200 Words on Comic Books

My relationship with comic books is fraught! I can't hardly stand it! They're art, you see.

Comic books are literature, and they're graphic arts. They're stories to divert, and myths to edify. They're genre, they're media, they're artifacts of the times. They document, reflect, and they hope. They make people into eye candy. They glorify violence, and they parody glory. They satirize pedestals, and build them.

They take our money, and then ask to be stuffed into plastic bags, hoping someday to repay our wallets. They take our love, our dedication to the stories we love, and every few years change the rules, destroy the universe, and ask us to fall in love with those people all over again for the very first time. Then we wonder if all those people we cared so much about in our past, for good or ill, are still worth that effort. Like people from high school, or college, or past jobs, these comic book people pull at our hearts.

Comic books are more than super heroes, and some of my favorites are, for instance, non-continuity titles. Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children. Brought to Light. Grey.

Comic books. Difficult to love, like buttery escargot.