Comiclore

Coming soon, saar. That, was what the chap at the Sathyam box office (do ticket counters at multiplexes count as box offices?) told me, when I asked him when the damn Watchmen movie was coming out.

So I asked him again, does ‘coming soon’ mean March or, sayitisntso, April?

Idontnosaar, he replied. Coming Soon.

Ah well, so it goes.

Some of you gentiles, who haven’t read the book yet, might just what the big deal in yet another big budget Hollywood adaptation of yet another comic book is. So before you say that, or something similarly uninformed, let me take you through a rough guide of sorts, into that strange realm of pop culture which, when you think about it, isn’t as pop as it should be, since its only nerds and critics who seem to form its primary constituency, the graphic novel.

As someone very excellently put it, cultural epochs come and go, but one-upmanship is forever. And we here at The Pseudputs Review, are all about the one-upmanship. Also, as everyone knows, or should know, Dickens, Eliot, the Russians, and books without pictures in general, are like, so passé.

So here’s my list of graphic novels/comics that everyone should have heard of/read:

1. The Watchmen by Alan Moore

I remember the day I finished reading The Watchmen; I thought it was Western Civilization’s greatest artistic achievement.

I’ll admit, that was, maybe a tad over the top. But I still think The Watchmen is right up there with Anglo-American popular culture’s greatest achievements- The White Album (I like it better than Sgt. Pepper’s), Pulp Fiction, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Arrested Development and Pepsi (I like it better than Coke).

The story of The Watchmen unfolds in 1985, in a universe that’s similar, yet not quite the same as our own. Nixon’s in his fifth term as President, and America is at the height of a Cold War with a Soviet Union that is anything but dying. The threat of nuclear war and subsequent annihilation (that quintessentially 80’s concern: like Bon Jovi), is a ominous theme throughout the story. Also, masked vigilantes, or ‘super-heroes’ if you will, are a part of everyday life; that is, until they were outlawed in 1977 (a bit like the Incredibles that bit, only these guys didn’t have any powers at all. They were just grown {wo}men in costumes.). The book starts with the mysterious death of one such retired super-hero, The Comedian. This death briefly brings together many of his former caped crusading colleagues who are now fat, balding and/or impotent; all of whom, except one for one Rorschach (he wears a napkin with an inkblot as a mask), have ambivalent feelings about all the ‘crime-fighting’ they did in the past. In this universe, some of them even fight in Vietnam.

The idea of a super-hero is a funny, uniquely American, one: a masked vigilante who upholds the moral order of the time and vanquishes anyone who dares go against it. But what if say, the dominant moral order isn’t quite that peachy itself. It’s sexist, patriarchal, racist, dominated and manipulated by the interests of the rich and powerful (Manufacturing Consent, anyone?). Where does that leave our superhero? It makes him, or her, knowingly or unknowingly, a bit of a crypto-fascist. Someone who has clear ideas of what society should look like and what would constitute, an undesirable element within it. Suddenly, the Joker isn’t half as bad, is he (he was just plain ol’ anarchist)?

This is just one of the many fascinating ideas Alan Moore explores in his remarkable book, which starts off, and ends, as a whodunit. Throw in some Neitzche, Dylan, and super villains famously spouting post-modern art theory on the eve of veritable diabolism, and you have the comic book equivalent of Paradise Lost.

2. Fables by Bill Willingham

Snow White is Deputy Mayor of a secret township of exiled fairy tale characters living in the heart of New York City. The Big Bad Wolf (or Bigby more affectionately) is the Chief of Police. Prince Charming is a manslut, who has been married and divorced three times (not to mention cheated innumerably more- he can’t help it, his charm’s his curse), to Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella respectively (all whom meet regularly over cocktails, a la Sex and the City, and bitch about him). Goldilocks is a flaming Marx spouting revolutionary, out to incite armed rebellion. Jack (of the Beanstalk fame) is a con artist. Beauty and the Beast are desperately seeking a better apartment and higher social status. Mowgli is an international super-spy. So is Cinderella.

Welcome to the world of the Fables, imaginary to us, but real nevertheless. The Fables have been driven out of their Homelands by the Adversary (you’ll never guess who that is). And for the past few hundred years or so, they’ve been living in the world of the Mundanes (that’s us, Mundys more affectionately: don’t worry any similarities with Harry Potter end there).

Winner of 7 Eisner Awards (it’s like the Oscars for comics) so far, the Fables has been called the best ongoing comic book series. And you bet it is. Thankfully devoid of any Nietzsche, these are funny, absorbing tales of adventure, romance and absurdity; Bill Willingham’s created something of a masterpiece here.

