Where do I begin

Over to the right in my blog here, there is a list of blogs that I follow. I recommend all of them, and they really do make up the bulk of what I follow regularly. I have mentioned the I Love Rob Liefeld blog a few times before. Sandy, who writes the blog posted an interesting exercise in the form of a contest of sorts. I encourage anyone who might see this here to go check out his blog and post a comment or at least think about what he is asking and maybe post the answer in your own journal or blog.

His challenge if it can be called that, is to just post the name of the comic(s) that got you hooked on comics. I think it's a worthwhile thing to think about. Is it the first comic you ever owned, or is it a specific special issue that made you reconsider the merit of a medium you had previously only considered casually, but weren't really hooked on.

I know that the first series I collected was the Human Fly from Marvel. I know that the first series that blew my mind totally was the New Teen Titans. It may be the New Teen Titans that cemented it for me, and really showed me something about what comics could be like at their best.

For me, though, I think honestly that the first comic(s) that made an impact on me, and really filled me with joy for comics in general, later fuelling my desire to read and collect those other things I mentioned when I was still pretty young, are the first ones I can recall getting my hands on.

In 1976 my family flew to Adak, Alaska to live where my Dad was stationed. In preparation for the flight, my brother and I were allowed to each get a comics book. Not just any comic, but we each got a $1.00 tabloid sized DC Limited Collector's Edition. These were about the size of an old Rolling Stone magazine, and were 50 some pages long with two stories each. The stories were reprints of much older material, but i didn't realize that until just a few minutes ago, and I never really thought to question it.

The two specific comics were a Superman/Flash footrace DC Limited Collector's Edition C-48, and Superboy/Legion of Superheroes DC Limited Collector's Edition C-49. They were huge. My brother got the Superman one, and I got the Superboy one. That makes me laugh. It seems fitting since he is 6 years older than I am. We read the heck out of those comics, in addition to doing cool things like him showing me how to fold paper airplanes in really awesome ways, etc. I am pretty sure I loved them both to no end, but that I coveted his anyway. I don't recall much from either of the issues. I remember that there are mobsters trying to have an impact on the race, and that the way they deal with the Flash is by pulling a big piece of glass across the road. Flash runs through it at high speed and is knocked out.

Everything about the issue was big to me. Superheroes weren't a new concept, but I certainly wasn't a regular reader of comics at the time. It was pretty amazing stuff to me, regardless of whether the stories were actually any good or not. They fired up that sense in me that comics were something really cool, that would grow in me until it was finally realized when I started really reading and then collecting later on.

TV Comics, the current trend

I just finished reading True Blood, The Great Revelation on the HBO site. A week or so ago I borrowed the Heroes hardback that has the collected comics from that show in it.  A few weeks ago I bought the first issue of Fringe, which is related to the TV series on Fox.

I have stopped watching Fringe, so I will just let that one go. I actively watch Heroes and True Blood, so I figured I should have a look at their comic offerings. 

The heroes book just didn't draw me in. It was like a comic version of deleted scenes in a lot of ways. Little snippets that relate to things that were on the air, but that don't really give you a lot more of anything you are probably hoping for in a comic related to a series. It's like with the show Lost. All I want is some hints and spoilers and answered questions, but all I can ever find is just supplementary stuff that doesn't answer any of the hard questions.

Reading the latest Heroes installment online, and reading the True Blood Great Revelation online made me see that if there is a unifying theme in online comics relating to currently running TV shows, it is that they all have really awful reader interfaces. Both sites seemed slow and hard to navigate in a readable manner to me. The art is decent on both, but the stories strike me as irrelevant. I guess something could come up in True Blood that makes the scene we were shown mean something. In the latest installment for Heroes, we get some background on two characters I believe we have been seeing on the show. It's ok, but it doesn't enhance my enjoyment of the show, nor does it come across as being something that stands on it's own. I appreciate the use of comics, but I am not sure they are being used to best effect.

True Blood is a show that is set in a Louisiana backwater town during a time after the creation of a synthetic blood substitute that can be used by vampires for nourishment. Vampires have come out and revealed themselves, and in the US there is a Vampire Rights act that will be coming up for a vote soon. Not everyone is embracing this concept. The show is based on a series of modern vampire romance novels and isn't bad. I have said recently that I don't think it is particularly well acted, but I can't stop watching it. It's like the Sopranos, or the L Word, but with Vampires. It is a show with a lot of compelling characters with a lot of plot opportunities and multiple story lines. It makes for a show you want to keep watching to see how things come out.

The comic takes place earlier that the show, around the time of the Great Revelation when the Vamps officially came out.  It is an account of the Vampire 'King' of California and his trip to japan to meet with the Japanese interest responsible for Tru Blood, the commercial brand for the synthetic blood. It could be interesting if anything happened, but as it was, it read like a story about a guy going to a business meeting, with a bit of interesting background about that character himself, but not much more.

I'm not sure how I really feel about these sorts of things. They come across as more of a straight commercial than a comic I would want to read. I also think they are a sort of pandering. It's like... Geeks like comics, and our s is a geek demographic... lets give them comics, then they will love us.  Any thoughts on this are appreciated.

That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore?

I have had a nagging thought in my head for a while now. I think it may have resurfaced particularly loud for me prior to the release of the Dark Knight movie. I will go back and look at my review about the recent hardcover The Joker, as I don't recall what I may have said there.

I might hate the Joker. I really may not see whatever it is everyone else seems to see. I am greatly questioning my previous belief that The Killing Joke is a masterpiece. I don't think Batman would go to the Joker just to babble philosophically at him. I don't think Batman would laugh at the end at all.

I Hated the Tim Burton Batman movie BECAUSE of the Joker. Take away the Joker and there isn't even a scrap that could be salvaged.

I have liked the two most recent Bat-Movies a great deal. I think the tone is more like what I expect from Batman. The Joker in The Dark Knight, and the one in the Joker Graphic novel are ones that speak to me. They aren't the same guy, really, but they are both some pretty scary, compelling and real seeming Clown Princes of Crime. I will try to flesh this out more in the next week or so, but feel free to comment if you have any thoughts or comments relating to the Joker. If you'd prefer to email, that's great too - talkinboutcomics@gmail.com