🚀 go-pugleaf

>>>The only rationalization that I can come up with is that
>>>comics provide me a high ratio of diversity per time spent.
>>>Since comics are shorter, I can plow through them more rapidly than
>>>the same number of books. This exposes me to a wider range of ideas. 

>>They also provide a quick "good vs. evil" catharsis.  A long
>>time ago (Middle Ages or just after?) there were plays
>>called morality plays, in which various characters represented
>>different virtues and vices.  I think comic books are of
>>a piece with that tradition.
>>At least, that's what I tell friends and relatives.
>>Fact is, I read comics because I enjoy them.

> Sitting back and reading the latest GRIM JACK, or WHISPER 
> gives me the same type of enjoyment that I got from reading TO
> KILL A MOCKING BIRD or STILL LIFE WITH WOODPECKER.  The comic
> book is becoming more and more of its own literary medium.
> It can offer you the insites into a persons mind like a book can as
> well as give you some of the striking visualization of a movie.

These responses intrigue me.  Although I expected the "I read
'em because I like 'em" response, I didn't really expect that a
comic medium could be called 'literary.' However, don't flame me;
I'm not saying it *shouldn't* be a literary medium, just that I
hadn't thought of it that way.

I read comics for two reasons.  Number one is that I think in
pictures, and when I read a book, I can see the scenes in my
head unfolding as my eyes translate the letters on the page.
Comics, which provide the visuals for me, are interesting
because someone else has already made up the scenes.  When I
read something drawn by Frank Miller (and others to lesser
degrees), I am reading a book, but through Miller's unique
vision.  That's why I like the drawing of certain artists --
their unique vision translates more readily for me than others.
It requires a deliberate effort, for example, to get my mind to
willingly accept Sienciewicz' style, although it's sometimes
worth it (NM 19-25 or so, for example).  It required a
deliberate effort for me to get used to Simonson's Thor (and
especially Simonson's Jarlsen), not to mention the change of
letterers.  That, too, was worth it.

Number two is somewhat less technical.  I see comics as the
ultimate romantic art form.  I'm an ultimate romantic.  This
doesn't mean I like mush, or even clearly drawn evil-vs.-good
morality conflicts; it does mean that I enjoy watching
characters change and grow as time passes, rather as if they
were real people that I interacted with once a month.  The
bigger-than-life way in which superheros are drawn appeals to me
-- I like being able to dance across rooftops vicariously with
DD, or zoom off into the stars with Phoenix.  Even the younger
and supposedly less cosmic characters, such as Power Pack or
the Titans' Changeling and Terra, are drawn bigger-than-life,
and appealingly so, such that I can easily interact with the
events on the printed page.  

The time-compression mentioned by some people recently fits in
with this well.  I guess my personal theory on aging in comics
is that people in Marvel comics have a lifespan which is up to 5 
or 6 times longer than our own, and features a lengthy youth and a
highly compressed middle and old age.  I don't have any problems
thinking of Jean Grey, for example, falling for Scott at age
sixteen or so in early issues of X-men and still being young
enough today to return to X-Factor in perfect shape after
lifting a few weights.  If they're bigger-than-life, why
shouldn't they live longer too?  The only problem I see with
this is that Jean's tombstone should not have had her born in
1956, since it would have made her about nine in X-men #1.  I
think year-dates should never exist in the Marvel Universe.
Kitty Pryde can have birthdays but years should pass unmarked.
However, if (as in DC) the premise has been made that
superheroes age at a normal rate, it can be made workable.

Ellen
-- 
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	"Who's been repeating all that hard stuff to you?"
	"I read it in a book," said Alice.
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