I couldn’t focus in the coffee shop today. Got into a conversation about superheroes with Adam Rex so then I drew this and left. I stopped collecting superhero comics around 9th grade. What I think turned me off to them was not so much the nerdy fantasy aspect, but the relentless exposition on every panel. That stuff makes my eyes glaze over. I just can’t pay attention to it. This year I bought the first volume of Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus, thinking I could get into his wild shit but I had to force myself through it. Man. I just don’t like superhero comics. I don’t like revisionist/satire superhero comics either. Or at least I haven’t seen one that I liked. My friend John Walsh suggested I check out Rick Veitch’s Maximortal, so I’ll give that one a shot. I love superhero movies though, so what’s that all about? Anyway I hear there’s a new Wolverine movie coming out soon. Nice!
Agreed on the exposition. I think, make some use of your medium!
Ever read the early stuff by Jason? Shhhh and The Living and the Dead are both excellent. Fewer than a handful of words between the two.
http://www.amazon.com/Sshhhh-Jason/dp/1560974974/ref=pd_sim_b_6
http://www.amazon.com/Living-Dead-Jason/dp/1560977949/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233753897&sr=8-5
Yeah I flipped through Shhhh at the local comic shop a few years ago. My friend Ben told me about it. I remember liking it quite a bit.
When you read mainstream comics, you’re a guy reading comics. It’s like reading over your own shoulder. That’s great! I like to meditate on the meaning of these mainstream dreams. Perhaps comics have gotten a little post-modern, or post-something. Post-comics, maybe.
If you think superhero comics suck, do a wiki on the Black Racer. It’s an incarnation of death Kirby came up with, a Vietnam vet that rides cosmic skis who only kills Gods. That riiiips.
Did you ever read Alan Moore’s notes on the Twilight of the Superheroes? He wanted to make this Wagnerian super soap opera with all capes on the TV.
-Steve Rogers
Let me just add to that “The Metabarons” which is a superhero comic and fucked ME in the butt. Also Valiant comics’ “Solar” from the 90’s is a superhero comic and it’s good for at least 30 issues. Also, I found a comic called “Scout” about a Jewish Apache with a spirit guide that takes peyote and hunts post-apocolyptic monsters.
I just saw a first issue the other day called “Haunted Tank” about the ghost of a racist confederate general that only appears to a black tank driver. They’re trying!
Black Racer sounds great. I read the Incal comic which was awesome despite some of the comic narrative conventions it adhered to. I’ll definitely eventually check out these suggestions. Thanks dudes
And really, you want to read Maximortal before you take another step. Especially the first third of it. It’s critical.
Totally agree… I stopped collecting comic books as a kid and have never been able to read a superhero comic book again, even one’s I loved as a kid.. My eyes glaze over too at the relentless exposition.. This just applies to the superhero formats..
Smile of a Vampier.
Veitch came out with an excellent comic called The One. It deals with human nature and it gets pretty surreal, I’d recommend reading it!