Comic Books

I went to a local comic book convention yesterday, and boy did I feel out of place. I was literally the only guy there wearing a shirt with buttons on it. Everyone else (meaning a couple thousand comic book fans) was either in costume or wearing the new American uniform, the ironic T-shirt. You've seen them - the network administrators who wear T-shirts bearing Spam logos, the world-weary angstmongers with the Jetsons T-shirts, the stoners with the DARE T-shirts.

But it's all fundamentally harmless and they all seemed quite happy in their geekdom, so who am I to harsh their collective buzz? Just because I was the only guy there in a blue checked shirt with buttons doesn't give me a right to snicker at the outrageous anime costumes... does it?

I didn't buy very much, and let's be honest, the main reason most people go to such conventions is to buy stuff. My comic book tastes are quite pedestrian. I don't read the major cash cow comics like X-men, Batman, Superman, or the Avengers. Nor do I read the "edgy" independent comics, which as far as I can tell are mostly peopled by foul-mouthed slackers. I don't read manga or anime because I find the characteristic anime wink unsettling and the stories generally incomprehensible. It's as though I was supposed to do some readings first to help me understand them. I don't read most of the horror comics either, though I do dabble in the occasional Rob Zombie effort simply because of his strange mental landscape.

I used to read Sergeant Rock, which shouldn't really surprise anyone. Sergeant Fury and his Howling Commandos was good, and I was a devotee of Ghost Tank. But they don't make comics like those any more - the closest thing to them I've seen in years was DC's very uncharacteristic but interesting Light Brigade, but that was a short-run thing probably not to be repeated. A close second would the Predator "Sands of Time" thing, which managed to combine the historical battle of Verdun in World War One with science fiction in the form of the Predator and form a most satisfactory whole.

I like to read the Punisher, which is entirely unreconstructed and devoid of redeeming social value but at least doesn't confront me with moral ambiguities. There are the bad guys, there is the Punisher, and there are innocent people. Very easy to grasp, quite unlike the strange amorality that seems to afflict a lot of anime. I particularly liked the "Born" series - the full page illustration of a red-eyed Castle standing in the shambles of a Vietnam firebase with an M60 in one hand and napalm smoke rising in the background in the shape of the Punisher skull was worth the price of the entire book.

I like to read Black Widow, because I am essentially a product of the Cold War and I find all that KGB spy stuff interesting. I was especially amused when the Black Widow stopped wearing the equipment on her wrists, complaining that the equipment was old Warsaw Pact issue stuff and therefore heavy, antiquated and unreliable. I have less use for Black Widow when she represents nothing but a love interest for other comic book figures, such as Daredevil. I particularly liked the idea of two Black Widows, one who had split from the program and the other who was still with the program and out to 86 the renegade one.

I liked the old Dark Horse Aliens and Alien-versus-Predator comics, though I found I wasn't as excited by the Earth War or Hive War books and stopped reading them.

But my favorite was Red Star. It was beautifully written and beautifully drawn, and was unique in its ability to evoke emotions. I'd try to describe it, but nothing I can say would do it justice. It is to comic books what The Lord of the Rings is to fantasy fiction.