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From: eric@osiris.UUCP (Eric Bergan)
Newsgroups: net.comics
Subject: Re: Why DO we read comics?
Message-ID: <684@osiris.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Feb-86 08:31:52 EST
Article-I.D.: osiris.684
Posted: Fri Feb 21 08:31:52 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Feb-86 05:20:12 EST
References: <930@rlgvax.UUCP>
Organization: Johns Hopkins Hospital
Lines: 47

> What's my point?  That I read comics because I enjoy them (there I said it and
> just ended my career in marketing).  The new ones are wonderful novels and
> complete stories frequently better then I can find in modern books (for example
> the great characterzation in JON SABLE, the futuristic world of AMERICAN FLAGG).
> Sitting back and reading the latest GRIM JACK, or WHISPER gives me the same
> type of enjoyment that I got from reading TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD or STILL LIFE
> WITH WOODPECKER.  The comic book is becoming more and more of its own literary
> medium.  It can offer you the insites into a persons mind like a book can as
> well as give you some of the striking visualization of a movie.
 
	I think you are comparing apples and oranges. No one tries to compare
paintings and novels, why try and compare comics and novels? I think comics
will always be more "shallow" than a good novel on plot or characterization,
just because comics tend to be shorter, and so have to be more quickly paced.
On the other hand, novels tend to have lousy (i.e. none) artwork.

	The simplest reason for why I read comics is simply that I enjoy
them. Trying to describe why I enjoy them is more difficult. I am not that
much of an art fanatic, and certainly I find the plots of the majority
of the comics I read to be crap. The only rationalization that I can come
up with is that comics provide me a high ratio of diversity per time
spent. Since comics are shorter, I can plow through them more rapidly than
the same number of books. This exposes me to a wider range of ideas. If
I could read the standard 300-600 page novel in the time it takes me to
read the standard comic book (even including a continuing story), I  might
change my reading habits. But as it is, after picking up my weeks comics,
I can spend an afternoon or evening reading horror, science fiction, fantasy,
adventure, and comedy (probably a few other genre's that I have left out).
The comparable mix of novels (or movies, or even television) would take
significantly longer.

> I don't want you to think that I take my comic books TOO seriously.  I don't
> go to Geppies wearing my smoking jacket with a pipe in my hand looking like I
> stepped out of a bad comedy of errors (right Guy?  right Eric?) but I do go
> there with great anticipation that I am going to have my mind challenged,
> perhaps provoked (the last WHISPER story in First Adventures), and hopefully
> entertained.  It's rather nice that a $1.75 (or less) "kiddies" product can
> provide those services for me.

	Unless OZ has traded in his turbo for a limo, I will have to say
he is probably not wearing a smoking jacket into Geppis. Now leather jacket
and mirrored shades are a different matter.

-- 

					eric
					...!seismo!umcp-cs!aplcen!osiris!eric