Get past the stigma, and you're in for a treat
Comics are a terrific medium. They are portable. Light weight. And possess near-infinite rez.
And just what do comics do?
For the most part--tell stories.
Here is America, where comic books were invented, they are looked upon as the ghetto of literature. If a work of art consists of only prose as in a novel, then that's OK. Or if an artist hangs a painting or a drawing in a gallery for patrons to enjoy, then that's OK also. But if someone or some people create a comic book which fuses the two together, then it is pond scum.
This is mightily unfair to the medium. Of course given the state of affairs of comics in America does not help anything either. Nearly every book published is a nothing more than spandex-clad "superheroes" who pound the crap out of each other and anyone who gets in their way. Their amoral outlook on life is just like a record (remember those?) stuck in a groove--the same thing over and over.
If your looking for fanboy gushing over the latest X-crap or any other drivel spewed by Marvel, then boy, are you reading the wrong page. I'm doing this to point out the good stuff which deserves more of an audience than it gets. I find it utterly amazing that out of a nation of a quarter of a billion people, Nexus, among some fine books, scrapes by with sales of only 18,000 copies. Sad, but true.
And ironically, this is happening during a time when comics, in another fashion, are more popular than ever.
I'm referring to Independence Day. Is their anyone in America who has not caught clips of this flick on TV? Or seen the trailer in the theaters for the past six months? Bugs invade Earth. And we get a slambang movie. Which is essentially a comic book--bigger than life events where Our Hero rises to the occasion. If that doesn't fit Superman or Batman, then I don't know what does.
On top of that, movies are produced by way of a comic book called a "storyboard". Big budget flicks having F/X done simultaneous to the shooting and so they have to know every shot--the angle with what's being framed, so that the movie can be literally made. Storyboard--a layout with a drawing for nearly every one of the movie's shots or at least the setups. This allows the moviemakers to visulize the movie beforehand. It's also a comic book.
But I provide these pages as a small hope--that I can spread the word by this, probably the most democratic medium ever implemented, the Internet.
Comic books is a visual medium. There's no denying the synergism of crisp writing, but when a reader pulls a comic off the shelf and flips it open, it is the art catching his or her eye. And I'm telling you folks, there are artists in this medium who put "real" artists to shame. Their style, their sheer breadth of creativity, their execution; it can truly click when the proper artist does the right project. They are compatriots to finer works of art and genuinely pound much of the crap hanging in galleries nowadays. (Remember: I'm recommending the good stuff here. 90% of comics, like 90% of everything else as Theodore Sturgeon said, "is crud") The finer books on the artistic scale are listed here.
But once the artist sets the hook, it's up to the writer to reel the reader in. And that's where it all comes into play: the series' premise, the issue's plot, the characters' dialogue, and the supporting prose. All supplied by the writer. When a team of (usually) the writer, artist, and (sometimes) inker colloborate to reach that fusion of a well-told comic book, it is an artistic expression to savor. If it is one person's execution--written and drawn by the creator, then so much better. No one could possibly know or render the characters better.
With that said, on to the recommendations:
The Recommendations: