22 March 2007

Required Reading


So. It's been awhile again and I have no excuse. We'll leave it at that...
Recently I've been bouncing a product idea around in regards to the way the comics industry operates and supposedly attracts new readers. It seems to me that the big ones, the major publishers (DC and Marvel, if you're reading this from outside the comics world)are very concerned with the sales of their various superhero comics and trying to rehash the same old story lines from the same old characters and leaving the books themselves overall stale, contrite and used. Then they option the rights for a cut-rate movie that panders to the fan-base and pretends to be accessible to a wider audience and fails in both attempts.
Many of you who have grown up reading comics and whose tastes have matured as you've grown older and those of you who are trying to check out what's going on in comics 'cause there was a review in the Washington Post know what I'm talking about here: you walk into a comics shop where you're accosted by all 31 flavors of superheroes in primary color spandex fighting stereotyped villians with cheesy dialogue. If you're lucky, you manage to pick up a somewhat literary and tongue-in-cheek strip down of the superhero genre. But if you're not paying attention or don't know where to look or are afraid to ask the self-righteous prat behind the counter (beg pardon of all those comics store clerks who sagely and generously guided me toward the "good stuff" in my graphic storytelling education; there are a lot of you out there), chances are you'll completely miss all the amazing work out there that speaks to something other than sheer escapism and melodrama because it's all in a corner somewhere not very well lit and not very well organized and not very well stocked.
It comes down to this: on the off chance that someone that didn't grow up reading comics and doesn't (god forbid) know the difference between the first three incarnations of the Dark Knight's sidekick (Dick Grayson, Jason Todd and Tim Drake in case any of you doubt my geek cred) happens to get interested and walk into a shop to check things out, given the way we treat our artform, those folks are going to turn around and walk right back out, having been proved right about the immaturity of the comics, the fans and whole Shazam! We've succeeded in proving many critics right in focussing on dying genres, outdated methods of thinking and publishing and making it next to impossible for potential new readers to come into the medium with an appreciation.
Now the question for that potential reader maybe is not a matter of "what happened in the last ten years of the X-men that I need to know in order to understand all the in-jokes in this issue?" or better phrased "what could I be reading?" but instead should be "what should I be reading?" And that is the crux of this idea: a conveniently packaged prestige-format, library-style collection of the milestone comics that illustrate what the industry could be and have elevated the medium to an artform. I took the idea from two places: 1) in Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan, to which I owe a large debt of gratitude, Mr. Ellis included in his letters page homework assignments of various books he felt were relevant and worth reading. This segment was called Required Reading. Hope you don't mind the slight theft... 2) There is a collection of movies released under the The Criterion Collection label which collects, remasters, adds all sorts of neat bonus features and repackages those movies that they feel epitomize the medium. ...and this is the spirit in which I start this (hopefully) weekly review--reviewing those comics and graphic novels that you should be reading...
I'm starting off not with a classic, but rather with a potential classic. Published under DC's Vertigo imprint, DMZ written by Brian Wood and pencilled by Riccardo Burchielli is required reading. Brian Wood has been self-publishing through AIT/PlanetLar for a number of years and only last year brought DMZ to one of the majors. DMZ is the story of a fledgling journalist stranded in the demilitarized zone of Manhatten island in a fictional civil war-gripped America set mere weeks from now. In the wake of several overseas armed conflicts, the American government neglects the rising tide of Middle American militias that quickly rise and push their way across the country seizing power and support as they go, only to coem to a grinding halt at New York City.
In this near future tale, Matty Roth, a journalist's asistant thrust unwittingly into the spotlight by his media-icon boss's death in Manhatten. Matty finds that not only does he now have to worry about staying alive in the DMZ as it's called, but he finds himself as the only major network correspondent in New York, wrestling with the reality of what he is witness to and what he has been told to believe about the way of the world as it is now.
This on-going series (the first 12 issues of which are collected into two tradepaperback volumes, On the Ground $9.99US and Body of a Journalist $12.99US) is compelling, honest work that begs the audience to look at the ramifications of the present beyond our windows and the consequences of that presents' choices lurking just out of sight on the next corner. This book is interested not so much in the story of Matty as in the plight of America and casts a dark mirror up to our perceptions of the armed conflicts in which we as a nation are already engaged and the media infrastructure in place that supports and propagagates our government's decisions.
Masterfully narrated by Wood, this book is focused and is is visually supported and enhanced by Burchielli's gritty, arresting visual storytelling. The two comine their respective crafts in a graphic novel that will appeal to life-long comics fans and new readers alike and will hold the attention of anyone with an even passing interest in current events.
Described by the Washington Post, DMZ "gut-wrenchingly portrays the chaotic reality of life in a war zone." This book questions the nature of what we as a nation believe and expect from our government and our media. DMZ: On the Ground and DMZ: Body of a Journalist both belong on your bookshelf within easy reach. This is required reading for next week kids. Try to keep pace...