Graphic Novels

Even I'm old enough to remember back to when comic books were just for nerds. Now they seem to be all the rage. This past weekend I went to http://www.cartoonkingdom.ca/ in Windsor; that place is now my new favourite store ever. The store was packed with Batman, Watchman, Superman, Wonderwoman, Spiderman and even Transformers paraphernalia, among many others. They also had a large collection of comic books and I was really tempted I honestly can tell you that five years ago I would have thought that store was completely stupid. Why? At 11 I should have thought that store was amazing, and at 16 I probably shouldn't. But I do. And why is that? Because graphic novels are on their way to taking over pop culture today.

The biggest film of 2008 was without a doubt The Dark Knight. The equally amazing follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins made a mere $1,001,921,825 and won 2 Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actor (which I believe is a first for a comic book movie). Since the overwhelming success of The Dark Knight we can expect many more comic book based movies to come out. In the first half of the year alone we've already had the blockbusters Watchmen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine and there's even been an animated Wonderwoman film. The only problem I found with the sucess of The Dark Knight is that many people, including those that I saw the movie with in theatres, had/have no idea that it's a sequal.

Superman has his own show, Smallville. There have been many Batman shows. Spiderman has his cartoon. Yet Heroes has captured the hearts of millions (including yours truly) with it's many allusions to comic books. First off, and most noticeably, the show is about "ordinary people discovering extraordinary abilities". Secondly, throughout Season 1 the adorably cute Hiro Nakamura travels around the US following his "destiny" as it appears in the 9th Wonders comic, which is drawn by future-painting-druggie Isaac Mendez. What is probably most notable and coolest is that they don't really have seasons, they have "volumes". Every episode chapter ends with "to be continued...." and plays out like a comic book. And of course there's a villain, or many to be exact. There is even a Heroes Graphic Novel which was amazing art by comic book artist Tim Sale. The point is, Heroes is one of the most popular shows on television and it is completely based on the comic book format.

Even LIGHTS, an amazing Juno Award winning up-and-coming artist has her own comic book. Albeit it's only ten pages but it's drawn entirely by her and her music videos have a very evident super hero feel.

In short: comic books aren't just for nerds anymore.