So Should I Read Anything?

- the overall quality of comics now is high - probably the highest its ever been; the number of totally crap comics (whether mainstream or alternative, superhero or autobiographical or whatever) seems to be much lower than when I was actually reading. The lessons of the great, groundbreaking comics of 15-20 years ago in whatever field have all been thoroughly learned and the medium is much better for that.

- but on the other hand there's not an awful lot coming out now I'd describe as essential. There's a lot more 7s and 8s and 9s than there used to be, but fewer 10s. My caveat there is that so far on this particular revival I haven't read very far away from the mainstream, but there's no name I see cropping up a lot in the way that 5 years ago people were going mad for Chris Ware (ACME Novelty Library).

Chrissie, can you give us a couple of pointers to your taste in comics--stuff you've really really liked in the past?

Obviously, if I looked at them today, I'd think they were pretty awful. But it did make me look also at Kirby and Ditko, who I'll always have time for, and I still have some of their stuff around. I bought the Jimmy Olsen TPB a while back and it was terrific.

I don't think I'm especially mad about superhero stuff. Up to a certain point in my life, I'd still buy a few of those. It gets to be a habit. The Claremont/Byrne X-Men books were the best thing in the world when I was nine or ten, but one day I sat down and said, 'Why the hell am I still buying Byrne comics at the age of 25? Everything he's done in the last decade has been CRAP!' So that was that! I've hardly bought a comic since.

But since I'm trying to fiddle with the medium a bit myself (BTW, the URL above was erroneously my home page, and for comicsy stuff I should've pointed here), and fingers crossed it seems there might be professional activity related to comics on the horizon... I feel like there should be something out there to interest me.

Probably not superheroes, though.

Also, Whedon is fantastic at doing group dynamics, possibly the best person at it ever to write an X-Book.

(For that matter, there's a big gap between Buffy movie dialogue and Buffy show dialogue, even though they're pretty much the same on the page. In that case it's an issue of direction, I think.)

I kind of want to give early Claremont props on the group dynamics X-Men thing, without necessarily saying he was better at it than Whedon.

Hence my use of "possibly". :-)

Joe Kelly was also fantastic, particularly when you consider that he probably had the roster with the most "WTF???" characters on it.

X-Statix is the series I endorse.

(I know, I really must read the trades)

But probably a good thing, as I can't imagine a different creative team taking it anywhere.

Chrissie, you should read Craig Thompson. Blankets is big deal, so is Goodbye, Chunky Rice too, though it gets lost in the Blankets shuffle.

Also, Tuomas' suggestion to check out the Best Comics Ever! poll is a good one.

Been watching the Best Comics thread. Some interesting things in there and some rubbish. But I won't say which is which.

I'm somewhat interested in experimental uses of the medium. I try to be experimental myself -- possibly a risible aspiration and certainly not a way of getting a big audience -- and I suppose similarly strange applications might appeal to me. If a lot of people think it's uncool, it probably isn't. ;-) Um. Yes.

But as to the question: notwithstanding that you're doing the thing I despise most in the world -- putting words in my mouth to make a non-existent point -- like, who cares? ;-)