Painted Heroes

Being broke and jobless is a terrible state to be in, especially in a city. Having no money in one's pocket can make an entire city look mean and boring. And no I'm not the type to sit at a bookstore and read novels for hours I can't do that, I do not possess the attention span. However, Garphic Novels are an entirely different ball game all together. I love Comics/Graphic Novels. It started when a close friend from school and myself discovered the 'timepass' of sitting in Landmark Kolkata (Now Starmark or StarMart...I'm not sure) and read Batman Comics day in and day out. We used to love heroes, and had built their characters in our heads while living their lives as our own. I guess other people do the same with Literature and all, but I'm not literary. I thrive on the explictly entertaining. The fake and the romantic and the brave. So Batman. In the process I also got hooked to the X-Men series that too was launched sometime around then in Calcutta.
I remember a few years later the aforementioned friend got his first salary, and with it he bought himself a new novel called Blood. I forget the author, and last I heard he had lost his copy of the same. But like yea, we were really into it. In college I discovered Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. Mostly Neil Gaiman though. His Sandman Series blew my mind. I read each and every issue over and over again. Artistically my favourite was the special edition on Despair of The Endless Nights. And then came The Watchmen series, from which I borrow my psuedonym, after my personal hero in the same novel. Also graphic novelists like Kyle Baker and Garth Ennis helped continue the love affair that had afflicted me since my teenage years.

Growing up, and getting out in the world has been somewhat messy for me. For what I believe to be really simple reasons like me spending most of my time lost in an alternate reality. This due to the fact that, albiet being figments of some really powerful imaginations, the protagonists of these novels bear a closer resemblance to my present mental disposition than most of the 'real' people surrounding me. This also could be due to my own imagination or lack thereof leading to parasitic tendencies. However, now I've grown up, all of 22 now and won't be for long. As mentioned earlier I am interning at a really hip office surrounded by extremely pretty women who keep typing some shit all day long. The only good thing being that women in this office really wanna look hot and they try really really hard, and it shows. To good effect.

Anyway I haven't read anything worthwhile for atleast a year now. No new Comic or even any of the numerous old ones that lie rotting on my hard disk. I'm a real person now, with real reponsibilities.

So it was after long time that I found myself at the 'Comics' section of a book store in Bangalore and was left mesmerised. I mean I was like "boss where the fuck was I and when did all this shit come out??", "How come I haven't even heard of these works?". I was caught drooling/salvitating at the aforementioned section by friends waiting for me to "get done with this one. Ei please boss, aar ekta minute." It was like finding a game you used to play at school being played somewhere else, and where you are more than happy to join in. Sweet surrender and a good time.

The pictures above are of the novels I found recently and was terribly turned on by. They are "Northlanders" by Brian Woods; "Cairo" by G. Willow Wilson; and "Jar of Fools" by Jason Lutes. So if anyone likes what I read do check these out. They're different from one another and brillaint, especially if you've stayed away from your dreams for a while.