'Lo, Sunshine.

[constance]

I haven't mentioned yet that it looks like the drought has ended here. (Or at least, I have, but not in any entry I could actually post.) Well, kind of, anyway -- there was a big rain over the weekend, and the air since has been humid, and it was lovely to have rain, because all the silvery things are green again, and that's all good.

Another nice thing about rainy weather is that it provides you with the perfect excuse to stay in and read the complete Hellblazer on your computer, the Hellblazer for which you waited very patiently for far too long, but which arrived just in time for a rainy weekend when there hasn't been a rainy weekend for months, and you feel as though it has been planned maybe and you start questioning your whole stance as a nonbeliever because let's be honest here, it's not as though your lapsed-Catholic history has really prepared you well to hold that stance in the face of Eerie Coincidence.

(I am going to stop talking in the second person, now, because it's starting to give me a little bit of a headache. I hope you don't mind.)

In reading Hellblazer, I've found that reading literary comics and comics where the whole series is planned from the start to have a proper narrative arc with a proper conclusion is not good preparation for jumping into a series that's housed several creative teams and spanned twenty years. There's a pretty huge difference between reading one of these tightly-plotted comics series -- I'm thinking of things like Sandman or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen -- and reading something more mutable, and it's disconcerting for me to be reading, to become invested in plotlines and characters, only to find them unceremoniously abandoned (or tied up with an absolute minimum of effort) when the next creative team takes over.

I'm enjoying reading about the trials and tribulations of John Constantine (and God knows I should look around for some Hellblazer slash, because yummy, and I don't even like blonds), but I have to admit to a greater love of comics that are plotted, nurtured by a single entity, and given a conclusion that's more than just a wrapping-up of somebody else's business.

Given that, does anyone have any comics recommendations they'd like to share?

(ETA: OH MY GOD I THINK I CAN POST AGAIN.)

Comments

[quartertosix.livejournal.com]

I am late, and I suspect that my tastes may be a little too plebey mainstream and light for you, but if you're looking for series that've been under a single brain from the start:

Lucifer. It's a spinoff of Sandman, so I don't know if you've caught it already, but if you haven't, its 75 issue run recently wrapped up. Mythology, religion, fantastic story-telling, crazy naked gay angels, and you know. Lucifer.

Fables. Recasting of all fairy tale figures as refugees from a magical world overrun by a seemingly all-powerful enemy, and it just mucks with the myths and the ideas and structures. I loved the first story arch, but even if it doesn't grab you, it gets so, so, so good. This (http://outswing.org/comics/fables%20-%20ambrose/Fables-1001%20Nights%20of%20Snowfall%20(2006)%20(Team-DCP)/) is a directory with a standalone short (eight pages) from a special edition.

Powers. The most recent volume that they wound up was a little underwhelming, but the dialogue is snappy, the writers fundamentally tough-minded, and I love the stylized art. Superheroes and supervillains run rampant, etc, etc, so what is life like for the police? The plots within each volume might not be perfect, but Bendis knows his backstory, and it's so, so, so, so incredibly satisfying whenever we get another piece of the story.

Plus, the female characters are kind of awesome.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Oh! No, I've read up to a certain point on both Lucifer and Fables and have every intention of catching up on them soon! I liked them both very much, and as a matter of fact, I first cottoned onto Fables because of you! :D

And I'm going to have a look at Powers, too. Thanks so much, you!