Last week I planned on posting my first review of 2015, unfortunately, I had a technical issues between my laptop and tablet and that review somehow disappear into the ether. So, that review, Star Trek Planet of the Apes Primate Directive, will go up this Saturday, along with this week’s planned review either Saturday, or Sunday.
Today I am posting my first opinion piece of 2015. After the events of last year, it feels good to be doing this.
Today’s piece is
WHAT ARE COMICS?
That is a wildly opening ended question, isn’t it?
In the strictest sense, comic books are an infusion of multiple artistic disciplines and the written (typed) word to present a world of characters and exhibit their stories, either in traditional print or digital format.
Of course I am sure that you understand that is not what I mean here.
‘What Are Comics’ in the more personal meaning, is my goal. This particular definition of comic books changes for everyone. For this piece, I will explain what comics are to me.
WHAT ARE COMICS? I can cover that in one word, however silly it may seem: Everything.
I live, breath and eat comic books. Seriously. As much as I love film and consider myself a cinephile, comic books top them.
Now ‘everything’ is bit extreme admittedly, but it is close. What is one reason for my love of comic books? My father.
My father introduced me to comics when I was young: Specifically Magnus Robot Fight (which at that time were Reprints) and Spider-man. My father passed five years ago, but I still have many comics that he owned, and read titles he first bought me. It is something that still connects me with him.
Not just as a fan, but as a creator as well, there is one massive thing that comics are to me: The Ultimate Storytelling venue.
Anything can be done in comics. Absolutely anything. Whatever your imagination can conjure, comics can release.
Unlike TV and Film, which are limited by the artificial constraints leveled upon them by producers, distributors, theaters, time slots, etc., Comic Books have little of those constrains.
The ultimate constraint on comic books is the imagination and talent of the creators involved.
Another positive with comics is, if you want, you can produce and release them yourself, without the use of a major publisher. You can submit your title to Diamond Comics independently, publish through your own website and even on the convention circuit. And, of course, you can publish digitally.
If you go this route, your only other constraint is a budget.
Comic Books can, and have for a century, created worlds that are considered unfilmable by TV and Film standards.
Want proof? How about the current TMNT/Ghostbusters and Star Trek/Planet of the Apes crossover titles? When do you think you would ever see those ‘Coming to a theater near you?’
Comic books even surpass what can be done with novels, because of the infusion of Art and Words. The art can reveal what words only describe.
That is what comic book are to me, the Ultimate Creative Venue. I know that any type of story I want to read, can be found in comics. Any type of story I want to create, I can do so in comics.
I write this not with spite toward Film, TV and the Prose word, but with love for Comic Books. I am in fact a filmmaker and actor, writer of short stories and novels and comic book creator. However, my love for comic books surpass films, TV and novels.
Comic books still have the one thing that Films, TV and Novels have lost along the way: A Sense of Wonder.
Ace Masters.
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