The Art of Reviewing Comics

I wanted to put down my fingers for the day, and stop writing to that I could focus more on my exam revisions for mammalian biochemistry, but while booking tickets to Pitchfork I have been thinking about a post Warren Ellis put on his discussion board . THE STARRY WISDOM OF WARREN: On Magazines About Comics is a discussion in which Ellis addresses the disappearance of intelligent and insightful reviews of comics, and challenges reviewers to learn a lesson from music reviewers of 80’s magazines; to actually know something about the art of comic creation, and express the emotions that are ellicited though the experience of the comic. This point is directed towards the mass of comic review sites/blogs that are absolute crap, and written by people who may love comics, but are not writers and qualified critics with an indepth understanding for the medium. I don’t know if my aborted attempt at a comics site <www.comicsmarketplace.com> falls into this category. I am sure if I had done more reviews, it would have. At the moment I am taking a break from that since comics are too expensive to keep up with in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and I am enjoying diving into some groovy literature and philosophy.

I can say that since the fall of www.thefourthrail.com I have yet to find a reliable or decent sight for the weekly comics reviews. I liked Randy and Don’s Fourth Rail, because they often reviewed the same books having a dialectic opinion I think often resulted in a much more objective review that still encapsulated the subjective emotions of each of the reviewer.

I am by no means a professional writer or reviewer of comics. I hope that when I return to The States that it will be something for me to dabble with to try to pick up the craft, but I certainly have my work and critics ahead of me. Push Forward!

In the meantime I hope that some critics and better yet some creators come together to form a Forum of Five to truge through the muck of all the weekly comics releases to find the blood diamonds to push the frontiers of comics into the future. If only we had Spider Jerusalem…

I think that a site with creator critiques would be really insightful since many comics creators have a true passion and knowledge for the medium, but I think that the politics and friendships between the reviewers and the reviewee would lead to some more Gaiman/McFarlane-esque tensions. Sharpen Your Teeth!