Back in a Comic Book Mood

A little while ago, my interest in comic books reached an all-time low. I used to buy a lot of them, and read even more on a regular basis. Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Oni, Image...just about any publisher you can think of, there was probably one comic book they put out that I kept tabs on. It's part of the reason why when I got into the interview/writing game I focused most of my attention to the four-colour world and its artisans. I loved reading comics, talking about comics, and thinking about comics. I still read a few (I'll move Heaven and Earth to snag anything by Andi Watson and I'm enjoying Warren Ellis' Fell like nobody's business, for example), but my visits to the comic store have all but seized, my files closed until further notice.

When I think about it now, the timing of it was pretty serendipitous seeing as my interest dropped to near-zero around the same time I ran out of recreational funds. The two probably worked in concert, like fuel to the fire - or in this case, water.

Lately, however, I've been noticing a distinct increase in the number of comic books that I'm reading again. I started by picking up some old books off the shelves and out of the longboxes that I either hadn't read in a long time or had yet to read. I'm finishing off the Jurgen/Epting Aquaman issues that I never quite kept up with but enjoyed when they were published, and Batman: The Long Halloween was something that I never quite completed while it was new. Stuff like V For Vendetta got new life when the film came out, and seeing as I was reading League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2 at roughly the same time, I figured one more Moore book couldn't hurt and picked up From Hell again in the hopes of finishing it off once and for all.

I've also been grabbing a lot of books from the library. Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez, the final Supergirl storyline by David and Alex Lei, Mike Carey and Leonardo Manco's Hellblazer: All His Engines, DHC's AutobioGraphix, Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo...the list goes on and on. I've just been blowing through the material like nothing and the supply is no longer meeting the demand as it used to.

At the moment, I'm reading through DC's new Infinite Crisis. It, combined with other 'epic' cross-over events like Marvel's House of M storyline, have been partially responsible for my abandonment of the mainstream titles and, like a car accident that you just can't help but look at, I was curiouos to see just how much damage DC was doing to itself in the name of market share. What I was surprised to find out is that Infinite Crisis (the actual mini-series, not the whole bloated crossover event) is actually kind of entertaining. Mind you, the first issue was an incomprehensible mess to someone 'just tuning in', but having been there for the first Crisis, and being one of the people who have criticised DC for their 'darkening up' of their super-hero line, I'm getting a bit of a charge out of this story that features both of those elements quite prominently.

I'm happy to see something that can finally be considered a sequel to the original. Seeing Kal-L, Superboy and Alexander Luthor come back with a point and a purpose makes this event stand head over heels above travesties like Zero Hour or War of the Gods, or even that Kingdom Come mess. I may like the idea of Hypertime, but the execution of it in the DCU has been sloppy at best. When in the hands of guys like Grant Morrison, or even Tom Peyer over in the underappreciated and obviously cancelled Hourman monthly, it makes sense. They play with bits of past and future history and wind it all up together to make a ripping yarn. Everyone else just...didn't.

Anyway, I'm halfway through Infinite Crisis and I'm definitely going to see it through to the end, find out what happens to everyone and what leads to the much ballyhooed 'One Year Later' ploy. This series feels like it has weight, impact and definite purpose beyond making a buck. I don't think the DCU particularly needed 'fixing' (which prompted the first Crisis), but the effort doesn't feel perfectly hollow, either.

I may even go back and check out the minis that led to this new Crisis, like Omac or Villains United, just to add some flavour. I've sampled the Infinite Crisis Secret Files and Origins and I kind of like it, so who knows. The rest of it might not be total shite like I originally expected.

I'll probably post more comic book stuff in the near future, so apologies to those family and friends who hate it when I do that.

Later. I'm off for some grub!

mike