Superhero Rehab

I have all the symptoms of someone who has been abusing superhero comics for years, using them as a psychological crutch. What are the signs?

• Continuing to read comics even when they stink
• Before or after reading them, irritability, anger, hostility, fatigue, agitation, anxiety, depression, psychosis, lack of coordination, difficulty concentrating
• Working at Star Clipper just to be near comics
• Feeling annoyed when other people comment on, or criticize my reading of comics
• Feeling remorse or guilt after reading comics
• Associating with questionable acquaintances or frequenting out of the ordinary locations to purchase or read comics.
• Scheduling my day around reading comics
• Reading crappy comics alone
• Upon hearing of another crossover event, problems with memory, difficulty concentrating, paranoid thinking

Well, no more. I've been feeling so dissatisfied lately with almost everything I pick up these days that I'm thinking about quitting cold turkey. Superhero comics have been so joyless that I'm mostly reading manga and actual books (don't worry, they're not all that.) How did it come to this? And what is the solution?

...Kurt Busiek on Conan . Forget everything you think you know about a sleek-skinned Arnold Schwarzenegger on celluloid; this is Robert E. Howard 's heroic, rugged Cimmerian, resurrected from the Weird Tales pulp magazine and gorgeously illustrated by Cary Nord. Conan strikes the perfect balance between mystery and adventure, fantasy and horror, and it's just what the doctor ordered. How good is it? The first issue, "Conan #0: Conan the Legend" won the 2004 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue. The monthly series includes all-new stories based on the classic Robert E. Howard character and also incorporates adaptations of his original Conan tales.  Just what the doctor ordered.

Read it, by Crom!!

 

-AJ