Comic books have been around for forever, but I haven’t been, so it was a pleasant surprise when Laurell K. Hamilton’s Guilty Pleasures was adapted into comic book form. I am a total geek now, because I weave my way through the library to the comic book section before I head for the fantasy section. It’s one of those things that makes guys look at a chick with respect. (Just another reason to love comic books.)
I recently went on a Neil Gaiman binge, and discovered that he had written a comic book series before he wrote novels. Pleasant surprise. I slowly collected them from the library and when I read them I realized that comic books weren’t dorky like many people had said, even in the movies. Yeah, guys of all kinds read them, but I know a lot of people who attribute comics to nerds. I think people should read more comic books–it might change the way people felt about reading.
You read them left to right, top to bottom, just like any other piece of literature (unless you’re reading manga; I can’t say I actually like manga) so why not read it? While there’s more pictures that you study than words that you read, it is all the same. Instead of pages of descriptions, you have a small section that contains the picture of the girl in the jacket with the disillusioned look. Instead of five pages of narrative, you have yellow clips of the characters thoughts as they walk down the street, allowing the writer to simultaneously communicate the settings and then the characters thoughts without having to jumble things so they fit.
I think that you get more of the story from these comics, this colorful descriptions of the world that don’t use words to confuse or smudge the true image. They are so rich in detail that you can’t help but pay attention as you turn each glossy page until you are finally done and you go to find a new comic.
A Writing Curbxstomp 