When I was a kid I read comics like other kids, too – Superman, Batman, Walt Disney, Asterix & Obelix, etc. However, while growing up the fascination vanished, mostly due to the lack of a good story line. Years later a friend who worked at a comic-store gave me an issue of ‘The Sandman’ (written by Neil Gaiman) which changed everything. This was the first comic I ever read that had really a story and every plot-line came at last to an end (after many issues). Incredible! Besides the Sandman there was also a mini-serie called ‘Death’. ‘Death’ is Sandman’s sister and she will wind up everything at the time the universe ends. There are some more brothers and sisters. All are part of the so-called ‘Endless’:
Death - one of the 'Endless'
Death © by DC Comics
After the Sandman, I discovered many more comics that are really worth to be mentioned. Neil Gaiman is always a good choice, e.g. ‘Stardust’. Frank Miller’s work is fascinating, too. He produced works like ‘Sin City’ which is brutal, but with an very interesting and minimal art style. Other pieces of his art are ‘V vor Vendetta’, ‘Batman – The Dark Knight returns’, etc. ‘Arkham Asylum’ by Grant Morrison shows us another side of Batman and J. O’Barr designed ‘The Crow’. Many of the graphical illustrations of ‘The Sandman’ or ‘Arkham Asylum’ are mostly done by Dave McKean who became then very popular afterwards (he also designed music album covers and many other comics). Another work worth to mention is ‘Maus I + II” by Art Spiegelman (about the experiences of his family in Nazi concentration camps) or ‘The big book of weirdos’ (about people from public life who had a strange public reputation during their life time) and ‘The big book of conspiracies’ (for all those who are already paranoid or plan to be so in future). Comics are much more than just a few pictures and speech bubbles. They are really a piece of modern art.
another Death picture
Death © by DC Comics
