Now I can explain the term to people myself. Hooray!

When I was recently introduced to comics I thought I was a novice. Then I realised that I was re-entering a continuum from which I had simply had a 20-year break… The Beano, Asterix, Tintin, Battle Action Force, those old Tiger annuals my Gran used to find goodness knows where… they used many of the same techniques as the new comics I was being shown, although with very different levels of complexity, and generating very different effects, admittedly.

Reading Preacher, Sandman, Watchmen and Transmetropolitan, I realised that just because I had stopped reading /kids’/ comics, there was no reason that the form shouldn’t, and doesn’t potentially work for teenagers / adults / everybody. That any stigma should exist in continuing to read and appreciate comics in adulthood is a repressive Victorian nonsense, of which my own parents, as teachers, were as guilty as anyone. I will ensure that my kids are encouraged to see comics as a completely valid standalone art form – certainly one which requires more interaction and concentration than the typical 90-minute film.

I am an absolute nerd myself, but you never know, a few cooler friends of mine might still just be convertible, if I explain that comics can be radical, inflammatory, unpredictable… cool…

Well, technically a comic is a single image (like the hyper-funny Gary Larson FAR SIDE comics) – and the drawings in “comic books” (including trade paperbacks and graphic novels) is known as sequential images – so a series of comics…

So…. calling it “comics” is technically correct… although I do agree – a tad annoying!

I think comic book fans are actually quite proud of the whole nerdy side of things. I know I am. I’m an out and out comic geek, with hundreds (if not thousands) of issues in my collection, and while I’m glad that comics are losing a bit of the stigma associated with them, part of me will be disappointed if they ever become truly mainstream.

During my school visits I always talk about comics, and take great pleasure in arguing with any teachers who try to dismiss them as ‘juvenile trash’, as one once put it. There are as many genres of comic as there are of any other kind of book, and to say that they’re somehow less worthwhile because they have pictures along with the text shows a massive lack of understanding of the artform. I like to ask them if they ever watch TV or films, then point out that those are are a combination of words and pictures, too.

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but my ultimate ambition is not to write the great novel of our times, but to write the definitive Incredible Hulk story – a kind of Dark Knight Returns for the big green brute. Hopefully one day I’ll get to do it, but until then I’m happy just to read them.