I wrote this for another blog that I'm doing. I just liked it and I wanted to get your guys opinion on it since I'm a relative newbie to the comics world!

About 2 years ago now I started reading comics, mostly because the onslaught of superhero movies peaked my interest I guess, plus I’m a man so explosions, fighting and the likes obviously interest me and given that I also love science fiction me and comics are really a match made in heaven. Starting out though is a rather daunting task, made easier by the likes of Marvel’s Ultimate line, and DC’s New 52 initiative, but still intimidating even at the best of times. Realistically even if you've seen every Marvel/DC movie, you are still going to need to spend a bit of time on Wikipedia or comic vine reading up on whatever title/character you’re planning on jumping into. It is, of course, worth all of that research and more, but I didn't realise that right away, in fact it took me a bit of time to realise just how much more, and just how much of an accomplishment it is to create a great comic book.

For the longest time after I started reading the Marvels Ultimate line (which was where I started my love affair with comic books) I treated comics as being an incredibly simple thing, words with pictures, 2 separate creations, 2 separate mediums, which were united for the purpose of giving me a book and a story that’s a nice short entertaining read. I saw the writer as being the core of the book and only thought of the art as being there so the writer doesn't have to describe the setting or what’s happening. Thinking back on it now I can’t believe I was ever that dense...

It has only been in the past 12 months or so that I've come to view comics, not as a clumsy mesh of two mediums but rather a medium in their own right, at least when done correctly. A comic is not composed of two or three separate pieces, it’s one single creation, a single story being told simultaneously in both a visual and written way. Many writers in the industry have mastered this, and are clever enough to know when not to say something in order to give the artist a chance to shine (Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's work on Batman demonstrates this masterfully). However the writer/artist dynamic goes beyond filling in gaps in the dialogue or just giving a setting. Bendis and Pichelli do a fantastic job of showcasing this in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man. There are certain issues in particular, which if you didn’t know better, you would assume they were constructed from start to finish by a single person with a singular vision, as opposed to an entire team. It sounds a bit odd to say it (or type it actually) but reading Ultimate Comics Spider-Man was the first time I was blown away by how a panel layout can punctuate dialogue and really serve a much greater purpose than simply breaking up a scene, or splitting up a page for the ease of the reader. In a lot of ways the panel layout is the crux of the entire book and when done well it will pull your eyes through the book so organically that you don’t even notice the reveal at the bottom of the right hand page. A panel layout creates the flow and dictates the speed at you’ll read the book, it still amazes me when creators manipulate this to give the feeling that an action scene is happening faster than a romantic one. The creation of a great comic though has so many more factors that are all of the utmost importance. There's the lettering which again is something I've only come to appreciate lately and is so incredibly important when giving characters a voice, colouring (if you think this isn't important imagine reading the walking dead in colour and how different that book that would be), a good editor, enthralling cover art and that's just what I've learned from reading, I’m sure there's a million more things actual creators have to worry about that we (or me anyway) don't pick up on.

Then of course there is, in my opinion anyway, the biggest challenge for comics creators, the monthly schedule. Pretty much all of the other comic readers I know prefer to read things in trade (i.e. when the issues of a particular story line have been collected together in a single book) and it is often the case that certain comics, even great amazing comics, read better when collected (The Manhattan Projects for example, I love this book so much, but reading it on a monthly basis can be difficult). Ideally a comic should both feel and read like a single chapter of a larger story while at the same time feel and read as a standalone story, it should leave you wanting more but also leave you satisfied with the story you've just read (all the while balancing the multitude of things I've already mentioned). I see this as being the most difficult thing to achieve for a creative team and I never judge a book harshly if it can’t achieve it, but any time I find a creative team that can deliver it consistently I absolutely shout it from the rooftops, which is why if you take a look throughout this site you’ll see I push Saga at literally every opportunity. Saga is for me the epitome of what a comic book should aim for. It achieves that highly sought after (and slightly paradoxical) quality of reading equally great as single issues and together as one volume (at least for the 10 issues so far) and it manages to master every other thing I mentioned above while telling one of the most engrossing stories I've read... well ever.

I did get into comics because of the movie adaptations, but they're just adaptations of the characters and are in no way representative of the medium, adapting Saga to film for example would be like trying to adapt a Quintin Tarantino film to a book, you might get the story across but that's not what makes those films great, its the direction, the dialogue, soundtrack, acting and the countless subtleties that make a Tarantino movie a Tarantino movie, in another medium it becomes something else entirely. I suppose this whole article has just been my plea to the average non comic reading joe who has seen and enjoyed The Avengers, 300, The Dark Knight, The Walking Dead, Kickass and so many others to do yourself a favor, go and pick up some comics and give this medium a fair chance. To all the comic readers who have read this, I hope this all hasn't sounded too pretentious since I've never actually written a comic. I think, and perhaps I'm wrong here, that more than any other medium comics suffer from a lack of understanding. Lots of people look but not everyone sees, they assume comics to be a simplistic thing, I was guilty of the same crime as I'm sure countless other current readers once were. But comics as a medium are as infinity varied and complex as film or the written word and a perfect example of something being more than the sum of it's parts, it is an entirely different and distinct medium for delivering entertainment, and if you ask me it's one of the best.