Nostalgia for comics

IDW's comic mini-series "Countdown" to the new "Star Trek" movie has lots of fans reading comics for the first time in ages, or ever. Someone asked me today, "What's so special about comics?", as in why not just watch a movie or read a book?

For me, the magic of comics comes from nostalgia. My brothers and I were not bought comics as kids, although we did read the Sunday strips in the newspaper every week - including a wonderful, now-rare, newspaper introduction to the character of Batgirl, which ran during the weeks and months before Batgirl turned up on the third season of the wonderful "Batman" TV series in the 60s. And, if we were sick, Mum would buy us a few British comic books, "Beano", "Bunty" and "Sparky". And a "Phantom" comic was traditional in a Royal Easter Show showbag!

Then, perhaps every 18 months or so, we'd receive a brown paper grocery bag of comics, passed on from a cousin we hardly ever got to see. In that bag would be Disney and Harvey comics, plus the odd "Archie" or DC superhero comic. Once there was even... a "Teen Titans" comic! We would devour the whole pile over a week or so, often sitting in the tent belonging to the girls next door.

It was only many years later, when I'd see an interesting title on a newsstand, that I realised how expensive a single comic was, especially for the brief time involved in reading it. However, a beautifully drawn, well-written comic does withstand multiple readings, and even multiple casual browsings. So when I found Star Trek fandom in 1979, I rediscovered a few Gold Key "Star Trek" titles in second hand shops... and then Marvel's new post-TMP line. As bad as some of those were, the nostalgia was also strong. Different to watching the ST movie at the cinema, different to episodes on TV, and different to reading the Bantam novels, but better than Gold Key.

About the same time, I began to follow "New Titans", a revival/revamp of "Teen Titans" (again remembering that lone TT issue from my childhood) and the coming of Nightwing, when Dick Grayson abandoned his Robin persona. And then I rediscovered "The Fantastic Four", while researching their uniforms for a convention.

So, what's special about "Star Trek" comics? I dunno. They just are.

What I loved about the "Watchmen" movie two weeks ago: even though I barely new the original mini-series/graphic novel, and read the first four issues/chapters before seeing the film, it captured the nostalgia for days gone by that, for me, is intrinsically entwined with comics.

I'm watching the Watchmen

I've been reading the first few chapters of the acclaimed graphic novel, "Watchmen", in preparation for seeing the new movie today. I have had conflicting reports about whether to read it all yet. Some movie reviewers are insisting that people must read the graphic novel first, in its original form, but having always had a vague idea of the premise, I've probably now read enough - up to Dr Manhattan's origin story in Chapter 4 - to have a good grounding in the whole Minuteman/Watchmen eras.

Avid comic collectors, who read the graphic novel when it first came out in twelve parts, seem to be loving the new movie, but a few friends reread the book in recent weeks, before seeing the movie, and then wished they'd gone into the cinema with vaguer memories.

So I feel I'm prepared, but not over-prepared.

Later that day...

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Ok, advice for everyone. Yes, do what I did if you don't know the story. Buy the graphic novel and read the first four of the twelve chapters. Enough to see the pre-history unfold in the film, but all the McGuffins are left intact, and the changed ending will be fresh and new no matter what. The "visual literacy" of this comic (and movie) is... astounding. And the songs in the soundtrack are perfectly chosen