And the best part? Unlike every other title on this list, it’s an ongoing series; meaning you can have the unique pleasure of waiting to know how the story progresses with each issue.

3. The Sandman by Neil Gaiman

I’ll confess I haven’t finished the series entirely (the .cbr versions of this comic I find particularly unbearable). But this is another one of my favourites, nevertheless. Actually, pretty much anything Neil Gaiman puts down on paper is hallowed literature to me. The man’s a genius.

In a nutshell, it deals with the travails and adventures of the Sandman, the Lord of the Dream Realm etc. etc. He is one of the seven Endless (his siblings, of whom, Death, his sister, is one). It’s difficult to say what the Sandman series is about, it has seriously epic proportions. Dreams, Life, Death, Art, the Meaning/Absurdity of it all, the crazy King of San Francisco, Baghdad in its Caliphate glory days, Aborigine folklore, and where Shakespeare really got his inspiration for A Midsummer Night’s Dream from. If I could take one thing to a desert island, I’d pick the collected Sandman series.

Now for my favourite part, Neil Gaimanisms:

“Walk any path in Destiny's garden and you will be forced to choose, not once but many times. The paths fork and divide. With each step you take through Destiny's garden, you make a choice; and every choice determines future paths. However, at the end of a lifetime of walking you might look back, and see only one path stretching out behind you, or look ahead, and see only darkness.”

“Slipping and sliding and flickering through dreams; and the dreamers will wake and wonder why this dream seemed different, wonder how real their lives can truly be.”

The series also contains, what I believe, is the greatest drinking toast ever written:

“To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due.”

4. The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

Published in the same year as The Watchmen, 1986, and almost as canonical a work, The Dark Knight Returns, finds Bruce Wayne graying and old. It’s been ten years since Bruce last put on the Batsuit, and Gotham is a city racked by crime and unemployment. To top it off, we find Bruce in the middle of a profound existential crisis. He too wonders whether any of it was worth it (yes, what was it with the late 80’s and superheroes getting existential all over the place?).

Consider this, in one the first chapter Bruce is returning from a meeting with his old friend Commissioner Gordon. As he walks along what he realizes was the same street his parents were killed over 40 years ago, he is accosted by two teenage thugs with knives. And suddenly, having something of an epiphany, realizes the man who killed his parents was just like the two boys in front of him, “all he wanted was money. I was naive to think of him the lowest sort of man.”

While the not quite as multi-faceted as the Watchmen, this work is considered by many to be the best Batman comic ever written (apart from of course Year One, also by Miller). It’s a trenchant (and, I must admit, brazenly liberal-Democratic) look at Reagan-era America and its contradictions: where the government cut social security spending in the name of fiscal prudence, crime and inequality went through the roof and, at the same time, billions were spent on keeping the ‘Evil Empire’ away from the ‘Free World’.

Also, did I mention Batman fights Superman in this book? He does. And it’s epic.

5. Maus by Art Spiegelman

Maus is about the Holocaust. The Jews are mice and the Nazis are cats. Simple, yet scathing. It’s also a true life story. Maus derives from a series of interviews Art Spiegelman conducted with his estranged, difficult father who went through Auschwitz and somehow, came out to tell his tale.

And Art Spiegelman is not one for crude, simplistic portrayals; he is brutally honest. He even brings out the rather disturbing fact that his father, the survivor of the worst genocide in human history, is also, a racist. Spiegelman Sr., like many of that era, didn’t quite fancy black people.

Maus is a psychologically complex work that ought to be standard reading in schools, if you ask me.

Note to insti junta: All of the titles here can be downloaded off LAN. I'm sharing.

Non-insti: This should get you started.

Honourable Mentions/ I’m too lazy to write anymore

The Preacher by Garth Ennis

The Killing Joke by Alan Moore

A Contract with God by William Eisner

Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean

Kari by Amruta Patil (Honestly, it wasn't that great. But whatever, I actually bought it- so I’m keeping it on the list.)

Batman: Year One by Frank Miller

Signal to Noise and Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

Transmetropolitan and Bad World by Warren Ellis

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

MAD Magazine (The only comic I've been buying since I was kid)

Principles of Uncertainity by Maira Kalman (Sadly, this old column of hers is no longer available online. Check out the link anyway, she's got something new going on.)

And of course, Charlie Schulz and Bill Watterson; no list is complete without them.