By Robin Jones
With great vengeance and furious anger, 2014 has born down upon us, and arrived kicking and screaming as it blasted a high powered laser beam through the chest of 2013, spitting in it’s eye, flipping it the middle finger and saying inflammatory remarks about it’s mother and her nocturnal habits! Now, in my Christmas special I named my favourite comics of the year. I figured I’d do that then rather than now as I wanted to talk about comic book resolutions. I don’t normally do resolutions, I’m rubbish at keeping them. Every year for 10 years I promised to stop smoking. I finally quit on Halloween two years ago… Not exactly a resolution. Plus over the past couple of years I’ve realised it’s best only to make promises you know you’re going to keep, that way people, loved ones and myself aren’t let down. So resolutions and promises made with false intent do not sit well with me. However, when it comes to comics, I think there’s definitely some changes I could make which would benefit me!
Throughout my foray into comics, I’ve careered from pillar to post with no clear cut route or direction. I’m assuming this is the norm for most new starters, everything looks shiny, new and inviting. You want to immediately be part of the zeitgeist, know the context of every discussion and not sound like an arse because you haven’t seen the cover to 2006′s issue #13 of Heroes for Hire, which caused a storm of controversy due to the issue of over sexualisation. It’s these important details which means you need to take a structured approach to collecting and reading comics. Therefore, in the spirit of Grant Morrison and his “Morrisons’s Manifesto for X-Men”, this is my guidelines for comic book reading this year. So, this is change number one.
1) I solemnly swear I am up to no goo… wait, this isn’t the marauders map…. Okay, number one is to introduce more structure to my collecting of comics. I initially started with the idea of just ploughing headlong into everything, but this I find, isn’t possible. So, as I’m a Marvel Zombie through and through, I am looking to collect my favourite characters from that. Now I know chronology is a difficult thing in comics, and a long, drawn out coherent story spread over several volumes is a rare gift in comics, but I am looking to make my collections coherent. Such as I own all of Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run, but, I never understood what the precursor to it was. I know all you avid comic fans out there are shouting New X-Men by Grant Morrison you Bilgesnipe, but I didn’t know, and I’m not huge, scaly or have big antlers. So I want Morrsion’s run as it will make Whedon’s clearer. Same as my Fiancee and I have the whole JMS Amazing Spider-Man run and as such are now collecting the Dan Slott run to continue that particular story of Peter Parker. Same with Brubaker’s Captain America and Greg Pak’s Incredible Hulk. I’m after stories which are linear, or as near as dammit to linear as you can get with comic books. So, organisation…like with Hydra…is the key!
2) I need to branch out more. I need to read more than the Marvel and the occasional DC title, with a dash, and I mean a small dash, of Image and Indie comics, which I usually read. So do you know what, I’ve binged. I spent the entirety of January 2nd reading purely Image titles. Titles which I guess you guys already read, like East of West, Saga and The Sixth Gun. All I can say is oh my Zod, what the hell have I been missing? I know a lot of the writers have also worked with the big two, Hickman being the principal architect for one of the most well received cross-overs of late, Marvel’s Infinity, Brian K Vaughan cutting his teeth on X-Men & Runaways and then there’s creators like Matt Fraction and Scott Snyder having their brilliant stories brought to the forefront by Image. It seems Image is the place to be for forward thinking, challenging and complex stories which play out like stories too. There are profound beginnings, thought provoking middles and sometimes heart breaking endings, all of which challenge the big two’s continuous storytelling with their major characters. Brian K Vaughan summed it up best with the quote “Something like Spider-Man, a book that never has a third act… seems crazy.” I suppose this all falls into my first category of the problems with continuity. What image does is almost comic novels. There is a much more traditional method of storytelling to their comics than there is to Marvel or DC’s comics. Y The Last Man for instance was split into chapters, same with East of West. Image’s books are more accessible, more mature and generally broader in scope. So how could this be a bad thing?
