It’s been a very slow reading week. I can’t seem to focus on much of anything — I’ve been trying to read Saturday by Ian McEwan, but (even though I recognize it’s a lovely book) I just can’t get into it. But I want to read. I want to read a lot, I just can’t seem to focus enough on it.
So, what did I do? I went back to some comic books! Andi over at Tripping Towards Lucidity wrote a great piece for BiblioBuffet called “On Comics: Literature in a Hurry” where she wrote,
For me, comics are literature in a hurry. That is not to say that they are in any way “less” than traditional printed volumes or any other creative medium. Comics certainly are not created in a hurry, they are rarely fully understood or studied in a hurry, but thanks to comics I can have a quality reading experience in a relatively short amount of time. In a similar fashion to watching television or a film, comics are largely processed without overtly thinking about how it happens. As the reader skims over the page of a comic, the illustrator need only provide pivotal images to get the reader through and provide the bones of a plot. The reader does the rest. The reader’s understanding is the connective tissue that binds the images together.
I think that’s just brilliant, to think of comics a little like television. There’s good television and bad television, television that makes you think and television that lets you tune out. Comics have a bad reputation, I suspect, because people don’t see enough of the comics that make you think and too many of the comics that let you sit back and be lazy like a lame episode of reality tv.
So what comics did I go to this week? The next two up in my read through of the Fables series by Bill Willingham — Volume 8: Wolves, and Volume 9: Sons of Empire. They were both excellent, as always. Well-crafted characters, compelling plotlines, and
Point of this Sunday Salon? Read Andi’s piece, then go and check out a comic book if you haven’t already. Don’t be embarassed about checking it out of the library or asking for one from a friend, just do it. You won’t regret it.
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Here here! Comics are wonderful, and Fables is a great place to dive in.
I so agree with you on why comics have a bad reputation. I also read those Fables books last week. They were wonderful 🙂
I’m going through a bookish dry spell too. I can’t get into anything. That’s actually what my Sunday Salon post was on!
Thank you for passing along some of my column!!! It was a joy to write. 🙂 Glad you’re still enjoying Fables! I’m a little behind and really need to get caught up before another edition comes out and I get further behind! lol
It’s been slow for me too, but I’m finally getting back into the swing of things. Maybe I’ll look for some comics from my library for the next time I go 🙂
Glad to hear you’re still enjoying the Fables series. I need to get back onto them again. The last one I read was Arabian Nights #7 but the last one I reviewed was #3 *gah*
Nymeth: I like Fables a lot, I think it’s a nice “easy” comic to read that still has some intelligence to it.
Sarah: I hope you get over your dry spell soon too!
Andi: No problem, I really enjoyed reading it.
Lu: Definitely, there are a lot of good comics reviews in the book blogosphere that you could go to for recommendations.
Joanne: Fables is hard to review; if you liked the first one, they just keep being interesting.
I often have a hard time getting into McEwan, too. Maybe he should try writing a graphic novel?
alirambles: Ha ha, that would be awesome! Can you imagine Atonement as a comic book? I think that would be cool.
Atonement might work. Just, please not On Chesil Beach!