I just finished reading the first Sandman volume, Preludes and Nocturnes, which I've been wanting to read for ages and ages, especially after a friend lent me the stand-alone Sandman: Endless Nights. And now it hits me how much I really do like graphic novels/comics. Pretty much like most people, I imagine, I do loads of reading - blogs, magazines, websites, the never-ending pile of novels beside my bed (I did a degree in English Lit, my eyes are utterly fed up of print); sometimes it is great to be able to consume a narrative which is more focused on the visuals. Yeah, movies, I know. Not a massive movie fan (and not too great a devotee of t.v. either however this is mostly due to lack of trying) and I put this down to a dislike of having the pace dictated to me (nothing wrong with that really, except personally I like to re-read or skim as the fancy takes me).
Wait, wait, I've gone wildly off topic here haven't I - this is supposed to be about online comics, not me vainly attempting to defend why I have never got round to watching all those famous (and probably brilliant if you have better taste than mine) films. Online comics. Right. Last week, maybe the one before, I attempted to sort out a bookcase (hah, that always ends in ruination and reading - epitomised in the day I discovered that I had a cache of Anne MacCaffrey novels tucked behind the front row, cue day spent reminiscing and re-reading teenage favourites. Actually, far worse than that when I think about it was finding that I had a box full of most of the Wheel of Time series. I will never manage to finish them - and if I do I won't be able to remember the start by the end). Anyway, this time in my tidying I found V For Vendetta which I love. I also, with a few minor exceptions, love the film. Problem, besides the derailing of my bookcase sorting, was that I read it far, far too quickly to appreciate it. This is hardly a boast to my reading speed (it's nifty enough to survive an English degree which is all it need be) and more a confession of my single-mindedness when faced with a book I want finished. I do nothing else. Not even making tea (fortunately I know plenty of people who will turn up and make it, unfortunately they then tend to want me to leave my book and talk to them). Some books are really great for this approach, some definitely are ruined by it (I am currently hiding my copy of The Road after I've read a bit of it because I think it's being wasted on speedy reading. If I can't slow my eyes down I can certainly find sneaky ways around the problem). What I need with comics is drip-feeding, which I know if how they're supposed to work but I can't cope with the idea of long gaps between new ones as I'd be so happy to see it I'd read it in one go and then be bored for what might feel like ages. But a daily (or even weekly, they're free, I can't complain) update of a single page at a time... what a fabulous idea! And it even gives me something to procrastinate with that fulfils my need to faff without taking up an appreciable amount of time.
Well, I've finally rambled my way around to the point here, sort of. I've been a ardent follower of Questionable Content for a while now (how could you not be, it's fab), along with Roza, Fey Winds, Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name, and of course XKCD. And now I think of it, Lackadaisy, even though it isn't updated so often. But all of these I found entirely by accident (yes, I know, most of these are pretty hard to actually avoid they're so popular). Surely someone out there must know of a way of locating fabulous comics (or could even recommend some)?
