartoons, action figures and video games. All of this together at one time period was pure heaven for a young boy.
Those stories and the artwork/animation of the time shaped my lifelong love for this industry and that’s not going away anytime soon. But it wasn’t just the world of 90’s X-Men that captivated me, it was just iconic comic book storylines of the time. In fact, the next run that I’m trying to complete (#completingtherun) is “Batman Knightfall”. I have one issue to go (it’s in the mail!) until I have the entire run in my possession and I’m SO excited to read through it all again.
Where does the Knightfall run fit in here? Well, it came out in the 90’s, cemented my love for Batman and his rogues gallery and also dropped a nuclear bomb on my adolescent brain by having Bane break Batman’s back. HOW WAS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!
So, while Knightfall was laying the groundwork for how I appreciate literature in my life, also known as the “Game of Thrones Method” where anything can happen to heroes at any time, X-Men, Amalgam and shiny comic books were cementing my love for the industry at large. Both of these two factors created a love of comic books that is still strong to this day.
Here’s the problem: all of these books and runs were very much mainstream. That doesn’t really seem like a problem, but I basically created a “go with what you know” mindset back then. Of course I know about Daredevil and the Hulk and Captain America and Green Arrow, but have I ever read a single issue of their comics? Nope, and those guys are all SUPER mainstream. By not straying too far from the mainstream back in the 90's, I missed out on so many series that I’m only now discovering 20+ years later.
Y: The Last Man is one of those series. As I said before, it’s incredible, and I’m kicking myself for glossing over it and many other incredible comic books back then.
So, where am I going with this? When I was a kid loving comic books made sense. It was understood that it was something I would be into. Hey, comics were “made for kids”, right? I read the books that had accompanying animated series and I was a marketer’s dream. As I grew older, comic books became something stuck in my past, and only came to the forefront when the latest Marvel movie was released and I could explain to my wife what was going on.
I didn’t think I’d ever get back into reading comic books let alone writing about them, purchasing new monthly titles and trying to even create my own series.
But now as an adult getting back into the industry, I’m realizing that comic books are books. They’re literature. The writing can blow you away the same way that a 700-page novel can. The characters are compelling, the books are page turners and whether most of your reading includes pictures or not, it’s hard not to enjoy a series like Y: The Last Man. And the real kicker? Many of these incredibly well written comic books don’t include any superheroes. They’re just awesome stories written as graphic novels.
Don’t believe me? Here’s some other recommendations. If you don’t enjoy them then you probably just don’t like reading:
- Saga (omg how did it take me so long to read this??)
- Southern Bastards
- 100 Bullets
The point is, with whatever you enjoy doing, don’t just follow the mainstream. There’s so much incredible art out in the world that can be discovered, explored, appreciated and enjoyed. Life is too short — if you enjoy something, dive deeper into it and see what you come up with. You might just reinvigorate a love from your childhood and create the foundation for a hobby that is helping you develop creatively and provide you with something enjoyable to pass the time on a daily commute.
I’m open to suggestions for any comic book series that aren’t mainstream that I should check out. Let me know!
