'1001 comics to read before you die' and my ignorance

[Colin YNWA]

I was going to simply add this to the 'What's everyone reading' thread but hoped it'd start some discussion so decided to give it its own thread.

Anyway Paul Gravett's '1001 comics to read before you die' has been by toilet companion for the last few months. Its a fascinating and infuriating read in equal measure. As with all these sorts of lists sometimes I was bewildered about what was included and what was omitted (I mean are Asterix the Gaul and Asterix the Gladiator really the two books (only!) you'd say are the best of the series... really!) but that's just the nature of the beast and no ones fault... well except Button Man being the last 2000ad entry... honestly?!?

I was often annoyed that so many entries had no accompanying image. In a book about such a visual medium that was pretty poor. But then there could well have been all sorts of rights issues behind that?

The most interesting thing was how few of the titles I'd read (maybe 10%) and in some cases even heard of. Now I may well be 'Mainstream Billy' but I liked to think I have a pretty good knowledge all things comics, but this made it clear that there are vast gaps in what I know.

Here's the list:

http://www.paulgravett.com/index.php/1001_comics/1001_atoz/

Its pretty cool that its so diverse and the big areas of my ignorance are the earlier stuff, I've heard a lot but far from all and the international stuff, though often I'm not sure if a translation in English for a lot of this stuff exists.

Anyway I'm curious do other 2000ad fans here think they have a good knowledge and if you have time to look at that list (I'm going to do a head count when I get the chance) does that chance that idea?

[Frank]

Paul Gravett has been my toilet companion for the last few months.

I was bewildered, but that's just the nature of the beast and no ones fault. I was often annoyed (by) so many entries, (b)ut then there could well have been all sorts of issues behind that? I like to think I have a pretty good knowledge, but this made it clear that there are vast gaps in what I know.

http://www.paulgravett.com/index.php/1001_comics/1001_atoz/

A friend of mine was fond of quoting Quentin Tarantino's maxim that there are people who like film, and there are people who only like the films they like. It can be applied to the way you enjoy any medium, and- with regards to comics; just as much as books, films or music- I'm firmly in the latter party.

Roger's recent Favourite Cartoonist thread made me realise I'd let my interest in US humour/masturbation confession titles slip lately, but I'm quite content to look down Gravett's list and acknowledge I'll never read even as much as your own 10% of those books before I pass before the mercy seat.

I'm constantly impressed by the seemingly limitless enthusiasm shown here for almost anything with speech bubbles, but I enjoy the distance of reading what other people have to say about developments in the wide world of comics as a kind of meta-narrative- where the the suddenly amorphous sexuality of a character is given exactly the same weight and dramatic import as the fractured relationship between Alan Moore and DC- rather than the disheartening experience of signing on for a book everyone raves about, only to realise six issues in, that it's really not my cup of tea.

Any medium only really produces a few examples each year of work I'll actually like, or that I feel I should read to keep abreast of changing tastes and stylistic developments- the rest I'm happy to read about second hand. For example; I've read all but one of the Batman titles Gravett lists- how badly am I missing out by not having read Strange Apparitions? You tell me, and I won't have to bother reading the fuckin' thing myself.

[Ancient Otter]

I'm a bit hazy on what your request is Colin_YNWA, you just want us to tell you whether titles have been translated or not?

Another annoyance about titles being translated is a lot of the time the series are never finished - I've got a good few series never finished in English. MPD-Psycho from 1001 Comics... is one of them.

[Colin YNWA]

Sorry what I'm curious about is how well read people here are. How diverse their reading is and using the list provided in this book (fairly arbitrary though it is) how knowledgeable people think they are about the medium we love.

[Frank]

Sorry what I'm curious about is how well read people here are. How diverse their reading is and using the list provided in this book (fairly arbitrary though it is) how knowledgeable people think they are about the medium we love.

I think I've made the full breadth and depth of my comlpacency and ignorance clear; so I'll ask you a question instead, Colin. The excellent and authoritative Gravett's positing his list as a premise that should have the effect- as it's obviously had on you- of nudging readers to try comics they might not have been aware of or hadn't explored before. So how does he suggest newer readers try reading Big Numbers?

Smug bastard that I am, I bought the two published issues at the time; but- as far as I know- they've never been collected and Amazon or ebay prices for the originals range from fifteen to thirty-five quid. I'm sure it's old news to some here, but Al Columbia's art for issue three's available online, and the whole fascinating affair's summarised here.

[JOE SOAP]

Not forgetting Moore's complete character map for Big Numbers detailing the significant beats of each character's arc from beginning to end was published in Alan Moore Storyteller.



http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alan-Moore-Gary-Spencer-Millidge/dp/1907579125

[TordelBack]

And an incredible thing to behold it is too.

[JOE SOAP]

Indeed, wish 'twas larger and fold-outable though.

[Colin YNWA]

I think I've made the full breadth and depth of my comlpacency and ignorance clear;

Yeah sorry that response was directed at Ancient Otter (if only Tarka had made it to such an age) who said he was hazy on what I was actually asking, so I tried to clarify, without all the wittering preamble!

As for your question I remember reading a friends copy of Big Numbers 1 back in the day and even then knew it'd be collected at some point, that sort of thing was starting to happen more and more, and so why worry about getting the issues. Of course 20 odd years on I still know it'll happen... oh go on.

There's loads of stuff in there that'd be hard, nah impossible to get hold of... well unless you can read like 34 languages or some such and had a time machine. So at times it does come across as a little smug 'uhhh look at all this cool stuff that we know about, that you never can...'. That said that's kinda the point reminding us that the medium is so vast we'll never get to know it all. Nice to peak inside a bit though and stretch ya boundaries.

[TordelBack]

There's loads of stuff in there that'd be hard, nah impossible to get hold of... well unless you can read like 34 languages or some such and had a time machine. So at times it does come across as a little smug 'uhhh look at all this cool stuff that we know about, that you never can...'. That said that's kinda the point reminding us that the medium is so vast we'll never get to know it all.

Thing about Gravett is that he's the real deal.  He's spent 30 years or more actively accumulating this breadth of knowledge, from the comics marts to Angouleme, and sharing it in a humble insightful way.  He's worth listening to.

[Roger Godpleton]

I have seen him in public. He wore a bowtie.

[JOE SOAP]

He wore a bowtie.

Where?

[Roger Godpleton]

In Foyles.

[M.I.K.]

Its pretty cool that its so diverse and the big areas of my ignorance are the earlier stuff, I've heard a lot but far from all and the international stuff, though often I'm not sure if a translation in English for a lot of this stuff exists.

I've at least heard of a heck of a lot of stuff on that list, and bizarrely, am more likely to have read the absolutely ancient stuff, (mainly due to reading reprints of them in books about the history of comics).

A lot of the foreign language stuff is available in English, but I'll forever be confused by the lack of translation of Doraemon stuff. I bought a Spanish version of the comic when I was in Majorca about sixteen years ago and found it genuinely funny.

[Ancient Otter]

Paul Gravett admits he's never read them all:

http://www.paulgravett.com/index.php/articles/article/1001_comics/

and he had a team of 67 people making up the list so I wouldn't feel too bad about not having read them all....

Another book worth a flick through at the library is The Essential Guide to World Comics by Tim Pilcher and Brad Brooks, for a quick mention of countries not shown in 1001 Comics..., like Cuba