Graphic novels

[Splendiferous]

Thanks, Jill, I'll cast my roving eye around for them.

...

By which I mean I'll look them up on the interwebs. But roving eye sounds cooler, you know?

[jill_valentine]

I understand.

Got Runaways Vol.7 this week, I seem to have missed 6. Which is a killer, because Vol. 6 evidently had some huge stuff in it. Feels like the time I missed Becoming.

[Seraph]

Clever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8byYFdSBfA

http://www.myspace.com/kickass_comic














Opening issue seems like a good start.

[SF_not_Sci-Fi]

Originally Posted by Nexus

They're not called comic books dammit.

No, they are comic books actually. Take the Sandman books (which I am reading right now) for example. These certainly have the depth of ideas and characterization of the 'graphic novel' and yet several of the comics are basically stand-alone short stories without a major role in any plot arc. While the major plot arcs can be seen as serialized 'graphic novels', where do we class these orphaned comics? The term 'graphic short story' is a little too cumbersome for my taste. What is wrong with the term 'comic book' anyway? Literary comics are far older then the term 'graphic novel.'

I understand that the term is at times a bit more descriptive of certain work then 'comic book' is. But my problem with it is the same one that I have with 'SpecFic' for SF. It is an attempt to retreat from the form's history and development for fear of marginalization. In my opinion though, serious comic books are at their best when they (as in Watchmen for example) confront, deconstruct and thus surpass the history, prejudices, and various genre baggage of the comic book.

[jill_valentine]

Was very sick over Christmas and couldn't focus on movies, so torrented a couple of comics to keep from going insane.

Highlight was probably Batwoman: Elegy, which I gave a go based on a recommendation. Wasn't expecting much, but I was really pleasantly surprised.

A large part of that was the artwork, the character designs are striking without being silly, and the Lewis Carroll theme gave them license to go nuts when they wanted to. The visual juxtaposition of Batwoman with Alice, her nemesis, was nicely employed and the distinct palette of red, black and white makes for some very striking spreads which nonetheless tell a lot of story. Really nice balance of physical, kinetic violence and dreamy weirdness.

The first part of the story of Batwoman vs. Alice is great. The second part is basically flashbacks to Batwoman's past explaining her origin and motivations, and it's considerably less so. I appreciate they were trying to mix up the structure a little, but it didn't work, the flashbacks didn't add anything useful I couldn't already figure out.

Her origin is kind of boring, for one thing, as is her Alfred analog - I spent that whole half of the story waiting to get back to more actual Batwomaning. That present day character is far more interesting - she has an identity and personality quite distinct from that of Batman, and the character's reinvention turns out to be far more than a gimmick. Now that the origin is out of the way, I'm very keen to see where the Batwoman series goes from there.

I do hope they keep Alice around too, the dynamic is interesting and I love the very well employed visual contrast she provides.

Anyway, long story short, well worth checking out for the artwork alone, and far better than you'd expected given the miserable history of female-knockoff-established-hero titles. As noted, the origin story is lame, but the character itself is appealing and the artwork-driven plotting is strong.