ODing on Comics

[thegayhare]

do you think it's possible to overdose on a story?

I'm not so sure I think my brains a little fried eggy round the edges right now

See In the last 3 days I've read 156 issues of Hellblazer... Just finished good intentions and I've got just under 100 comics to go before I'm done...

Kinda feels like the last time I went on a reading spree to try and get a feel for a movie based on a comic book... and with that one I couldn't even find the main inspiration... the Ipkiss chronicle I bet you the Mask would have been a much better movie if they'd left it dark and twisted like it was ment to be.

so like I said I've waded through 150 issues of hellblazer far outstripping the feeble inspirations for Constantine, and it's an interesting read... mostly because of how different the movie John and the comic John are

It's also interesting to see the weird double standard of sexuality in comics.  I'm pretty sure Hellblazer was ahead of it's time with that I mean when it started it's run in the 80s with in the first five comics it had introduced a gay char in the personage of Ray Monde in the story Go for it.  Ray was an older gentleman and merely a supporting char as a friend and source for John but he wasn't the stereo type used at the time.  You find out about him and he's a sympathetic man who lost his love in a stupid war.  Later on when he was beaten to death in the name of god you feel sorry for him and whats was done.  Later on still very early in the run in "The Fear Machine" , there is an elderly gay couple who run an inn John stays at.  though they too end up dieing again they are sympathetic chars not the stereotypes of the time.

but while you see this happening there is the odd double standard.  John himself admits that threw the years he's had a tone of girlfriends and a handful of boyfriends but the treatment of them isn't the same.   He's always portrayed with a female love interest and that doesn't bother me but what does is what they seem content to show.  in the scenes with females it's gone the range of sweet and loving to borderline pornographic, and with the adversaries he faces if it's a female like the succubi they tend to show as much as they can but with a male char like the incubus Fuckpig (that's the name he was given in the book)  they go out of the way to show you as little as possible (not that I wanted to seee mind you he wasn't a pretty demon)  even though part of the joke was the size of his wang.  but beside the demons in the Arc  "Dust and Ashes"  John infiltrates a sex club to get close to a rich gay villain the point of the whole venture was to get close to Stanly.  and it's implied that he'd had sex not only with Stan but a number of other people both male and female to get to that piont but when ever he's show he's always covered in naked girls.  the closest to intimacy they show on panel is simply a kiss between the men.

Even in the non sexual storylines it's treated differntly.  in the story One last love song, John walks through a park remembering his old loves.  Non of the ones shown or mentioned are male,  granted they don't cover all the female ones either but still it just seems weird.  In an comic that's rated for mature readers that features a Bi hero the closest we've come to a romantic samesex love scene was prison rape.


I have to wonder if I'm overdoing things...


Oh well

back to the books I suppose... and after that I think I'll try swamp thing

[Ryudo Lee]

I say that you can never have too much of a good thing.  Even if it kills you, at least you die happy.