3) I need this to be an action point on its own, I must, must, MUST read more Garth Ennis written pieces. As those of you who follow the column know, I read The Boys and was utterly blown away by it’s realism, scope, maturity and believable characters, especially Simon Pegg. Ennis has the innate ability to create realistic characters and present them as gray rather than a clear cut black and white. What he does is capture the worlds ambiguity and present it for us all to see gloriously on his sex, drugs and violence filled pages. His Fury MAX run was absolutely fantastic, Nick Fury being an ambiguous character anyway is played out as the grizzled, war hardened bastard that he would be. The war stories within are engaging and brutal. On request of Captain Inter-Comics himself, I read his one shot known as The Pro. It plays out as a satirical attack on the Justice League, lampooning their values and deeds. Ennis argues that they are childish, ignoring the worlds real problems, like terrorism, famine and oppression in favour of fantastical adventures. His hero is a prostitute, who would rather keep turning tricks with her new found superpowers than use her powers to protect the Earth. It is biting, funny and brilliant and has made me realise that I am definitely missing out on something. Plus, if I’m honest, I don’t think I should be reviewing/writing/attempting to write comics without having read Preacher (I can hear the gasps, the tuts, the calling me a Philistine and you slamming the door/laptop lid in disgust at my actions) but it’s on my “To Do List” so never fear!
So, there you go. My micro manifesto for the year 2014! Have any suggestions? Drop me a comment below and I shall revise these through the year! I’m also planning the return of “You choose what I read” as I trust you all fair readers. I think…
Either way, I’m going to finish up by sharing with you all your own #ComicBookResolutions which you gladly shared with me. So, how will you guys be approaching comicbookdom this 2014:
Simon Dixon @MritalkApple123 -My New year resolution is finally finishing my Ultimate Spider-Man omnibus!
Science Pie @sciencepie – To start trying to fill the gaps that have opened in my trade collection
Roy Taylor @Cornishwomble – Mines to read all of Neil Gaimans Sandman series. read American Gods this year & was blown away. Aim to read all books & graphic novels next year
Voodoo Child @Acidburn81 – Read Battle Pope and read and buy all Judge Dredd Case Files! #Comicbookresolutions
Karim Shehimi @KarimShehimi – Mines the same as you Rob! I’ve tried DC but I can only cling to Batman, sadly .
Geekin Podcast @GeekinPodcast – My #ComicBookResolutions for this year is to begin writing my own books.
Steve Taylor-Bryant @OpinionGeeks – To try and enjoy Marvel more. I just don’t get on with them. I’m going to make more of an effort. I’ve made it too easy to not buy them and get Titan titles instead.
Daniel Cole @gizmo151183 – To give @KarimShehimi his wish of me not being on an episode of the podcast.
Keil @Keilimanjaro – Read more image and actually drop Superman!
Phil IngChristmassy @PUDPiE2010 – I dropped Superman/Batman for the same reason. Mine is to just catch up :$
AARON WEAPON X-81 @HANNIBALPB81 – If any one gets in my way when I’m reading comics ITS CLOBBERING TIME!!!!!!
Philip Foster @PhiltheBear – To some how reduce my pull list to less than 10 books a month !
Colt Seavers @steve_ryall – Read more and organise and store properly what I have!
Bottle City of Kanga @bottlecitykanga – My resolution is only to buy trades! No more monthlies for me!
/|||@Aswimtobirds – To pull up my socks and go pro this year (y)
Flodo Span @GL875 – Earn more ££ & get my pull list back up to full capacity! Missing lots of good books ATM.
For The Fan Blog! @4TheFan – To not buy every single tie in to a major event like I did with infinity this year….
That’s all food for thought don’t you think? Happy new year one and all.
Until next time…
For more comic views and reviews follow Robin on Twitter at @Hulksmash1985
Posted on January 9th, 2014
Category: NEWS & VIEWS, PAPERCUTS AND INKSTAINS VOL. 2
Tags: 2014 Resolutions, DC Comics, Fury Max, Garth Ennis, Image Comics, marvel comics, Matt Fraction, Robin Jones, Scott Snyder