So several years ago I read the Sandman series of comic books, and absolutely loved them. Erin tried to introduce me to some other series, and for the most part I found the books okay, but I didn’t enjoy them nearly as much as Sandman.

So why do I care? Why am I interested in comics/graphic novels? Well, for one thing that’s a whole lotta books I haven’t read.

I started thinking about this partially because of a post over at Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Novels that was a response to someone trashing women’s reading. Fantasy, romance, and comic books all fall into the category of books that people don’t respect. But after some thought, I don’t understand why.

Speaking only for fantasy–because that’s what I read–it does actually address lots of issues. The same types of issues that were addressed in the past by my favorites, folk tales and folk lore.

The series I’m reading now, Dennis L. McKiernan’s Mithgar series, covers at all kinds of topics, from environmentalism to overpopulation to the nature of free will. Even Piers Anthony, who frustrates me to no end, wrote an entire book looking at the nature of death, which was part of a series looking at death, fate, war, nature, time, evil, and good.

Just because it’s telling a story doesn’t mean it won’t make you think. After all, that is what folktales were supposed to do. Teach you a lesson while entertaining you.

So I’m curious about these books that seem like something I would like. After all, how different are superheroes from the Gods and Goddesses of Greece and Rome? Aren’t they just our modern mythology?

Of course, it may end up being like Science Fiction. I like a handful of titles (Ender’s Game, Becoming Human), but for the most part I just don’t like to read science fiction. It just doesn’t do anything for me. And it may turn out that comics are the same way. But I feel like I should give them a try first.

So, any recommendations?

I loved Sandman, as well as Neil’s comics about Death. I liked the first League of Extrodinary Gentleman, really disliked the second. I thought that Kingdom Come was okay, but felt like I was missing something (which would be, of course, the backstory of all the damned characters, yes?), I liked the first few books of The Books of Magic but was seriously annoyed by the end. (I kept wondering, “Where the hell did that come from? Why doesn’t this make any sense?”)

And that’s it.