I'm something of a novice when it comes to comics. Only just recently getting into them in a big way. When I say that it's not in a 'get every single issue on the day it comes out' kind of guy. I'm more of a 'buy the trade paperback after a lot of research into exactly what it is I want' kind of guy (Hey, I've just got myself a mortgage, I can't afford to buy every comic that looks cool).
But it's been bugging me recently that a lot of people still think that comics are the arena of the nerd. The geek. The spaz. The social retard. And to some extent...that's kind of true.
But in this day and age where The Dark Knight is one of the top grossing films of all time, you'd think people would be getting into comics more and more.
This is not the case.
Example, before the Watchmen movie came out I decided to read the graphic novel, as I hadn't done so before. And while I don't think it deserves all the praise it gets (mainly cause Alan Moore pisses me off), I thought it was pretty damn good nonetheless. People in work saw me reading it and gave me looks of derision. Fair enough says I, they're uneducated in the ways of comics. But then these same people went to see the movie when it came out. So why should they be so willing to scorn people who read the comics. Are they still considered to be a children's hobby by the masses, reading the funny pages. Is liking a movie based on a comic, better, more socially acceptable, than liking the thing on which it was based?
Although, one person in my work didn't like Watchmen movie at all. His review, verbatim, was this: What the fuck was that all about? And why was that blue queer walking about with his dick out?
I'm currently enjoying Y The Last Man at the minute. It's probably the best work of fiction I've read in a while, has some truly stuning artwork and the the srory and lead charcters are compelling, yet when the eventual movie comes round (depsite that it's been stuck in Development Hell for a while) the people who will go and see it will do so because bloody Shia Leboeuf is likely to land the role of Yorick.
I don't have a problem with the movie adaptations themselves, but the double standards that go with the people who watch them yet would never think to pick up the source material, or worse still, dismiss them as being childish and stupid. Watchmen made Time Magazine's 100 best novels. That's novels, not graphic novels, folks. Give them a chance, you might like them.
So, what do you all think?
Great post JC. Certainly agree that a lot of people dismiss comics/graphic novels (a term that grinds my gears, although I'm not sure why) as being childish and stupid.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'd also be quick to point out that a lot of elitist fanboy comic collectors like the fact that it's something of a slightly impenetrable, daunting world to an 'outsider', and make every attempt to keep things this way. Which inevitably leads to derision and scorn of the medium.
But that's awful silly, because comics are a Great Bunch of Lads, and everyone should enjoy them.