Reflex tells me I should be delivering some rant about how unpleasant the pending mega-super-consequential crossovers are likely to be. But something odd is going on. It’s as though Avengers: Disassembled and Identity Crisis were the last shots in an unpleasant but necessary course of inoculations, and I am now immune to the lure of Big Two Event Comics.
The stories as solicited don’t grab me, and experience tells me that I don’t care for these particular writers telling these kinds of stories. So, I’m just going to avoid them, unless I hear really spectacular word of mouth from people who wouldn’t otherwise enjoy these kinds of comics. I don’t begrudge Marvel or DC for publishing them or doing what they please with their properties. I’m just not going to spend my hard-earned money on them. Fair, right?
John Jakala, in a shameless bid for the Kurt Busiek Award For Talking Sense About Comics, broaches this at The Low Road, and he’s absolutely right. A few months ago, I had a similar epiphany, and I put out a call for comics that wouldn’t make me feel ill-used as a consumer… comics that entertained without qualification, that you didn’t need to squint at to find the good bits. And while I still read a lot of Big Two stuff, I’m a lot more ruthless about dumping titles when they fail to please because, as John says, there are just too many alternatives out there.
Manga alone has been like the most welcoming refugee camp imaginable: dozens and dozens of diverse titles to choose from with subject matter for almost any taste and availability that makes the Direct Market look like a shop that specializes in pre-Soviet Russian coins. Just look at Postmodern Barney’s entry from yesterday, running down all of June’s manga offerings. (I just looked at them for what’s in it for me, because I am terribly selfish.)
And of course it isn’t just manga. There’s tons of stuff out their, independent and mainstream, that offers pure, undiluted pleasure. Heck, I’m still sampling stuff from the recommendations I got months ago, and I love to find new, weird, inventive, exciting, fun stuff from sources like Comics Worth Reading and iComics and Comic Book Galaxy. And the blogiverse is always clueing me into something I should try, as are the columnists and reviewers at Comic World News. It’s easy to find better comics.
Okay, so this week’s shipping list doesn’t exactly support my argument. It’s looking a little lean in terms of comics that won’t make you feel dead inside. (This is your cue to contradict me with choice morsels that arrive tomorrow. I feel you should know that if the comic you’re about to recommend features zombies, you face an uphill climb.) But there’s always next week.
And there’s y’all. What have you been reading lately that really surprised you in a positive way?
(Update: Speaking of awesome comics that make me happy to be a fan, BeaucoupKevin has posted a wonderfully written review of the great big book of Bone, covering pretty much everything I would have said, but better, and with much less effort on my part. Go read.)