365 Days of Comics

I "got into" comics in 1989, shortly after the release of Tim Burton's Batman (see above photo of me dressed up as the Joker).  My selection process was unrefined.  Growing up in Port Washington, Wisconsin, there were not a lot of comic book stores around.  I'd normally track down trade paperback reprints of Batman and Superman comics at the local Wal-Mart.  Looking at my childhood collection, I seem to have been drawn to titles based off of my favorite film and television properties (including comics based off of Seaquest DSV, Terminator, and Robocop).  Yet, I stopped reading around the time DC comics published the death of Superman (1992) and began the reign of the Supermen, getting drawn into baseball cards and, for a brief time, Pogs. 

I returned to comics around the time of the Sin City (2005) film, about a decade later.  I was in a class on film adaptation at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and we were assigned Dan Clowes's Ghost World (1993-1997).  I fell back in love with the medium and started trying to catch up by reading Maus, Watchmen, and The Dark Knight Returns (1986). 

This past week, while attending and presenting a talk at Indiana University, I realized I still had many blind-spots.  I was never a huge superhero fan, so I overlooked a lot of work to come out of the Golden, Silver, and Bronze ages.  I had read the first ten issues or so of many DC and Marvel comics titles as a youngster, but it had been a while.  Moreover, my knowledge of indie titles was limited to Art Spiegelman, Harvey Pekar, Charles Burns, and Robert Crumb.  Essentially, I feel like I have a great primer but I have a lot of catching up to do.  I immediately tried to remedy this on the plane ride home, finally finishing Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth (1995-2000) and starting with the Hernandez Brothers' Love and Rockets (1981-1996, 2001-Present).  

In order to widen my knowledge of the form beyond the small number of titles I grew up with and the even smaller number I dove into during my dissertation work, I've decided - now that my dissertation is in its final stages - that I'm going to read one comic book a day for the next year.  My Facebook friends know how fond I am of the 365 challenge.  For the past two years, I've taken one photograph a day.  For the past month?  I've composed one musical composition a week.  Now, I'm inviting you to join me on a sequential art odyssey.  Please read whatever you choose, make suggestions, drop a review in a comment.  I'm looking and open to your recommendations! 

Preamble:  Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth (Chris Ware). 

I avoided Chris Ware for a long time.  This avoidance was not because I was unaware of his abilities (I love his edited volume of McSweeney's); it was because his beautiful, intricate, layouts gave me panic attacks.  My eyes, when initially engaging with Ware, were unable to focus.  They are overwhelmed by his small compositions and unorthodox layout style.  Moreover, his stream of conscious narrative and, initially, unfounded character parallels left me feeling overwhelmed.  Then I reached the middle of the arc, beginning around the sequences set at the Chicago World's Fair.  Around this point I discovered that I had hardwired myself to engage with Ware's layouts and quickly discovered their function (those still panels, depicting little, accentuating the awkward pauses of Jimmy's interactions).  Essentially, the more I read, I more I became lost in Ware's heartbreaking story.  Jimmy Corrigan is a masterpiece of the form and I'm ashamed it took so long for me to discover its potent treasures.  Grade:  A+ 

Day 1:  The Fantastic Four #1-3  (Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, 1961-1962?). 

As I said above, I'm not a huge superhero fan (Batman aside, but his power is derived from money and not gamma rays), so I've largely avoided the genre, particularly in its older, less self-conscious, manifestations.  That said, I didn't love Lee and Kirby's first couple issues.  There's something about single issue arcs, after becoming accustomed to sprawling arcs (which are not necessarily better!), that can make them come across as flavor of the week.  At this point, the books are more action oriented than psychology oriented, which is what turns me off.  Yet, I cannot deny that Lee was making strides here towards psychology and bringing superheroes into the real world (The Amazing Spider-Man #1 has a great dilemma for Peter Parker:  How to support his Aunt in the wake of Uncle Ben's death).  Also, Kirby's dynamic art, which is easy to take for granted today, was incredibly dynamic due to its action packed compositions.  I'm still gonna stick with it few more issues before shifting to Spider-Man and Hulk.  Grade:  B