Why this Blog?

I've always been a fan of comics growing up. Besides the colorful adventures, there's just something about them that has gone inside me head. I think in many ways, I'm not a completely visual person, or a complete verbal person, but somewhere in between. The artform is, in my opinion, not a cheat. Nor confusing. It's its own special language. Comics are about taking the conceptual, and solidifying them. People always talk about comics as the American mythology because of the "Gods had powers, heroes have powers" parable, but I think that's only an infinitesimal part of it.What comics do is take values, symbolhs, aspects of the universe both elemental and philisophical, and make them incarnate. Whether it's as a crimefighter who dresses like an American flag, or just the very embodiments of words and sounds into a visual manifestation. Many ancient religions, including Judaism, believed there was a very real power in names. Oaths and curses in the ancient world were considered binding, and to be taken seriously. In my estimation, there's something of a mysticism in cartooning, an invoking of the abstract into the palpable, and wielding a certain power with it. As Grant Morrison said, "Batman is probably more real than I am".

I'm something of a social watcher too. For years, I tracked box-office. Not because I felt how much money a movie made validated its existence, but because dollars are people. People who have consciously or by compulsion sculpted the cultural landscape. Of course, with the large proliferation of sequels, I've kind of been less fascinated by it. (Not so much that sequels aren't good, but the box-office of Harry Potter six isn't going to give me any new information) I like observing trends. People, it should be said, are incredibly fickle. When a thesis on why something exploded is made, the evidence is anecdotal. There's also a lot of quantifying in introspection, which I don't particularly care for.

This isn't going to be a blog on why I like particular characters. I'm not going to explore the in-story histories like an encyclopedia. (If say, you want to catch up on Captain America or Green Lantern, Comics 101 is probably better for that. Or you could just wiki them.) Nor am I going to do "Top ten best stories featuring",  since while execution is all well and good, it's only a small part of it. (And in fact, every now and then, I'll be talking about how a character is "execution-reliant". For instance, Daredevil.) But what I want to do is talk about the impact characters have. Why some are more popular. Why are some easier to draw or merchandise. I mean, sure, every pop-psychologist will tell you how this character changed everything, or that character was the first to. But I want to explore how flexible they are. How enduring. How rich their mythologies may be. I want to be very big-picture about this. John Seavy's "Storytelling Engine" series is actually  a pretty cool place to look at the history of some comics characters. (Note that a bad engine doesn't necessarily exclude a character from being a top tier. The Hulk is assessed to have a bad one, but I'll get to that whole thing later.)

I certainly have a  wealth of subjects. I can do the truly enduring (Superman), to the trendy (Spawn). I can cover characters who are so ingenious it hurts (Spider-Man), to characters so pointless it...hurts. (Like say, the Black Knight) But I hope you'll come visit as I explore comic book icons' place in the cultural landscape.