The Comics Binge – The Climb #715

Saturday 6^th February 2021

I have had a real craving for comics the last couple of days.

I tend to be a comics binger. I’ll go ages without reading a single comic and then I want to binge read not only an entire trade, but an entire event as well.

I love the idea of interconnected storytelling. I love these big canvases with interweaving stories. It’s partly why I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But moreso, I love these big Marvel events where all the various comic books come together for some big event or another.

And I love the errors that come with this. Those small continuity errors caused by the fact that Spider-Man is 3 parts into a 6 part story and yet is supposed to be on an alien world away from New York (that get explained with a footnote that this occurs before or after the events). I love that artists change and draw secondary characters differently; so that the detective is blonde and clean shaven in one issue but under a new artist in the next they have a beard and dark hair.

Part of me really wishes there was a rapid form of storytelling. Something rough and quick that focused on character and story, that could be rubbish at times due to the speed but could unearth these real gems of story. I need something like that to rapid prototype stories.

I’ve dug out an old Windows tablet which means I can read comics while sat on the sofa. I’d buy an ipad but to be honest this binge reading might cease in a week for all I know.

I have a unachievable aim of reading the entire Marvel universe chronologically. It comes back every couple of years. I usually use Civil War as my starting point, although sometimes it has been House of M. I tend to get through the prologue stories and through the meat of the event and then the allure dies off to be left for another couple of years.

This time I’m starting with Avengers Dissemble. I’ve found a good chronological guide and a time and situation where reading comics is possible.

I’m sorry to say that I’m not one for lingering on the art. At least not when I’m binge reading. Maybe this isn’t the best way to experience comics, and to be honest, there are other books where it takes me a lot longer to read because I do spend time on each panel.

But Marvel is my soap opera. I love the chaos of it. There’s some great writing here, but buried away are moments of incredible writing and I enjoy finding these out. Like Warcraft they are a great way to recharge and I’ll be honest and say I’m a little surprised if that’s the role they are subconsciously filling right now. I don’t feel particularly creatively drained, even if the last few weeks have been mentally tough.

I’m enjoying myself though, and it’s not eating time I could be writing (due to being able to read these comics with other distractions around me, unlike writing or novel reading). So we’ll see. Maybe I’ll make my way to other events, maybe I’ll be done within a week. But man, I wish there was an art form that could create as quickly as I consume.