Hear the Story: Three Writers Feel the Lure of Comics

Courtesy DC Comics

 

An image of The Question by artists Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz from an upcoming collected edition of the series.

Courtesy DC Comics

There are still some people out there who believe comic books are nothing more than, well, comic books. But the true cognoscenti know graphic novels are — at their best — an amazing blend of art literature and the theater of the mind.

When people talk about the Platinum Age of the new comic book era, they look back fondly on a period from the mid-1980s to the early '90s. It was in that time frame when the likes of Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns and Marvels were bestowed upon us. The temptation for those who are new to the genre is to go find themselves a trade paperback or back issues — or these days, an Absolute Edition — of those series and get themselves acclimated.

I say, if you really want to discover comics at their best, go find copies of the 1987-1990 DC Comics series of The Question. It's the ongoing saga of Victor Sage, a crusading reporter in Hub City who moonlights as The Question — a sort of Batman-lite who wears a mask that obliterates all the features of his face.

What makes the series so great is not the super-heroics — The Question has no powers — but the stark grayness of the storytelling. Heroes weren't always heroic, nor were bad guys always bad. And doing good did not always result in good things happening. It wasn't always as uplifting as a Superman story, and in many ways it built on the Marvel paradigm. However, writer Dennis O'Neil's stories of moral ambiguity matched with Denys Cowan's fluid visual style made for a complex series that was, at that point, very much new to the DC universe. At 36 issues, you ought to be able to get the whole series from your local comic book shop. Considering the quality of the work, it's worth checking out.

New York Gov. David Paterson discusses his marital infidelities at a news conference on Tuesday as his wife Michelle Paterson looks on.

AP Photo/Mike Groll

While the rest of America had its knickers in a knot over Barack Obama and the nontroversy of his relationship with Jeremiah Wright, can I just say I was focused on my other favorite black politician of the moment: New York Gov. David Paterson.

What do I like about the guy? First day on the job, he admits to having an affair. Second day on the job, he admits to having a number of affairs. Not that I approve of sleeping with other women. Per se. But people are always carping about politicians not being honest and here is Paterson, paint still drying on his office door, throwing out a little TMI.

And let's not forget that Paterson is legally blind. I only bring that up because Sheri Shepherd -- the "blonde" black girl on ABC's "The View" -- joked (I think she was joking) that Paterson "can't see to cheat." Know what? I'm sick of people underestimating the otherly abled! Truth is they can screw around just as well as people with two good eyes!

And check this out: He got girls without paying for them. Take that Eliot Spitzer!

And before you start a thread about what a sexist I am, can I tell you what a breath of fresh air New York's new first lady Michelle Paige Paterson is? Her philosophy on her husband's philandering? "You have to let people live their life." You tell 'em, sister! Of course, I'm sure it helps her Zenness that while her man was out sowing his oats, Michelle was right out there sowing some as well -- Michelle having admitting to an affair herself. Hey, at least no more wronged-wife-with-a-tattooed-on smile standing next to her husband at a press conference.

I could go on and on with admiration for Paterson -- the fact that he had his tryst on the cheap at a Manhattan Days Inn, the rumor he had a "close relationship" with Olympic gold medalist Diane Dixon ...

Of course, none of this really has much to do with David Paterson the politician, but that's kinda the point. Maybe Paterson'll be a great governor. Maybe not. But out of the gate we know this: Opposite the moral perfectionist Spitzer made himself out to be, Paterson admits to being no better or worse than the rest of us. And how refreshing is that?

U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) testifies during a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 20, 2007 in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

The punchline to some old, racist joke roughly goes: "they all look alike to me." The set up to the joke was rewritten the other day by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). On a radio station in Iowa, King claimed that were Barack Obama elected president, al-Qaida would be "dancing in the streets" in greater numbers than on Sept. 11, 2001. King bases his assertion on three things, the first being that Obama favors a withdrawal from Iraq. While that point might be at least worthy of debate, King's next two points remove logic from the discourse. What will bring on the outbreak of public jubilation among OBL's minion's are Obama's middle name — Hussein; a name nobody had a problem with when we were funneling the guy guns and money during the Iran/Iraq war — and Obama's Kenyan heritage.

What King is basically saying is; anyone who's got a "funny" name and African lineage is a kissing cousin of the ilk who took down the Twin Towers.

We all look alike to him.

Of course the Christian, biracial, Harvard-educated Obama is as far from being a terrorist as George Clooney is from being lonely on Friday nights. And in his rush to link Obama with "those people," King ignores a fact that al-Qaida makes over and over again: their ideological hatred cuts across racial and religious divides. They care nothing about where someone's ancestors are from or who they worship. All they care about is chalking up a steady body count.

I would remind Congressman King of the August 7th, 1998, bombings by al-Qaida of U.S. embassies in both Tanzania and Kenya. There was no dancing in the streets on that day. Just Tanzanians and Kenyans pulling victims from the rubble. Estimates are that more than 200 people were killed and 4,000 injured. I imagine many of them had "funny" names. I would say what would get the survivors of those and other al-Qaida massacres dancing, rather than Obama's election, would be Bin Laden's head on a pike or platter or stuffed in a bowling bag for lack of other display options.

The fact is that al-Qaida doesn't really care who's in the White House come next year. They will do as they do no matter if it's a woman, a man of color or an old white guy. Much as with the victims of their violence, they don't really discriminate that way. You could say that to the terrorists, we're all alike.

Is that something Steve King and Osama Bin Laden have in common?