Comic Book Madness

Comics!

I love comic books. You might think it childish but I beg to differ. I think comic books are great because:

• Of the art! I love art and comic books give you that cinematic experience without the need to switch on the TV or to go to the movies.
• The writers are brilliant. They keep you coming back each month for more much like a Chinese soap.
• Comic book stories are rich with influences from a variety of sources. Comic book creators draw from history, science, folklore and all kinds of literary sources to make their stories interesting. Let’s not forget the human element.
• Superhero comics especially inspire me to be more than I can be. Don’t we all want to be heroes and do the right thing each and every single day in our lives? Sacrifice. Honour. These are lessons that comic books can teach us.

I used to read a lot as a child and I am trying little by little to get back to reading but I find that I’d much prefer to read books that teach me something about myself and life rather than fiction. I don’t do that as much these days cos’ I have to read & write as a living and I can’t stand reading pages that are made up of walls of text. I guess that’s why I prefer comic books to books these days which is a lil’ sad I suppose. I read so much less now compared to my growing up years. The only book that I go back to constantly is the Bible though so at least I’m getting some reading done daily from the good book. 🙂

Here are some good books I would suggest to anyone who wants to get into comic books as a start:. You might recognise some of them as they’ve become Hollywood properties in recent years.

• The Hellboy series written & drawn by Mike Mignola (Seed of Destruction, Wake the Devil, The Chained Coffin and Others, The Right Hand of Doom. Conqueror Worm, Strange Places)
  

  Hellboy

• The Green Lantern books written by Geoff Johns with either Ivan Reis or Ethan Van Sciver on pencilling duties (The Sinestro Corps War Vol. 1 & 2, Green Lantern: Rebirth, Green Lantern: Wanted)
  

  Green Lantern

• 1602 by Neil Gaiman with art by Andy Kubert & Richard Isanove
  

  1602

Interior art from the pages of 1602

Green Lantern is currently one of the most exciting titles I’ve read in recent years. I’ve written posts about the Emerald Gladiator before and if you’re a long-time comic book fan I can’t help but marvel at what Geoff Johns has done with the character. It’s amazing stuff cos’ he’s taken the Green Lantern mythos further. I’m in the middle of the Blackest Night saga and all I can say is wow.

Blackest Night - a Green Lantern epic

Before you write comic books off as childish give one a spin. You’ll find that there’s a lot more than meets the eye within its colourful pages. Nuff’ said!

The Good “Old” Days

I’ve been recalling things from my youth a lot these past few days; music I used to listen to as a kid, video games that I played and even people I used to know.

Use Your Illusion I

First up. Music. I was driving to work on Monday and flipping through my CDs when I chanced upon Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion II. Needless to say I popped the CD in and basked in the strains of Slash’s awesome guitar riffs & licks. That got me to thinkin’ as to why I never got around to getting Use Your Illusion vol. 1 which was why I picked it up from Victoria Music Centre in Tropicana City Mall yesterday after a work meet up. GN’R doesn’t really produce the “cleanest” of lyrics but being a guitar head I absolutely love Slash’s guitar work which really shined when the band was still together. It’s a pity that the band doesn’t exist anymore with the member line-up it had during its hey day. *sigh*

Wing Commander IV

Secondly, video games. A Thomas Jefferson quote popped up on one of my friends’ status messages that goes something like this:

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

A really awesome quote which unfortunately for me was imprinted in my mind when I was 16 playing Wing Commander IV. I couldn’t help but YouTube up the cut scenes which gave me fond memories of school holidays, QuickShot II joysticks & hours of playing through missions blasting enemy craft to smithereens. Good memories…

Thirdly. People. I’ve been dreaming a lot these days and funnily enough people whom I haven’t thought of in years crop up in my dreams. Just last week I had a disjointed dream where one of my seniors in uni cropped up. I didn’t knew her that well but she was one of the few English speaking girls who was really active in the 4th College committee in UM that I can remember. Thinking of her I can recall most of my seniors’ faces but strangely enough I can’t remember most of their names except for Albert & Yeow Han. My dorm mates were really the best and it’s sad that I’ve lost touch with most of them over the years even though we stayed together in one house for years. Really good memories.

Anyways, I just thought I’d put this down to digital paper this morning and am remembering to thank God for all these good things that I have had growing up – my love for music, fun times to just be a kid with video games and really good people whom I’ve met over the years. I’m 31 today and I still feel like a kid sometimes but recalling all these remind that I have grown up a lot too and I hope that I am a much better person today than I was before.

I have a question for everyone though.

“What are YOUR fondest memories growing up?”

Do drop me a line or comment cos’ I’d love to hear from all of you who read my blog regularly. OK la … I’ve gotta go visit my mom at the hospital now. Thanks all of you for praying for her and for the well wishes. She’s a little better and I hope I can cheer her up and raise her spirits more when I visit her this morning.

Cheerios!