Crime is doomed bitches!

Let me ask the readers of my blog a question before I delve into this topic, which I thought of on my morning commute. Did you all go and see the Dark Knight? Did you all enjoy the Dark Knight? If so, does this make you a 300 pound shut in who lives in their parents basement and has never seen a girl naked before? No you say? Well obviously you must be lying!

Feeling a little put down by that? Well welcome to the club. If you are a person who will from time to time pick up a comic book and read it, I'm sure you've had some people look at you a little differently or think "Oh, he's one of THEM."

Yes, I read comic books. Yes, I've scaled back to a huge degree to make it more of a casual thing (no more heading to the comic book store on a weekly basis, just stopping in from time to time, but to be fair this is more in response to the high prices that have taken into effect with most of the books nowadays. I mean really, 3.99 ain't flying with me.)

And I know what you're thinking: Wow, Evan is a geek!

Well in a sense, of course I am, but I don't fall into that horrifying stigma of "geek with no life living in parents basement." Everyone has their "geeky" habits. Its not like the stuff just consumes my life or anything, I just like to read a comic book from time to time. I do everything I can to defeat the "nerd stigma" that seems to go along with this. I go to the gym 5 times a week, I run/swim 2-3 miles every other day, I have a high paying job as a marketing director, I do standup comedy on an almost weekly basis if not more, I'm part of a musical effort called Champions Productions, I shower on a daily basis, I drink, I smoke, I curse, and I try to have a blast being alive in general.

Now I bet you're asking yourself well, "Why do you read comic books in the first place if they paint you in a bad light" which seems to be the trend nowadays. Well, this brings me back to my first point.

Everyone I know who saw the Dark Knight loved it and almost everyone I know saw the movie. So now tell me, what exactly is the difference between going and seeing Batman punch the Joker on a large screen and reading it in an illustrated book? Anyone? Bueller?

Reading comics is synonymous with watching a Batman movie that has been continuing for the past 70 years, with all kinds of insane crazy crap happening. Ever wanted to see Batman fight a talking gorilla? I've seen it happen, about six times. Ever wanted to see Iron Man get shit faced and accidentally blow out a guy's chest cavity? Yep, I've read that one too. How about Spiderman making a deal with the devil to get rid of his own marriage? Ok I kind of WISH I hadn't read that one but you get the gist of it.

Anyway, a guy/girl who reads comic books isn't some social outcast huddling for warmth near his computer screen on a Saturday night, rather they're just normal people who like to read stories in that medium, no different from watching Heroes on NBC or Iron Man on Blu Ray.

One thing I like to do though is talk with people about comics I'm reading and make recommendations as to comics you might not know about or keep people up to date on what the fuck is actually going on in some books.

Case in point, Who the fuck is Batman right now?

Now if you haven't been keeping up with the funny books, you might say that "Bruce Wayne is Batman, you silly twat." to which I would reply, "No, he ain't!" while wearing a tuxedo and a monocle to show how classy I am.

To fill you in, Dick Grayson aka the first Robin aka Nightwing has taken up being Batman as Bruce Wayne has been thought "dead" by the populace at large, we know better. Robin is now Bruce Wayne's illegitimate love child of him and Talia Al'Ghul, Ras Al Ghul's daughter. His name is Damien, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

The most recent issue came out with their first adventure as the new dynamic duo and it was pretty damn fantastic, check it out if you get the chance.

But Evan, you say, "I'm not really down with the whole mask and cape shit." That's cool. Here's some recommendations for books you might be interested in that have none of those characters that do super hero-ish things:

WE3, Sandman, Preacher, Transmetropolitan, Scalped, Fell, Death: The High Cost of Living, Walking Dead, Hellblazer, 100 Bullets, RASL, Bone, Loveless, Ex Machina, Rex Mundi, Cassanova, etc etc.

Reading a comic is like seeing a movie, its all based on your taste and preference, so give them a chance, you might be surprised.