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Holy Comics Reading Sweetheart!

2008-03-09

I have a girlfriend who's reading comic books.

I never thought I'd say that, and I also never thought I'd be as ambivalent about it as I am. For a ‘comics nerd' finding a female who actually likes comics is a miniscule odds percentage (finding one who's physically attractive reduces the odds still further). As Seth Cohen once remarked "it's like finding a unicorn...a really sexy unicorn." Umm...not that I ever watched ‘The O.C....'

The previous three women I've dated have had the following reaction to my ‘nerdiness'.

"Comics? Really...that's interesting...I think I'm dating a nerd."

Emma it turns out, in the fits of boredom related to leg fracture recovery, had it turns out been rummaging through Donnie's long-boxes. (For those of you who don't know any ‘fanboys' those aren't his underwear, but three foot long boxes that are used to store many, many comics. ) She just started picking a box and systematically reading the books in order.  Donnie freaked over this as some of one's she read were his newsprint Batman's from the early 80's, which were in delicate condition.

I'd noticed her doing this a few times, but hadn't commented on it (my time was stretched enough as it is between bar shifts and taking notes in classes).

Then on Wednesday in bed she said matter-of-factly to me without looking that; ‘I've been reading some comics'.

‘Yeah I know.'

‘Just thought you'd be interested, she replied slightly sulkily.

‘Yeah I am, but I...well...you haven't really asked me a question there hon.'

She looked at me angrily.

‘Sorry...so what do you think? Which part did you like?'

‘Oh I didn't.'

She then proceeded to go on in some depth to tell me that the stories were simple and lacked depth, and there wasn't a lot to take in.

Now I know for a fact that that day she'd been reading Detective Comics #'s 583-614  written by Alan Grant  and John Wagner (but not really by Wagner -if you're really interested click here) and illustrated by my fav Batman artist ever Norm Breyfogle. These are my favorite Batman comics of all time, and highly literate and thought provoking as comics go (especially for a flagship title of that era), and so I kind of take umbrage with her referring to them as ‘facile'. This was kind of when we ended this conversation. But, as I laid there absorbing David Foster Wallace's thoughts on dictionaries, I came to the uncomfortable conclusion that she may have been right, at least on a macro level.

Most comics are simplistic, with non fighting scenes often little more than a setup for a super-powered slugfest. Sure that's a generalization, but for every good mainstream comics writer (read: not Alan Moore) there's ten average ones. Just look at the two main Batman titles right now. On Detective Comics Paul Dini (the original writer on the truly great ‘Batman: The Animated Series') is creating ‘comfort food comics'. Easy story, not overly referential to comics continuity, and good fun for the casual reader...and it's totally boring me. There's just no hook or overarching story. Meanwhile over on Batman Grant Morrison is writing multilayered stories with a huge overarching plot which aren't easy and require you to really know the character to get what's going on. As an aside I firmly believe the reason that the ‘fanboys' are divided on his run, and some quite angry is that he does challenge them and make them feel stupid (I have a friend who hates Catch-22 for the same reason). Morrison actually plays the continuity game more than the fanboys; for example his current story arc revolves on a key plot point that happened in a comic from 1963!

However I then remembered the first time she talked about comics with me, and admitted she'd only ever read some Adrian Tomine, some Daniel Clowes (some meaning ‘Ghost World') and a few ‘Love & Rockets'. Most of which are miles ahead of most super-hero books in terms of emotional depth.  Because she's sleeping later than me at the moment I decided to find her some to change her opinion. So I got Donnie's collected editions of ‘Identity Crisis', ‘Watchmen' and ‘The Killing Joke.'

Her verdict so far (in order): ‘pretty good, brilliant! And ‘that's really disturbing...but it's interesting.'

There's hope for her yet.

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