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JMS To Quit Monthly Comics

Unless someone has a better definition, graphic novels are finite stories rather than ongoing series, intended more for adult readers than kids. Someone figured out years ago that many people who read comics as kids were growing up, and had outgrown the way the stories were told in the monthly books.

Good news for me, I outgrew monthly comics a long time ago!

Raw Shark

"8th Army is in the house!"
President Obama, in South Korea (did he really say that??)
 
In addition, books like Superman: Earth One usually have the word 'original' in front to designate that the stories in those haven't been seen before. Lots of graphic novels are collections of story arcs that were previously published as monthly comics. There's a good interview with JMS here.

Jan
 
Right. But aside from pretension and glue: no difference.

That said, I'm running off to buy the first couple issues of the B5 comic this week...
 
A graphic novel is also more likely to feature gratuitous sex and horrific violence, if you're into those things. Stray Toasters springs to mind. Or Sex Warrior. Or Miracleman #15.

Raw Shark

"If there's one thing I can't stand... it's greed."
Robert Vaughn, Superman III
 
Heck, or the whole "Dick Grayson is Batman" saga. They were horrifically disfiguring victims and there was cannibalism. Really, it put me off Batman forever. Just nasty.
 
I never, ever got the impression that anyone who was Robin was capable of being Batman one day. They've been out of ideas for a long time. Sounds like red Hulks and blue Hulks, etc: not interesting. 'The Cult' is one of my favorite Batman stories, but it's also one that put a lot of people off with the kinds of violence you just mentioned. I'm fine with the really violent stuff, but only if the story is good.

Raw Shark

"The Yangtze swallows all secrets..."
Monty Burns
 
I never, ever got the impression that anyone who was Robin was capable of being Batman one day. They've been out of ideas for a long time. Sounds like red Hulks and blue Hulks, etc: not interesting. 'The Cult' is one of my favorite Batman stories, but it's also one that put a lot of people off with the kinds of violence you just mentioned. I'm fine with the really violent stuff, but only if the story is good.

Raw Shark

"The Yangtze swallows all secrets..."
Monty Burns

This really wasn't a good story.

Bottom line: Batman died (But not really) and Robin 1 took over as Batman, while Bruce's son took over as Robin 5. Now Batman's the sunny one and Robin's the one everyone is scared of.

It's dumb. AND repulsively violent. AND it's got yet another robin in it as the bad guy.

Yawn. Actually "Ew...yawn...ew!"
 
Some people called B5 "terribly boring". If you weren't much into political intrigue, Babylon 5 just didn't grab you (I think that was it, it could simply have been some of my friends really like action every moment).

Changeling was a slow-paced movie. You're not alone in finding that is just not to your taste. I thought it was frustrating, kind of depressing, but a truly amazing and shocking story. It gave me more than a few "eh, people are shit, always have been, always will be" moments, so I know it was an effective movie for me.
 
"Boring" is a relative concept. By a western standard, most Soviet films are incredibly boring, with their glacial pace and over-reliance on exposition and mopey acting, but in actual fact a lot of 'em are really really good if you have the patience to crack the artistic code they're built atop. Likewise, if you watch, say, "Dick Tracy vs. Crime Incorporated," it's hyper-exciting - an action sequence literally every seven minutes through its 90 minute run - but that can't really distract one from the fact that it is a terribly, terribly boring movie.

In the case of B5, most of the people I've met who say its boring *seem* to mean "I don't have a framework by which to understand this, so it's not holding my interest." I don't know how old some of you are, but back in the mid-90s there actually were a sizeable number of people who quite literally couldn't comprehend of SF that wasn't Trek. And a lot of people don't like SF to begin with. And let's face it - from day one, the B5 method of storytelling has made considerably greater demands on its audience - and far greater assumptions about their intelligence - than Trek or SeaQuest or either Galactica ever did.

So in my experience, it's not so much boredom as it is sense of being overwhelmed. "You mean I have to watch thirty six hours of this to even understand what's going on? Nuts to that!"
 

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