I have to say that comics were NOT part of my childhood reading and I think that makes a difference regarding one's approach to graphic novels as an adult. (This is just a theory). However, since reading and watching one or two graphic novels and films based on same, I've found they've often quite a bit in common with those 19th c novels and/or tales of chivalry I read as a teen.
Dark, complex, aswarm in disparate and competing philosophies, I found myself quite enjoying Watchmen. Mr. Inkslinger had read the Alan Moore comic (on which the film is based) when the series came out in the 80s, but I came to the film in absolute ignorance. I was completely caught up in the story. What I like about films based on Moore's work (I've seen and loved V For Vendetta as well) is that paradoxical pairing of optimism and nihilism that seems to coexist in the stories. Chaos results from good interfering with the, seemingly, natural inclination of humankind to just go bonkers, yet the good is essential as chaos is better than the nothingness that results from the aforementioned state of bonkers (read as definition of 'bonkers' the rampant violence and evil, the imminent destruction of self and others as a result of obsessed power- and warmongering). So. To say that Watchmen was food for thought is an understatement. I found myself thinking about it, discussing it with Mr. Inkslinger, well into the succeeding days after viewing.
We immediately went out to our nearest book purveyors and purchased the graphic novel and began reading it together,literally, which is rather fun. There are differences, but it is markedly (as others have pointed out) similar in terms of frame by frame story progression. What I'm finding interesting as well, though, is the comic within the comic -- and fictional autobiography and excerpts from fictional books -- within the narrative itself. Great stuff. I'll probably write more about it when we've finished reading the book.
Which reminds me of a similar author I have not tried before now, Neil Gaiman. I began reading American Gods after I read a positive blog review of it and I have to say it certainly is an intriguing story. Again, the themes are related to human interaction with forces beyond their control and the chaos that ensues from power mongers playing about with people's lives. The protagonist, Shadow, finds himself awash in the lead-up to a battle between the Old World gods, who came over to the New World with the people who believed in them, and the New World gods of technology, business,and media, etc. After Shadow is released from prison and learns of his wife's accident, he finds himself harassed and then employed by the New World version of Odin, a rascally, imposing old guy named Wednesday, as a kind of muscled assistant. As they travel about seeking to consolidate the efforts of all the Old gods, adventures ensue and questions arise.
What Gaiman does so effortlessly, blend the fantastical with the every day, is part of the fascination of this book. But it's a great story as well. He fits in questions about belief, the responsibility of succeeding generations, the concept of justice and fair play and all while conducting a kind of juggling act with mysterious deities. There's Eostre, Loki, the Russian Zorya and Chernobog, and Egyptian gods Bastet, Horus, and Anubis . . . along with a whole host of others. It really is fascinating.
I'm still thinking about the narrative, what Gaiman is saying with all that divine mess and human confusion. There is a subplot about missing children that fits in with the interaction between human and divine rather neatly, but it's a dark interaction. Like Moore, though, there is an optimism operating here, a sense of justice, of right action in the face of wrong. A moral code being honoured.
I'm going to have to read more . . . which is, as you can guess, hardly a sacrifice on my part.
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