I still love ’em, but I have fallen far behind on my comic book reading this last year or so. I still try to keep up with B.P.R.D, Jonathan Hickman’s Avenger stuff, and a few others… but yeah, not sure I am doing the best job keeping up with it all.
One thing I like to do while I draw though is have a documentary playing. I’ve seen some really good comic related documentaries these last few weeks and, because the San Diego Comic Con always makes me follow comic books a little more closely and news coming out ‘o there keeps them on my mind, I thought I’d blog about those documentaries.
The first film, and my favorite, is called The Mindscape of Alan Moore. This is an auto-biography where Moore’s talks about growing up in Northampton, breaking into comics, his characters and stories, and his philosophies. I bought this program years ago, but it is a favorite and I go back and watch it again from time to time. Alan Moore is probably best know for his comic Watchmen, but is it his comics creations like Swamp Thing, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Birth Caul & Snakes and Ladders, V for Vendetta, From Hell, and many others (along with his novel Voice of the Fire) that have made him one of my very favorite writers in comics.
The next documentary would be Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods, which covers Morrison’s pretty strange but interesting life, his interest in sigil and chaos magic, and the inspiration behind his work. I love Morrison’s comic, The Invisibles, so that was another good reason for me to watch. He also wrote other favorites like All-Star Superman, Animal Man, Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery, and The New X-Men.
And finally, there was Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts. I am a fan of Ellis’, and enjoyed this interview style film. His creation Planetary ranks up there among my favorite comics ever. But Ellis also created fantastic books like Transmetropolitan, Global Frequency, and worked on another favorite, Hellblazer.
Anyway, I love to hear what inspires creative people, listen to their insights and world-views, and see how strange they can be. All of these documentaries are well worth your time.
