During the pandemic (a time which overlapped with the year and a half I spent writing and composing a musical solo), I got DEEPLY into indie comics and graphic novels as a time sink/stress reliever/coping mechanism. My hobby was aided by public online libraries (and one notable pirate site, shhh), and even now I always feel my spirits lift on Tuesday and Wednesday when the “new issue drop” email hits my inbox.
Given how comics culture, the theatre, and the minority and/or queer community at large overlap on so many points, I figure there are probably some enthusiasts here. What do you read or who do you follow? I’m currently tearing through “Saga,” and I’ll read anything by Chip Zdarsky or Fiona Staples. Beyond the cooler indie-type stuff, I follow every Star Wars comic on the market (Doctor Aphra forever!), and I finally broke my “no capes” rule thanks to the DC Black Label imprint of miniseries. You?
I'd hardly call myself an enthusiast, but I've read a few graphic novels. I always appreciate how much briefer the stories are to take in due to the convention. They're far more like experiencing a play than a novel.
Some of my favorite graphic novels are Scott McCloud's The Sculptor and Alex Robinson's Tricked, and I really enjoyed the Scott Pilgrim and Y: The Last Man series. I read the first run of Kick-Ass, and I'd love to check out the rest sometime.
I haven't been a big fan of comic books until recently. Something made me visit local book store and I purchased the Preacher comic book. It changed my life and now I want to delve into this culture in my free time ( in truth, I don't have it at all since I'm a student).
The lock down seriously got me into comics and graphic novels, not that I never read them but I was not this much interested in them. And during that time I also started a full stack digital marketing agency. So I can say that this lock down has also given a lot of opportunities to people as well.
I've been reading Korean mangas and they're amazing. The stories are really deep and the art is different and cool. They're a nice change from regular Western comics.
One Korean manga I'd recommend is "Solo Leveling." It's this awesome mix of action and fantasy, and it really grabs your attention. The story is about a hunter who starts off pretty weak but then becomes super powerful. It's exciting to see his journey.
And, if you're into more mature content, there's this porn manhwa. They're a bit spicier. A good one to start with is "Queen Bee." It's actually my favorite in this category.
I just finished reading the Attack On Titan manga. I was able to successfully avoid spoilers for the ending and despite the fan criticisms I thought the way it ended was satisfying and very poignant with an interesting message. The whole series is definitely worth reading. I'm making my way through the anime now, but deliberately held off on watching until I was closer to finishing the manga.
I'm also reading Marvel's The Vision series and while I enjoyed WandaVision a lot (even though I thought the last episode almost single handedly took the series from a 9 to 7) it would've been interesting to see what they'd done if they had stuck closer to Tom King's graphic novel series which really goes inside Vision's head a lot more than the show does.
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
I just binged my way through all 48 back issues of Marjorie Liu's MONSTRESS, in anticipation of its return this spring. The plot can be a little scattered, as there's SUCH an enormity of world-building it's sometimes hard to keep up. But the art is absolutely gorgeous, a mix of Alphonse Mucha, art deco and Japanese scroll art.