Thursday, March 15, 2012

The Sound of Independents

     Among the many things serving on the Eisner committee has afforded me, the opportunity to read comics I don't usually find my way to has proven the most valuable thus far.  I was never a huge reader of independent comics -- I'd read my share and I know the standards, but like many mainstream superhero fans (I assume), I just didn't tend to find my way back to them very often.  Well, having read a slew of them over the last few weeks, I was bowled over by the talent, the narrative gambles, the unique aesthetic and the distinctive tones lurking between those covers.
     While superhero comics tend to concentrate on the extreme, exaggerating situations and personalities to create their drama and energy, indie comics create drama by finding the extraordinary within the mundane, as in Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve 12, in which a gardener pursues his dream of creating "hortisculpture" at a huge social price.  Sometimes the indies use the extraordinary to highlight the drama of everyday emotions and situations, like in Julia Gforer's Too Dark to See, in which a succubus (or . . . something) sows the seeds of destruction in a normal relationship, or in Michael DeForge's Lose #3, in which the trials of a forlorn and recently divorced father is played out against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by dogs.
     Sometimes it's hard to hear the quiet sound of a heartfelt conversation over all the superheroes punching each other and the zombies chomping on people's brains, but it turns out it might be worth listening to.

1 comment:

  1. REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS ARE ALL PLAYING BALL TOGETHER. That's why they're not impeaching Obalmy. The vast majority of our "representatives" belong to America's one party system, that party being the Council On Foreign Relations, America's shadow government (learn more these judeo-communists at http://jbs.org).

    Fax or email your Congressman and Senator today, and order them to begin impeachment proceedings against Obalmy whose come closer to Hitler than any President we've had. He's a threat to our very way of life. Hitler rammed through the Enabling Act; Obalmy just did the same thing - only he called his version The Detainee Security Act. Hitler then declared martial law, outlawed all rival political parties, and began murdering or jailing everybody who spoke out against him. OBAMA COULD BEGIN DOING THIS BEFORE WE KNOW IT! LET'S KEEP AMERICA THE EXCEPTION TO THE TYRANNIES OF THE LAST CENTURY.

    DEAN BERRY MINISTRIES: "When the government outlaws 'terrorism', it's planning something for which 'terrorism' is the only recourse. Obviously."

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