My experience with comic book stores is that they are the same right down to the smell. They're small, crowded (with comics, not people), narrow, musty, carpeted with a drippy, dated window air units, impossibly tall shelves, and just, well, old. While I can't say they are my favorite place to go, they do bring back fond memories of the 4th floor of the UNF Library, pre-new addition/new construction. It was a massive floor devoted to every book you could think of, and I always purposefully got lost amongst the art books. I'd go in looking to take 1 or 2 and end up leaving with at least 7.
Anyways...Not too far down the road from Anthony's Restaurant is a place called Hole in the Wall Books (and Comics). Anthony enjoys comic books, but I'm thankful he isn't so fanatical that we have bookcase upon bookcase devoted to holding preciously packaged back issues. But that might just be because we only have one bookcase...I'm not sure :) I'll take Anthony here after the holidays, see what it's like, see what he thinks. I didn't really grow up reading comic books and consequently didn't really grow attached to a specific superhero, anti-hero, etc. I remember my cousins having comic books and a few in particular being anal about keeping them covered in plastic. As a kid, I remember thinking that was silly. Why have it if you can't really use it or touch it or enjoy it? Besides, I got too caught up in the pictures to really read the text or understand the characters.
The superhero movies are fun---Superman, Batman, Spiderman, X-Men---but I never felt anything deeper than the surface satisfaction that a good action film/hero story fulfills. V for Vendetta, however, is different. While my dad hold's the world record for watching that film over and over and over again (to the point of nauseating my mom), I have also watched it many times. And I can thank my dad for introducing me to it. Even after seeing it several times, I find the concept refreshing. A "super-hero" (a little more realistic than the flying, batty ones) who actually holds people accountable and enacts justice? Cool. Sure, there are moral issues that come into question---like the glaring one, that violence is one of the only ways to enact justice---but ultimately, I think V is the best comic book hero because he stands for truth (oxymoron, I know---truth from a masked man), justice, progress, and in short, no bullshit. As a kid, I remember getting so annoyed with movies that showed the conflict between good and evil. The "good" would always try to give the "evil" a second and third and fourth chance by being compassionate, and he/she/it would always get screwed over and then end up being upset for faltering. V offers compassion for what is right and non-tolerance for what is not....pretty harsh but pretty powerful and kind of relieving. Besides, who doesn't feel like we're living somewhat in the corrupt, futuristic UK depicted in the film?
I digress. Anthony, get ready for Hole in the Wall :)
2 comments:
I tried getting through this graphic novel a couple years ago, but I found it terribly confusing. It might have been because I kept relating it to the movie and trying to place the characters with the familiar actors, or it might have been because all the characters looked the same on paper. Either way, I'll stick with the movie. I remember when it came out: Bush was still president and I felt very much like this movie could happen.
What's great about the moral dilemma presented by the violence is that it's not violence enacted by a man; it's violence enacted by a symbol or an idea. As they say, "An eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind," but you can't kill an idea. I've never felt that the message of the movie was vengeance (that is, one man killing another for some wrongdoing), but instead I've felt the message was to believe and live by an idea that is greater than our individual desires.
Kate, I've never checked out the graphic novels. As much as I appreciate the artwork, I don't have the where-with-all to sit down and actually read one. And I hear you on the Bush years. Ugh.
You make a great point about man vs. idea, and that really is what the story is about. I recently watched this (eh-hem, though, not on the 5th of November), and that theme rang loud and clear this time I watched it, for some reason.
Post a Comment