Drokk! You’re not wrong citizen. Not only does it lack the sarcasm and gleeful weirdness, but also I’m not sure there’s ever been a Batman panel that goes as hard as Bolland’s ‘Gaze into the fist of Dredd!’ from the first Dark Judges story
I was going to say that the format of comic book or graphic novel has never appealed to me, but then remembered that I grew up reading Judy and occasionally Bunty every week. I then thought maybe it was that I had no interest in superheroes but, in fact, the X-Men cartoon was part of our Saturday morning childhood ritual. (Deliciously soapy, I loved it. I always wish they’d made more use of Gambit in the films, although I’m still not entirely sure what his power was!) I think perhaps the crux of it is that I am not interested in an entire book which tells a story in comic strip form. This said, you have a knack of writing about something I have no interest in and making me wish I did. There have been so many dark and sinister reimagining of Batman involving varying levels of grime. It’s nice to get an insight into where that all came from.
Weirdly, one of the things I had to cut for length was a long digression on Chris Claremont’s run on the X-Men, which is where all that glorious soapiness came from, Like ‘Dark Knight Returns’, not technically ‘mature’ but ‘maturing’, say - although in a very different way to the Batman comics. Obviously, I’m a big fan of comics as a medium, but Rowan isn’t at all - she finds the visual aspect entirely uninteresting, so I recognise that experience. What I would say is that if you were interested in trying graphic novels, I would steer clear of any superhero nonsense - that would be like trying to understand film by only watching Westerns. I’d recommend Alison Bechdel’s ‘Fun Home’ as a good place to start, or Kate Beaton’s ‘Ducks’ or any of the graphic memoirs of people like Joe Sacco or Guy Delisle - those are all memoirs but at least they’re not people in capes hitting each other for 50 pages. Anyway, thank you for being kind about the writing - if I can make something previously boring to the reader sound interesting, that’s the win right there.
Added to the list (and maybe The New Mutants, as they were always my favourites) - incidentally, by a weird coincidence, 1 Down in today’s NYT crossword agrees with you
Ah it's all very well, but it's not Judge Dredd.
Drokk! You’re not wrong citizen. Not only does it lack the sarcasm and gleeful weirdness, but also I’m not sure there’s ever been a Batman panel that goes as hard as Bolland’s ‘Gaze into the fist of Dredd!’ from the first Dark Judges story
I loved this. The cultural content and the way you write it are great throughout.
I was going to say that the format of comic book or graphic novel has never appealed to me, but then remembered that I grew up reading Judy and occasionally Bunty every week. I then thought maybe it was that I had no interest in superheroes but, in fact, the X-Men cartoon was part of our Saturday morning childhood ritual. (Deliciously soapy, I loved it. I always wish they’d made more use of Gambit in the films, although I’m still not entirely sure what his power was!) I think perhaps the crux of it is that I am not interested in an entire book which tells a story in comic strip form. This said, you have a knack of writing about something I have no interest in and making me wish I did. There have been so many dark and sinister reimagining of Batman involving varying levels of grime. It’s nice to get an insight into where that all came from.
Weirdly, one of the things I had to cut for length was a long digression on Chris Claremont’s run on the X-Men, which is where all that glorious soapiness came from, Like ‘Dark Knight Returns’, not technically ‘mature’ but ‘maturing’, say - although in a very different way to the Batman comics. Obviously, I’m a big fan of comics as a medium, but Rowan isn’t at all - she finds the visual aspect entirely uninteresting, so I recognise that experience. What I would say is that if you were interested in trying graphic novels, I would steer clear of any superhero nonsense - that would be like trying to understand film by only watching Westerns. I’d recommend Alison Bechdel’s ‘Fun Home’ as a good place to start, or Kate Beaton’s ‘Ducks’ or any of the graphic memoirs of people like Joe Sacco or Guy Delisle - those are all memoirs but at least they’re not people in capes hitting each other for 50 pages. Anyway, thank you for being kind about the writing - if I can make something previously boring to the reader sound interesting, that’s the win right there.
Instant request for a future essay on the X-Men, please!
Added to the list (and maybe The New Mutants, as they were always my favourites) - incidentally, by a weird coincidence, 1 Down in today’s NYT crossword agrees with you
Didn’t suck