Why I Likes What I Likes

[sKorpia]

No two people are alike. Neither are any two comic book collections.

So explain why you collect the titles that you do. There are, however, a few rules:

1) One title per post. If we all crammed our entire collections into one post, there'd be some super long posts in here. Besides, it'd be nice to just reflect on a single title for a while and post on that, then pick another one and post on that at some later date.

2) This should be introspective. Why is this particular title meaningful to you? Is it the story? the artwork? the work of a particular author? the work of a particular age? What have you learned about yourself through it?

3) These should not be synopses or reviews. It's way more personal than that.

Fine Print: Comic book encompasses everything from single issues to trade paperbacks to graphic novels and one-shots to manga. Heck, even books that collect comic strips should be in here. If it's art and language continually feeding off each other, it's fair game.

[sKorpia]

So I'll kick this off with a (soon-to-be) new addition to my collection.

Pet Shop of Horrors

It's a manga in the horror genre. I'm not typically a fan of the horror stuff. Outright blood and gore I can handle. It's the spooky stuff that gets me, the suspense or the feeling of evil. I'm not sure how to describe it but an example would be evil-looking babies. There's something just very chilling about that image. And, of course, in one episode of Pet Shop there are evil-looking babies.

So why would I pick up a manga in the horror vein in the first place? At first, it was sheer curiosity. There is a part of me that enjoys taking me to the edge of freaking out, along the lines of X-Files. Really, now that I think about it, the mystery was what drew me in. Pet shops seem so harmless and animals so cute (okay, maybe not snakes). I thought the horrors would have to do more with violence and such. And there is that component in the various episodes. I should probably explain here that the stories are little vignettes, solely connected by this one physical pet shop. Otherwise, the protagonists of each episode don't know each other. There is subplot that ties things loosely together though

Anyway, curiosity. After that got me to pick up the book, it was the stories themselves that hooked me. They're tragic, about pathetic people or the reality of life. They're also touching. Ultimately they're about humanity, how we learn or grow or cope with crises.

I also have to admit I'm a sucker for cute things. And the little vampire-rabbit looking thing that periodically appears is adorable. Yeah, the girly part of me does at times dictate what I'm drawn to.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

Hey, where is everybody?

I've been chewing on this for a good, long time to try and come up with something halfway coherent. The biggest problem I had in answering was that most of my comic decisions are creator-driven. X is doing comic book Y, so I will buy X.

However, that doesn't necessarily keep me there. I decided to pick on Brian K. Vaughan & Adrian Alphona's Runaways as the first title to answer.

I love Brian K. Vaughan's writing. He has a wonderful way of accumulating tiny little details that, individually, are mildly amusing, but aggregate into something that will blow your mind. He does this even better in Y the Last Man, but Runaways probably comes a very close second. It's sometimes gut-busting funny, too -- one of the few books that can manage to get a belly laugh or two per issue consistently, either by a witty turn of a phrase or a gleefully twisted send-up of a superhero comic book convention.

His characterization is great. He spends 6 pages of issue #1 introducing Alex, ringleader of the runaways, but then introduces the other 5 central characters with one page each -- and manages to summarize each one of them beautifully in that short span of time. Admittedly, they may come off initially as thin stereotypes (Goth girl, misunderstood homely teen, dumb jock, glamorous cheerleader girl, and Spunky 11-Year-Old), but that impression doesn't last long.

Adrian Alphona's artwork may draw cries of "Amerimanga!" and drive away traditional superhero comic book fans, but IMO that's their loss. This is artwork that's a hybrid of Bruce Timm and Hayao Miyazaki and would be a perfect template for animation. He's also a terrifically expressive artist with a real talent for facial expressions. Anger or glee are relatively easy to do, but smirky-sarcastic-smile, shy-"I think I like you but I don't know how to say so", and other, more subtle stuff is a lot harder, and Alphona can nail those and even more subtle expressions with the best of them.

Covers by Jo Chen kick. Gert hugging her velociraptor (http://www.popcultureshock.com/papes.php?id=499&size=800) is a spectacular cover -- it introduces two characters, gives you a big, simple, pin-up "splash" image, and immediately piques your curiosity. "Is that a teenager hugging a dinosaur? What's THAT all about?" (If you think I'm gonna tell you here, you're out of your mind :))

Finally, I appreciate that it's an attempt to inject something new and interesting into the world of superhero comics. This happens on a micro-level, with new characters and new villains; and on a macro-level, with a new concept and a new approach that utilizes a lot of older superhero comic book conventions.

"At some point in their lives, all young people believe their parents are evil...but what if they really are?" It's a great, simple hook for the series; after the initial story arc, it has since veered off in all kinds of weird and interesting directions.

First digest-sized TPB is out, collecting the first story arc of issues #1-6 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785113797/qid=1084719740/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-1481014-5128128?v=glance&s=books). I think the coloring is a bit murky (doesn't hurt the art too much, but the beautiful covers REALLY suffer), but it's a great collection that may determine the future of the series. Ace sez check it out!

(It occurs to me that a lot of these same elements, arranged in different ways, are also what draw me to Alan Moore, Gene Ha, and Zander Cannon's Top Ten.)

-- Ed/Ace