COMICS

I've been a fan of Comic Books since I was wee. I have an extensive reading collection - I say "reading" because I'm not a Collector; I buy comics to read, I'm not a snooty completest who sees comics as investments. However, recently my relationship with comics has been strained. To be honest, I think I've grown and, well, frankly, I'm thinking about seeing other entertainment.

And as I'm walking out the door, taking my stuff, and all the CDs we bought together but I'm not fucking splitting these up, I'm going to punch Comics right in the goddamned NECK. You've got it coming, Comics. Time to own up.

It's been a slow dissolution of our relationship over the past couple of years. Perhaps it's just growing older, changing views that no longer mesh. Or maybe it's because I've started writing and drawing my own comics, which is much more entertaining to me than reading what is being currently published, that killed the spark. Maybe it's just a realization - a moment of clarity - where I came to see that no matter the characters, the complexity of the plot, the detail of the art nor the "revamped edgy for the next century reinvisionment" IMPLIED, It comes down to only one thing: Shallow characters punching each other in the face. After years of quality television (a fine example of creative execution of a serialized dramatic form) like the Sopranos, the Shield, et al, maybe I've just come to expect too much. Maybe it's ME, comics, and not YOU.

This image was the final straw, the final insult:
The "top" writer and artist in comics have taken one of the most exciting, classic, universe-spanning adventurers ever and reduced them to, you guessed it, having a punch up with a giant robot. I cry FOUL, Marvel. I call BULLSHIT, Mr. Millar. If you're going to just not even try, take your ball and go home. Let some of the usual hacks write this insipid shit. You sully the very property you were given to protect. You've been given a Galaxy Hoping, Mind-boggling, Epic Adventure to write and have given us Ladies' Aid meetings, reality TV, and giant robots punching other giant robots. You should be ashamed.

This comic is SO BAD that it's enough to make me give up on comics. But it's not just that it's bad, it's that this is a symbolic turn of form, a narrowing of concept, a dumbing down of the function of creativity. It's a symbol of the glut existent across the whole spectrum of popular comics. It's a sign of a deeper sickness. A CAT Scan showing signs of the cancer inside.

It's prompted my decision to not buy any more new comics and go retro. Reading old school collections and classic runs of once great books. There were goofy puch-ups back then too, but, well, that's what I EXPECT out of them. It was a simpler time in the medium and in the world. Today, well... I guess I just expect too much.