Letter Hacks

So you didn't peg me for a comic book reader. That's alright, I didn't, either, and in fact, I never was. Sure, my brothers and I grew up on Calvin & Hobbes and Asterix, which I enjoyed, and Archie & Friends and Garfield, which I thought were both kind of meh, to be honest. But a serious comic book reader, no. 

That might change, though. 

After watching - and completely loving - the first 2 seasons of AMC's The Walking Dead, I quickly fell into the information-gathering-rabbithole of the internet, in search of Things About My New Favorite Show.

And stumbled upon the comic books.

They are INCREDIMAZEBALLS. 10 times better than the show. It's like this: take ALL the great things about the show (the writing, the graphics, the gritty stuff, the action, the characters), and then make them exponentially greater, and you have the comic books.

I mean, this is the kind of shit I'd GLADLY pay for.

My favorite part of the books, aside from everything else, is the Letter Hacks section, where badass creator Robert Kirkman publishes and replies to letters from fans and haters alike. He's funny and relatively gracious to each one, and you can tell he enjoys this part of his work, too.

In the time-honored tradition of making it about myself for a few seconds, I can relate to this because I imagine he feels the same way I do when I get mail from the podcast listeners. It's an exhilarating feeling - getting feedback about something you'd worked so hard on, whether it's positive or otherwise. You know?

Back to Letter Hacks, I also enjoy reading letters written by smart people (and by smart, I mean those ones who so casually use words like 'progeny' and 'canonized' without sounding pompous, just precise). Reading and/or listening to people talk about something they're so passionate about is always entertaining, mesmerizing even. 

This is a genre of books/reading that I've never explored before, and I find it fascinating. The back-and-forth between Kirkman and the fans read like a writing workshop, where they discuss the themes, the style, and the nitty-gritty of each issue. 

I suppose this is what obsession looks like when it's a little more organized. 

For now, as I await new issues (last I read was #92), I get more comic book/graphic novel recommendations from the Letter Hack columns, so I think I'm going the way of Image Comics. 

Unless I am told otherwise. Anyone?