Friday Reads: Comic-Con Edition

It’s Nerd Prom time again: Comic-Con has descended on San Diego once more, and for the first time in years, I’m going.

The very first Comic-Con I attended, my then-girlfriend and I rolled up on Sunday. (My friend Mayrav: “You took your wife to Comic-Con while you were still dating? Wow. You really threw her in the deep end, didn’t you?”) There was no line, no waiting. I think they even let us in for free, since it was late in the day. I went around the floor, picking up old treasury editions and filling in gaps from the childhood collection I’d foolishly sold to a used bookstore when I decided I was too grown-up for comics.

Things have changed since then, obviously. My wife decided to marry me despite watching me geek out over a copy of the All-New Collectors Edition C-58: Superman vs. Shazam from 1978. And the days of showing up and getting a ticket at the door are long gone.

Now passes disappear in seconds online. The studios put their biggest premieres on the schedule, hoping to capture the enthusiasm of the online hordes. Celebrities appear on panels in front of hundreds of screaming fans.

But this year will be a little different. No panels with Ryan Reynolds or Chris Hemsworth or anyone, really, because of the WGA/SAG/AFTRA strikes. (Which you should support. They are the good guys.1)

I don’t expect it to be the same show where I once talked to Grant Morrison for a half-hour on the convention floor because he was just hanging out. But without the hype over next year’s biggest franchise investments, it might be a little more about the comics again.

So this edition of Friday Reads will be, too.

I tore through a bunch of comics and graphic novels on our family roadtrip to see the redwoods.2 (Spoiler: we did not see Bigfoot.) I admit, like any addict, I’m always chasing the same rush as that first high, that first encounter that hooked me for life. In my case, it’s the feeling of discovery and adventure I get from comics — the idea that the world can be more colorful, more amazing, more than we see all around us. The best comics, for me, have always delivered that. As much as I like nostalgia, and the kick of recognition from childhood heroes and stories, I am happier when I find something new, something bright and surprising.

So it might seem odd that the book I enjoyed the most on my trip was Nightwing by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo. It’s not easy to do anything new with Dick Grayson (formerly known as Robin, the Boy Wonder). He was introduced in 1940 as the first boy wonder in comics and has been through almost every possible twist since then. He gave up being Batman’s sidekick in 1984, taking a new name to get out from his mentor’s dark, brooding shadow. It would seem like every story about Dick Grayson has been told. He’s been a sidekick, a super-hero, a spy. He’s even been dead. But Taylor and Redondo have breathed new life into the character again in his latest series, which is up for an Eisner award at Comic-Con this year.

Taylor has turned Dick’s life upside-down (again) by forcing a massive inheritance on him from the late Alfred Pennyworth. Batman’s butler was a billionaire himself, what with all his stock in Wayne Industries and his low cost of living. It’s genuinely touching to see Dick realize how much faith his surrogate father had in him to do the right thing. Dick is tired of fighting the symptoms of poverty, rather than the causes. So he decides to give away all that money to improve the lives of the people in his new hometown. Of course, the supervillains don’t care for this. Poor people are desperate and easier to manage. And so Dick Grayson becomes a target in his civilian life as well as his heroic one. It’s a new way of answering the question, why doesn’t Batman just donate his billions to charity?

Redondo’s art, however, is what makes the series. Kinetic and clean, it seems to leap off the page, emphasizing Dick as an acrobat and trapeze artist. The action cannot be contained in one panel, and the reader is pulled along in its wake, sometimes following Dick like Billy in those old Family Circus cartoons. The sequence where Dick chases the bad guys who have kidnapped his dog is Buster Keaton in spandex. It’s as good (or better) than most of the CGI in theaters now.

Most of all, Nightwing is fun, which is not something you always find in comics anymore.

FRIENDS AND WELL-WISHERS

Meet Your Heroes. First of all, the main reason I’m going to Comic-Con: the legendary Beau Smith is being honored for his years of writing comics as a special guest of the con. Beau is a good friend who’s supported my books since he read the first one. He’s helped me with my writing when I’m stuck or just plain ignorant. He’s unfailingly kind and open-hearted to everyone. And on top of that, he’s built an incredible career through his love of comic books, from his days at Eclipse and Image to his stint at DC writing Guy Gardner to his creation of Wynonna Earp, who is beloved herself. I’m happy to see he’s finally getting a little more of the spotlight. He deserves it.

He also once named a vampire drug lord after me, which was pretty cool.

13: Last Chance. A while back, I got to read the early adventures of an absolutely brilliant idea by my friend Jeff Leeds, and now you can too. Jeff has just launched a Kickstarter to fund the publication of his book about 13, a Golden Age super-hero who’s been forced to hang up his costume and is now working as a low-rent PI in Rat Pack Las Vegas. He once had the ability to bring bad luck on his enemies, but now it mostly hits him instread. So he washed up in Vegas, where fortunes change every night. The book is a perfect mix of detective noir and comic-book heroism, as 13 tries to do the right thing despite his sputtering super-power and the people around him trying to cheat fate. I’m all in,3 and I hope you consider supporting Jeff too.

Semi-Autobiographical Science Fiction? My prolific friend Ben H. Winters is also diving into the world of comics. He just signed a deal to create an original limited series for Oni Press about a sci-fi author named Benjamin who wakes up in a Los Angeles hotel room forty-one years after his death. Too early to preorder, but I can’t wait to see it.

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That’s it for this week. I’m now on Threads and Bluesky for anyone who’s still using social media. And as always, leave your recommendations and reviews in the comments.