Comics

I spent $173.03 on comics today.

If you have some time to spare, I'll even tell you why I did it.

People say I am a dreamer (but I'm not the only one) and it's true.

I used to have a vivid imagination. Now it's gone stale and rather sad.

When I was younger and I had problems sleeping, I would fantasize (insert your own joke here) and that would do the trick.

Lately, I seem to be recycling the same fantasies and have problems creating new ones.

And it's worrying.

Truly madly completely.

I was madly in love with comics in the mid-80s. Part of that enjoyment was having another good friend who loved comics. We would visit one another and read each other's collections and think of alternative stories and line-ups of the supergroups (e.g. Should Spiderman be in the Avengers, etc).

We read many comics and we knew our stuff really well. And so much knowledge meant we had a fertile ground for our imagination to work.

I must say reading comics was one of the best things to happen to me. Since then, I have always been one of the more active contributors to ideas in group situations. I dare not say they have always been good but there have been some outrageous ones.

I'm hoping for some more outrage in my life and I'm turning to comics. Yes, the National Library has a great collection. But not really the mature titles. No. Which brings me to Kinokuniya today where I bought the following:

Ex Machina Book 1 and 2

"The first volume of the Eisner Award-winning series featuring Eisner Award-winners author Brian K. Vaughan and artist Tony Harris. Set in our modern-day world, EX MACHINA tells the story of civil engineer Mitchell Hundred, who becomes America's first living, breathing super-hero after a strange accident gives him amazing powers. Eventually Mitchell tires of risking his life merely to maintain the status quo, retires from masked crimefighting and runs for mayor of New York City, winning by a landslide. But Mayor Hundred has to worry about more than just budget problems and an antagonistic governor, especially when a mysterious hooded figure begins assassinating plow drivers during the worst snowstorm in the city's history! "

Fables Vol 1 - 6

"Where do fairy tale princes and princesses, beasts and beauties go when happily ever after is over? New York City, of course. After a dreaded foe known only as "The Adversary" drives the "Fables," as they call themselves, away from their ancestral homes, they have no choice but to establish an underground community in the heart of Manhattan. Careful not to draw undue attention to themselves, they are self-governing, with a Mayor and a policeman all their own. Above all they must not reveal their true nature to the "mundanes" of their adopted world. As our story opens, Rose Red, fairy tale princess turned New York party girl, has gone missing, her abandoned apartment a trashed and bloody mess. Fearing the worst, Red's fraternal twin sister Snow White, deputy Mayor of Fabletown, and Bigby Wolf, its chief constable, are determined to find out who among their fellow exiles is responsible for the gruesome deed . . ."

Testament #1

"From the imagination of best-selling author Douglas Rushkoff (Coercion, Club Zero-G), one of the most iconoclastic and acclaimed minds of our era, comes a series that exposes the "real" Bible as it was actually written, and reveals how its mythic tales are repeated today. Grad student Jake Stern leads an underground band of renegades who use any means necessary to combat the frightening threats to freedom that permeate the world of TESTAMENT — a world very much like our own. They employ technology, alchemy, media hacking and mysticism, discovering a modern threat that has its roots in ancient stories destined to recur in the modern age.With intricate, darkly detailed art by Liam Sharp (THE POSSESSED), TESTAMENT takes place in an unapologetically uncensored Biblical universe, chronicling the grim confrontations between humans and their angry gods. Those horrifying encounters full of murder, magic, monsters, sex and sacrifice, echo the forces at work beneath the surface of today's high-tech and highly ideological conflicts."

There's a lot to read. But it's all very promising.

At least I imagine it to be.