Uh-oh Comics geek!

This is the first of probably several for this week?s assignment. Whether it's comics, records, CDs, DVDs, books or Beanies (Roz not me) we have lots of collected items in the house. You could probably go as far as to call us hoarders, but the bulk of the stuff we keep is worth keeping.

Anyway, the first collection I'm going to share with you is my comics. When I was a kid I never really got the super hero comic thing and tended to avoid stuff from DC and Marvel as it really didn't hold much interest for me. I preferred stuff like Victor and Battle and the other British war comics. I remember Charley's War really sticking in my memory, probably because it was so unlike anything else at th4e time. I think like most people my age in the UK the first comic that really held my attention was 2000AD. There were so many great strips in there. I liked stuff like Judge Dredd, ABC Warriors and so on but my favourites were things like Strontium Dog, Slaine, and particularly Zenith and Future Shocks.

It was really 2000AD that started my appreciation for US comics as a lot of the fantastic UK writers went onto write for US imprints. I'd assume they earned more money over there, but it was certainly seeing work by people like Alan Moore and Grant Morrison that got me interested in DC comics in particular. Books like the Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum got me interested in Batman and also gave these authors the freedom to pursue other things that interested them. Moore's Hellblazer was a particular favourite along with Sandman, The Invisibles and Preacher. Anyone who is into comics can probably guess that DC Vertigo was a particular favourite imprint. Other favourite s were by people like Matt Wagner, Frank Miller, Daniel Clowes, Marc Hempell, Dave Sim and Mike Carey amongst many others.

It's hard to say what I like most about comics, but a great story is only part of it. It can be enough to support a book on it's own as shown in the early Sandman comics, where the art could be decidedly dubious at times, but when you got a great story coupled with great art and great covers it just makes for a far more satisfying package. Some of my favourite artists would include Glen Fabry, Alex Ross, David Lloyd, Steve Dillon, Warren Pleece, Tim Vigil and Steve Yeowell.

I've just looked at how much I've written and realised I should leave it at that. However if you think I've gone over the top on this wait until I get started on techno records later in the week.