Comics | How I Got There Through Manga

I don't remember a specific point where I fully got lost in graphic novels and manga, I just remember kind of different points of it, stages I guess. I adore graphic novels - they're works of art with stories, characters and plot and setting, and they're normally gorgeous.

Anyway - I remember reading manga first and Fruits Basket was my first manga or any kind of graphic novel and I loved it. My friends and I had marathoned the show and there were books to go with it, I was sold basically, and I am still sold. I reread them within the last year, and they still hold up, but I'm a little biased with the nostalgia factor. They're - very strange and adorable and can poke fun at itself and the genre in general, though this specific genre does seem to make fun of itself a lot.

A newer manga I started reading at the beginning of last year was Attack on Titan (I say was just because I feel behind and so many spin offs, but I was loving it and want to get back into that world). There's, of course, the anime but I had trouble getting into and I'm not sure why, but when I read the manga I read through them very fast, loving it and the horror and just everything.

And, moving away from manga - comics. I never got into super hero comics and I'm still kind of not (kind of? I might be lying to myself, but I'm not falling too far down the rabbit hole on DC/Marvel quite yet, just a little). But I've started trying a few of the less intertwined and confusing series. I really loved Matt Fraction's Hawkeye series  - the art and the story are both fantastic, and I kind of love Hawkeye a tad bit more now. I've since dipped my toe into some other comic series runs, most I haven't finished reading but I've tried Young Avengers (here for it, yes), Runaways (how haven't I read more then the first eighteen issues yet), Captain America (the Brubaker run, obviously, and I think it made my love for Steve Rogers a little bit of an obsession. Tad bit), Captain Marvel (yes), Ms Marvel (also incredible), Thor: Goddess of Thunder (read it), Black Widow (most recent run, have the last trade to go), Deadpool (dipped in with Merc with a Mouth), Batgirl, and I think that's it but I could be wrong, and there's other I want to try (Marvel Unlimited subscription is totally worth it so far).

Anyway, the point is - is that I've now read a lot of comics. I feel like headfirst into it surprisingly quickly. First, and still a large majority, reading Image titles, but I've also tried Dark Horse stuff and, obviously, Marvel/DC. And am now at the point where I get my bi-weekly (every two weeks) pull list from Midtown Comics and am so behind because I'm interested and want to read so many damn things.

Saying that, I didn't just switch from - what does 'trade' mean? - to - I have a pull list longer then my arm (might not be true, but pretty close). And it did start with Fraction's Hawkeye and then moved onto Saga, which introduced me to Image and their comics.

That's how I fell into this wonderful strange world, and I'm so glad I did, and it was definitely a long fall. I read Hawkeye, Volume One: My Life as a Weapon on January 2nd, 2014, and read volume 2 a little latter. And 2014 was definitely the year I fell headlong into it, so this isn't that surprising. Saga I got to in March, reading volume 3 in April. Preacher, Locke and Key - both series I haven't finished yet. And then I was also reading some more graphic novels.

And then it was what I'm going to call the silence before the storm, I was reading a bunch but really just a graphic novel randomly - I read Watchmen in this time, it felt necessary and it was pretty good, and reread Fruit's Basket - and then I found the East of West series, and I can't for the life of me remember how. This also lined up with driving up to Ithaca to visit my friend Haley, and the Ithaca comic book store is pretty cool - and it ended with me reading all three volumes of East of West (if you haven't heard me talk about this series, you should read it), and then reading volume one of Ms Marvel and of the newer run of Captain Marvel (I've gone back and read the one right before, but I've let go of my must read in right order thing a little with comics, it's less necessary, though I wasn't aware at the time).

From what I can tell my first single issue was Wytches, which is the only one I've read so far but mostly because it actually scared me, which I'm not use to for any kind of horror stuff. And a few days after that I read issue one of Wayward, still one of my favorites. And then The Wicked and the Divine. And that was just the beginning.

I'm not going to bore you further, though I find this super interesting - and probably will find it even more interesting to go back in another year and see how far I've come from that. It didn't really take a lot to trip me into the world of comics and, considering my love of art and good story telling, I'm not all surprised about it. And I don't regret it (maybe a little now that I've had to lug that collection up a flight of stairs when moving, but still).

How did you get into comics? Or have you not tried yet? If you don't know where to start I'm going to have a post about that in the next few weeks, also a graphic novel recommendations post, and also a post coming about what currently on my pull list. So if that's something you're interested in, let me know and I hope you look forward to it.

Happy Reading! (Let me know about the comics, though, or just what you're currently reading in any format).

Series Review: Fruits Basket Vols 1 - 23 (by Natsuki Takaya)

My photo: volumes 1 & 23

Series: Fruits Basket
Author: Natsuki Takaya
Genre: Shojo Manga
Overall Series Rating: 5/5

Volume One Synopsis:
A family with an ancient curse...

And the girl who will change their lives forever...

Tohru Honda was an orphan with no place to go until the mysterious Sohma family offered her a place to call home. Now her ordinary high school life is turned upside down as she's introduced to the Sohma's world of magical curses and family secrets.

My Background (with the series):
I first was introduced to this series through the anime, by some friends in middle school (I can't remember for the life of my what year, it was 7th or 8th grade, I think). And completely adored it, fell it in love, and needed to read the entire manga (since I know that, mostly, the anime only covered the earlier ones).

I did read them all, back then, back to back. I just reread them recently(June), in an unhealthily short amount of time, and just thoroughly enjoyed myself again. I already loved these characters, so getting to relive their story was fantastic. This is going to be a review of the manga - but I also highly suggest the anime, by the way.

Review:
This is a shojo manga - which means it's manga specifically for teenage girls, which focuses on relationships and love and stuff. I haven't read a lot of this type of manga, this might be the only one, definitely the only full series, but my experience with the genre (anime included) is that it tends to make fun of itself in a lighthearted, fun way - which is one of the things I adore.

The other is the characters and how this whole premise is slightly ridiculous. People who turn into zodiac characters when hugged by a member of the opposite sex? Sure - totally not random and strange. But saying that, when I first heart that, I was just like that sounds awesome and weird, I have to watch/read that, and it's kind of still my response to it.

This whole manga, though, is really about the characters - about their lives, their loves, their troubles, and ups and downs. And I loved that. It's a large cast of characters, too. Tohru, our main character, her best friends, all of the zodiacs (and the cat), and the people that surround them (mostly family) - and it's a lot of fun.

Overall, obviously I love this series, and a lot of people do (the average rating for the series on Goodreads is 4.38 out of 270,112 ratings). I'd, honestly, probably recommend this to anyone - check out the first few volumes if you like funny, strange, well written shenanigans with a 'love triangle' that, in my opinion, isn't a love triangle.