[Center][U][H2]Nightly Ramblings[/H2][/U]
[Sup]In Which Comic Books Are Dignified As Literature
Worthy Of Consideration Beyond That With Which
They Are Usually Ascribed[/Sup][/Center]

Or NR IWCBADALWOCBTWWTAUA for short and if that acronym seems insufficient, I recommend NI for shorter. Anyhow, I like comic books. I like 'em a lot. I always have. In fact, in my youth I developed a literal code of chivalry that I had sworn to, upheld through my middle teenage years and have since forgotten the actual terms of, based upon the behaviour and tenets of superheroes (one of which was Always Get Back Up).

I got into comic books because I was fixated on The Batman when I was a lad, and, not counting the Bionicle comics which confounded me at the time, my first actual comic book that I personally owned was Scott Snyder's Batman Annual #1, from back when the New 52 first launched. I loved it. The first series I would actually read all the way through was the first run on Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man, trailed by Watchmen, Geoff Johns Green Lantern (My copy of Green Lantern: Secret Origin got stolen out of my locker when I was in middle school. I would've reaped my revenge had I known who it was. I hadn't finished reading it), and Vince Vaughan's The Runaways.

It wasn't the presence of violence, bright colors or the scantily clad women. I felt like comic books were the perfect storytelling medium. With opportunity for text and illustration, sometimes acting as one, usually working in concert that allowed me to get totally immersed. I didn't hate TV, but I'd usually rather have been reading a comic book. I found it much harder to think actively while watching TV. I didn't like my attention being steered at someone elses pace. I loved the intimacy of leaning over a page and ignoring everything else. I was a pretty solitary type for a litany of reasons.

You can't really share a comic book like you can an episode of a television show or an audiobook. It makes for an awkward experience. But I think that the fact that it's something you [i]kinda[/i] have to do alone, makes it feel all the more communal when you'd get together with whatever buds you had that actually engaged with it on the same level, with similar immersion and neurotic single-minded fixation on the pages.

I guess NI is supposed to be that. I want to update this every Saturday, which means I'm already late, but hey, better late than never (sometimes). So the idea is that every week we're going to discuss a single issue of a comic book. From now until August 31st, we're gonna be focusing on Mark Waid's seminal Kingdom Come #1, at which point we'll get to talking about #2, until we're done and pick a new series/arc/run. Thanks for joining. I gotta fly to get to work, but I already read the first issue and I'll post my thoughts later.