I say "right now" as if it changes often, but this piece has been my favorite since it stopped me, quite literally in my tracks, in the National Gallery of art. I stared at it for hours, and whenever I go to D.C. I always spend as long as I can get away with looking at it (much to the chagrin of whoever I am with, which has mostly been my awesome, practically perfect sister, who we will call "Emma" in this blog because she fits that character from Austen's book so well). I also am obsessed with books and have been as long as I can remember. My mother read to me each night and, since I didn't have a T.V. growing up, we read as a family almost every night as well. Predictably, I became an English major when I went off to college and have further fallen in love with books. So, since I love paintings and drawings as well as literature, one might suppose that comic books were always a favorite medium of mine as they bring together two things I love so dearly. However, not until I was just finished with my junior year of undergrad (only two years ago) was I first introduced to comic books by my brother, which I will forever be thankful for - he is the best older brother ... be jealous! I could not believe that no one every told me how beautiful and wonderful they can be! My whole life I had written off comic books as something uninteresting and predictable - like the generic romantic comedy. I didn't look down on people for reading them exactly, I just could never understood why they would want to. Imagine my irritation at my own prejudices when Gretzky (which is what I will call my brother because he loves sports and this is my favorite sports player - I am a sucker for hockey) asked me to read Watchmen. It really changed my life because it opened up a whole new world of art for me that I didn't even realize existed. However, what I have found in the past two years is that it can be hard to get direction when seeking a comic book to read. So, I decided (with the help of my two wonderful parents Mother and Father of mine heart) to read a comic book or graphic novel each week to get to know the field even better, which should prove quite helpful since I am writing my thesis on them and hope to, perhaps, do the same for my dissertation. Thus, I hope these reviews will lead you to read some great comic books or graphic novels and maybe someone who has scorned them in the past will become a new convert (Yay!! Just the thought of it makes me giddy). I am also reviewing a movie each week - on Tuesdays while I will post the review of the comic book on Fridays. Why, you might ask, am I doing comic books and movies. I have to admit I don't have a great answer to this question except that I love both and hope to engage the two in a discussion of sorts. Look for my first review this Friday on Alan Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing: book one,
which I have yet to read. Never fear, I'll be ready.
