After setting foot in the comic kingdom once again with 1602, I went off to the local library to scour what they may still have in graphic novel format of past TPBs. I say scour because most of the time, the library databases will tell you that, yes it is indeed available, but alas has been stolen or is at another branch and you therefore need to request the title to be sent to the library near you. And, even if the database indicates that said comic is available, upon searching the shelf, you simply won't find it there. Then you have to enlist the aid of library staff and they will do their best to hunt across shelves, return book piles and the like and will sorrowfully tell you that the book seems to have gone missing and that they shall further investigate, and meanwhile, sorry, but maybe you could go to another library where they DO have it? Or, borrow another title that's just as good, but not really the same.
Well, my last trip proved fruitful. I came away with Lucifer, Reinventing Comics, Prometheus, Three Fingers, Shade the Changing Man, and some other titles which escapes me now. I've read some and some I liked, some were awful and I thought, who on earth let these people write, or much worse, told them that their story was any good? It sounds quite judgemental, and perhaps I didn't read it too well (I'm guilty of zooming through comics and missing quite a bit which I realize when I go back to read it the second time), but really, Shade was just a hodge-podge, slop-on-top, trip to psychedelia. I thought it was such a waste of reading time, I was quite disgusted that I actually made myself read it through to the end. I must have caught it mid-series, even though it was collected in a TPB. Maybe I needed a background issue. But I just thought why write a story like this? An alien sent to battle human madness as it personifies itself in the city of lights, L.A. that is. So, O.K. the storyline could work. But there were so many elements that seemed so contrived, that I felt were put there, just because. I don't really agree with that school of thought. I like to think each element has reason, has purpose for being there, that it will eventually tie into the whole of the story like a neat little package tied up with string. Loose ends bother me. To no end.
1:15 PM | |
