Let's talk about comics a little

I was originally going to write a review of Craig Thompson's Blankets here but instead I decided first I want to talk about comics in a more general way. Something to serve as a preface for reviews and other comics-related writing I'll be doing here.

Blankets by Craig Thompson

One of the main things I want to address is the idea that comics=superheroes. Comics are a medium, superheroes are a genre. The two are certainly very closely linked but we need to get away from the idea that one inevitably contains the other. You've probably seen at least one of Christopher Nolan's Batman films, Joss Whedon's Avengers or the more recent X-Men: Days of Future Past, all superhero stories told outside of the medium of comics. The Adventures of Tintin, Blue Is The Warmest Colour and The Walking Dead are all comics that aren't superhero stories.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World by Bryan Lee O'Malley

It's not my intention in anyway to try to say that superhero comics aren't a large and important part of the medium. Nor do I want to try and belittle superhero comics as in some way less worthy stories than other types of comics. It is my intention to show that comics are much more than superheroes. As an example I've just counted all of the graphic novels (a quick aside. I'm using the term graphic novel here to refer to the sort of comic you'd find in a book shop rather than pamphlet style comics you'd find in a comic shop. Graphic novel isn't technically the correct term for all of these but it will do as a catch-all term) my wife & I own. We have 332. Of those 71 are superhero comics.

Two things come across to me from those numbers, apart from the need to buy/build some more shelves. First, we have a lot of superhero stories. Secondly, we have a lot more non-superhero stories. I hope from this that when you see I've written a comic review you won't automatically think it's a superhero and I hope the word 'comic' won't make you dismiss the review or the book I'm reviewing.

One last thing. When you're thinking about superhero stories be it film, TV or comic books you're almost certainly thinking of a character from one of two publishers. Marvel or DC. The Avengers, The X-Men, Spider-man, a whole host of characters with alliterative names, those are all Marvel. Superman, The Flash, (Green) Arrow,  Batman and plenty of other bat-related characters, those are from DC. These two companies dominate the superhero market almost totally. But not completely. There are other superhero comics not published by these companies. One of my favourites is Martin Eden's Spandex about a team of 7 LGBTQ  people based in Brighton. It is fantastic and I'll be reviewing the first volume Spandex - Fast & Hard as my next review after Blankets.

Spandex by Martin Eden