Understanding comics

As some of you may know, I'm a bit of a comic geek. I just love them. I love the art form.

Now that doesn't mean that I am sub-literate or a total social retard (ok, maybe a bit). It doesn't mean that I still have adolescent power fantasies or that I like looking at pictures of musclebound men in latex. It means that I enjoy the comic as a form of entertainment and I think it has as much artistic merit as a film or a book.

I first learned to read with Asterix and Tintin books bought for me by my parents. It was a good place to start and when I have kids I intend to pass them on. These books are well drawn and have good stories (although I admit that the Tintin books have some unfortunate stereotypes in them so my kids may end up just getting Asterix). After that I read the Beano and the Dandy as well as Battle. From there I moved onto American comics like the X-men and the UKs own 2000AD.

So I grew up reading comics for kids and action comics for boys but most people leave these things behind when they hit puberty and I guess I did, for a while. Somewhere I found out that comics could be different. I found books by Peter Bagge, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Robert Crumb, Evan Dorkin, Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis and many, many more.

Comics have as much potential as films, books or paintings as a form of expression. I have recently read a very good book on the subject by Scott McCloud. It's called Understanding Comics and you can buy it on Amazon. Check out his website at http://www.scottmccloud.com/
He has also written an interesting follow-up called Reinventing Comics.

So, what comics are worth reading?

Well

1. Hate by Peter Bagge - the story of a loser in Seattle at the height of grunge. The best book to start with is Buddy does Seattle which costs less than a tenner on amazon.
2. From Hell by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell - a fictionalised version of the story of Jack the Ripper that was made into a film by Johnny Depp
3. Sin City or 300 by Frank Miller - film noir or spartan soldiers
4. Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis - start with book one - the story of Spider Jerusalem, a Hunter S Thompson style gonzo journalist in a dystopian future
5. Sandman by Neil Gaiman - for your inner goth. Start at book one
6. Y the last man by Brian K Vaughan - every male mammal on the planet dies except for one man and his monkey. Start with book one
7. Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon - very funny and very offensive.
8. Love & Rockets by the Hernandez Bros always gets good reviews although I don't like it that much.
9. Maus by Art Spiegelman is a classic. Spiegelman tells the story of his fathers experiences in a Nazi concentration camp using funny animals. Unsettling.
10. Palestine by Joe Sacco - a eye-witness account of the authors experiences in Gaza and the West Bank
11. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - an autobiographical story of a young girl growing up in revolutionary Iran

That is a few to start with. Lots of good stuff is out there. If you have nothing to do one weekend pick up one of these books. You will get some of them in a decent bookshop like Waterstones or Forbidden Planet. If not, try Amazon

Funky