Humor and Entertainment

Watchmen comics, the 12-series book created by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore, is not your usual graphic novel. It is not a rip off of any virtuous and flawless superhero stories we have been used to reading. It is dark, grim, pulp and deviant in every way.

Watchmen was published in an era when the comic book genre was dominated by superheroes and antiheroes with black and white views about good and evil. It is a parody of the overman in dystopia.

Since I’ve just started doing stand-up and am intrigued by what to expect in beginning a stand-up career, I’m very interested in finding out how other people began their careers, and to see what established comics can teach me. Comic Insights is exactly that book for me. Comic Insights was edited by Franklyn Ajaye, a veteran comedian who has gotten to know many of the big names during his 20+ year career on stage.

Comic book and graphic novel criticism is rarely found outside of niche publications such as Wizard, or the many fan-driven sites that litter the web. Occasionally a mainstream newspaper will publish an article on the medium as a whole, or offer a retrospective on an under appreciated author, usually Alan Moore; but for the most part it is rare to come across comic reviews in any shape or form.

Okay, so that’s a stupid question. Or at least it may initially sound like one. In terms of publication and distribution, and their dependency on advertisements, comics are clearly magazines by definition. Which would then make graphic novels compiled magazines… which they are clearly (I hope) not.

Step outside your comfort zone and read something other than the regular type of comic book you are accustomed to buying. Pick up something that you would never have considered before.