Hellboy

Hellboy
by Mike Mignola
read: 2018

I worked my way through the complete Hellboy story arc on Comixology last year and loved the blend of X-Files meets classic mythology meets Indiana Jones. I also thought of H.P. Lovecraft and how his heroes all descended into madness when confronted with the evil alien world that exists in parallel to our own. Who could withstand such knowledge without succumbing to insanity? Mike Mignola's answer is a demon with a heart of gold and a fist of stone, a fist that is prophesied to bring on armageddon. He smokes, he cracks wise, he does dumb stuff sometimes, but he is as heroic as any character in fiction.

Y: The Last Man

Y: The Last Man
by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra
read: 2015
Eisner Award

I finally finished reading Y: The Last Man after a break of several years. Vaughan created a post-apocalyptic world where all man save one have been killed by an unknown plague. Like much of the best science fiction, this new world serves a commentary on our world, in issues such as the role of women in the military and government, and the benefits and perils of cloning. Ultimately, the tale Vaughan tells is Yorick's; like in The Handmaid's Tale, the story is a reminder that an individual's fate matters even amidst tremendous general upheaval.

Watchmen

Watchmen
by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
read: circa 2003
Time 100 Novels, Eisner Award

What, a comic book?  On a list of 100 greatest novels?

Truth be told, it was the inclusion of Watchmen that probably intrigued me the most about Time's list of 100 greatest novels (written in English 1923 - 2005).  I had read the graphic novel (graphic novel is what adults call comic books when they don't want to be stained by the "you read comic books?" stigma) a couple years before the list came out and I was completely blown away.

The reaction of different fans when the movie came out a couple years ago is a testament to the depth of this work.  Everyone I talked to or read was convinced the movie would suck (I haven't seen it) because there was no way to put everything in there.  There's a comic-within-a-comic (Tales of the Black Freighter, with the idea that in a world where superheroes are real, pirate comics would rule) that was great but expendable; others saw this as the emotional core of the story and something that could not be removed without crippling Watchmen.  One of friends reacted with "But the whole story was about sex; how could they possibly do that in a movie?," which was an angle I hadn't considered at all but made perfect sense when I thought about it.  From Night Owl getting turned on by wearing costumes to Rorschach being emotionally stunted by his mother's promiscuity to Sally Jupiter's insecurity over her mother's relationship with The Comedian, all the characters are touched by the darkest elements of sexuality.

My point is: there's a ton here.  I haven't read it in a few years, and if I did I'm sure I could keep finding new things, new angles, new themes to explore.  Its inclusion in the Time Magazine list was controversial, but in my opinion warranted.