Genre comics odds and ends

One of the biggest topics in the comics blogosphere this week started because of this post by Noah Berlatsky about how there needs to be a happy medium between superhero comics and art comics: "Why on earth is autobio and memoir the standard for art comics? Is there an imaginable genre which makes less use of comics' inherent strengths — the ability to represent fantastic, magical situations with charm and ease?"

The conversation turned into a discussion on the merits (or lack thereof) of literary fiction and autobiographies in comics, which is too bad for me, because I'd rather have seen it turn into a discussion about worthwhile genre comics.

Horror

The drawing above is from a side project that Erik Larsen is doing to kind of take a break from Savage Dragon and stretch his legs next year. He's not telling what it is, and I totally don't think this is really it, but doesn't it remind you of Scooby Doo?

Fantasy

I interviewed my friend Alex Ness over at the Newsarama blog about a book he put together of narrative poems illustrated by some top comics talent. I'll follow it up later this week with a roundtable with the artists and some sample illustrations.

Science Fiction

I got into the Legion of Super-Heroes waaaay after Jim Shooter left it (Legion Lost, if you're interested) and I recently got out of it again after Mark Waid left, but I've heard so much praise for Shooter's run on the series that I can't help but think that maybe I should hold off a bit before completely dumping the series.

Superheroes

John Seavey nails the problem with Marvel's Thor comics. I've always like Thor the superhero and his interacting with the Avengers, but Thor the fantasy hero frankly bores me and any time the comic starts focusing too much on that aspect of him, I lose interest.