Easter Reads

Okay, Okay, so Easter is only a few days away

I messed up on that one. But I just thought about this last night so I'm trying to make it happen. Bear with me.

Anyway, what examples of graphic literature do I recommend one read to commemorate this holiest of times in the Christian calendar? I thought about it and picked out five titles that one could read around Easter to contemplate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. No, none of them is a comic book adaptation of Mel Gibson's movie (if such a thing exists). But, come to think of it, I would totally read a comic series based on Murtaugh and Riggs from the Lethal Weapon movies. Somebody at IDW should get on that!

Seriously, there was a Die Hard prequel comic.

Back on track! I could have delved into individual issues, but I decided on stories which are readily available in collected editions from retailers such as Amazon or ComiXology (mostly).

Christianity, Counterculture, and Comics

The other week I made an impulse buy at my local comic book shop. Those of you who know me well may not think this is surprising, but actually I usually hold a pretty strict shopping list when it comes to physical, individual issues. This is both due to financial and time restraints. The cost of buying comics seems to grow in an inverse relationship with the amount of free time I have to read my purchases. To illustrate the seriousness of the situation, I don't even include any Batman titles on my regular reading list (unless, of course, it is written by Grant Morrison).

But that day I saw on the shelf an issue of Occupy Comics about the Occupy movement and the financial crisis and bailouts that spurred it. Now, you, dear reader, likely have your own opinions on this social/political occurrence. I don't really care about that. What I was really interested in was the fact that this issue contains an essay by Alan Moore (of Watchmen fame and self proclaimed wizard who is not to be trifled with) about the history of comics as counterculture and a medium of protest.