Guest blogger and journalist Jehan Mohd contemplates a misunderstood genre of literary delights
My love affair with comics began at a tender age — so young that I cannot recall exactly when I picked up my first comic book.
I do, however, remember what it started with — Archie Comics.
 |
| Archie Comics played a strong role in my growing up years and continue to be a dear friend. |
My two elder
sisters were also fans of the series and a trip to the bookshop or a book fair
would usually include the purchase of a comic book (or two, or three).
I also read other
comic titles such as Bananaman, Garfield, Asterix, Tintin, Beano — later Calvin and Hobbes, which also became a firm favourite — and
whatever comic strips were in the newspapers but I still ended up going back to
Archie at the end of the day.
As an adult, however,
the affair with the comic book world became more of a guilty pleasure because,
after all, “it’s kiddie stuff”.
Like many others,
I thought that comics consisted of Archie
and superhero stories — and a few other smaller titles that came out in the
papers.
That is, until I
was introduced to a whole other side of the genre.
The Oxford
dictionary defines a comic as “a magazine, especially for children, that tells
stories through pictures” and is synonymous with the term “the funnies” (which
refers to the section of the newspaper where there are several comic strips).
What a misnomer.
 |
| Spider Jerusalem tells it like it is as a gonzo journalist fighting for truth and justice in Transmetropolitan. |
Marketers have
tried to make a distinction between the comics children read and the ones
adults read by calling them “graphic novels” — but, really, they are all comic
books.
So, no offence to
the good people behind the dictionary mentioned earlier, but I would simply say
that a comic is a story (which includes those not meant for children’s eyes or
ears) that is told through pictures.
I first became
acquainted with this alternative world when my husband Aref, in our early
dating years, loaned me a copy of The Doll’s House,
the second trade paperback of Gaiman’s The
Sandman series.
 |
| A secret world of great stories hide in the pages of these comic books and many others. |
I read the book
from cover to cover in record time…and then re-read it immediately at a slower
pace to take in the beauty of the art and poetry of the words.
My mind was
blown.
From there, I quickly
sought the rest of the series and devoured them from stunning start to epic
finish.
The visuals and
stories stayed with me long after putting the books down and the characters
lived on in my dreams for many nights after.
Never had I
imagined comics would provide anything other than light comedic relief much
less have me pondering questions of morality, identity and reality, among
others.
It was then that
I realised that comics are more than the light entertainment of my childhood;
they are simply a different way of telling tales.
 |
| Comics tell stories through pictures - no matter how painful - as Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical Persepolis can attest. |
Sure, superhero
accounts and manga occupy most of the shelf space in the comic book section of
bookstores by there are many other narratives waiting to be picked up and read
(there are even gems in the sphere of these genres).
Like its
non-illustrated cousins, there are several types of stories told through comics
— fantasy, science fiction, drama, horror, action, thriller, biography,
historical…you get what I mean.
Names such as
Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis and Brian K. Vaughan (whose titles — The Sandman, Transmetropolitan and Y: The
Last Man, respectively — I go back to time and time again) as well as Alan
Moore, Will Eisner and Frank Miller (whose works are among the must-read for
any comic fan) have become synonymous with great storytelling.
It is interesting
to see how many ideas from comics have been adapted into television series or
movies over the years.
Aside from the
obvious ones featuring well-known superheroes — Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and
The Hulk, to name a few — you also have the likes of very-much-inferior-to-the-actual-comic-book-movie-adaptations
such as V for Vendetta, From Hell, Watchmen (which is, interestingly, a deconstruction of the
superhero story), Sin City and 300 (a comic series which was inspired
by 1962 film, The 300 Spartans, and was
adapted into a movie, 300, in 2007).
 |
| While it may have looked stylish and the actors looked like the original characters, this movie did not have anything on the comic book. |
In recent years, stories
from the non-illustrated categories have been reimagined in the comic world
(Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
comes to mind).
Archie remains a nostalgic friend to
turn to once in a while but for a good read on a lazy afternoon, one of the more
complex stories in the comic book realm is immensely more satisfying.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
My comic book picks
This is in no way a "best of" or a "how to" list (those are
always subjective anyway) but simply an introduction to some comics series that
might appeal to the adult in us who wants a stimulating read and the child in
us who likes looking at pictures.
1. The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
— This series chronicles the adventures of Dream (one of
the Endless), who rules over the world of dreams.
2. Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan
— This dystopian science fiction series examines the
question of what were to happen if every male mammal (save one man and his pet
monkey) were to die simultaneously.
3. Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis
— A tale of the battles of Spider Jerusalem, infamous
renegade gonzo journalist of the future, an homage to gonzo journalism founder Hunter
S. Thompson.
4. Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore
— The story of “two girls and a guy who gets to know them”
that won awards and attracted women as well as non-comic readers when it
debuted in the early 1990s.
5. Fables by Bill Willingham
— A new spin to well-known fairy-tale characters who have
been forced out of their Homelands and are living in modern-day New York.
6. A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories by Will Eisner
— The work consists of four short stories all set in a Bronx tenement in the 1930s; one of the landmark works that showed comics as a form of literature.
7. Watchmen by Alan Moore
— This comic series depicts an alternate reality where superheroes exist and how their existence have changed real-world events such as the Vietnam War.
Comments