Frank Hecker - Interests - Comics

I did not read comics as a teenager (science fiction being my youthful vice); I began reading comics only after seeing a newspaper story a few years ago reporting the end of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. (Only in the comics world would the deliberate and planned conclusion of a storyline be newsworthy.) After reading Sandman trade paperbacks I branched out into reading a number of other comics, almost all of the "alternative" variety. I started out reading primarily DC Comics' Vertigo line of quasi-alternative comics, but (for better or worse) I'm now much closer to meeting the profile of the "Comics Journal reader" and true alternative comics fan, as described in their helpful quiz in TCJ issue 226, "Are You a Connoisseur or a Cretin." (Hey, I even read Artforum! However I draw the line at inviting cartoonists to sleep on my couch.)

Here are some of the comics I'd enjoyed and read the last time I bothered to update this page:

• Palookaville, by Seth. The "Clyde's Fans" storyline is particularly interesting if (like me) you've spent a lot of time working in sales groups.
• Yikes, by Steven Weissman. Maybe it's just me, but I find this comic screamingly funny. I'm proud to say that I have a complete run of Yikes (both volumes) and Weissman's related comics (Tykes and The Lemon Kids), thanks in large part to the enlightened stocking policies of Greg Bennett of Big Planet Comics.
• Keyhole, by Josh Neufeld and Dean Haspiel. An amusing anthology series.
• Optic Nerve, by Adrian Tomine. More twenty-something angst, but done well.
• Silly Daddy, by Joe Chiappetta. Often funny, sometimes moving, almost always humane.

Some things I used to read, but no longer do:

• The Invisibles, by Grant Morrison and various artists. This was my favorite "mainstream" comic (published by Vertigo) until it completed its run. I liked it so well that I contributed several annotations to the late-lamented "Barbelith" web site (now reincarnated in somewhat different form as The Bomb).
• The Books of Magic, by John Ney Reiber, Peter Gross, and others. I was reading this mainly out of habit, it being the last reminder of my Sandman period.
• Strangers in Paradise, by Terry Moore. This comic is essentially middle-brow popular entertainment and has many of the characteristics thereof, including melodramatic plots and frequent descents into sentimentality (with included song lyrics and, how do I say it, less than stellar poetry); in other words, I can well understand why some people (like Gary Groth of the Comics Journal) absolutely loathe this comic. However, I can't deny that it was often quite entertaining, and it compares well to a lot of the other popular entertainment out there, particularly that on TV. Strangers in Paradise is in many ways the comics equivalent of Xena (even down to the "are they or aren't they" questions involving the two main female characters); note that I do not necessarily mean that to be taken as an insult.

A sampling of other comics I've read and enjoyed over the past few years: Dan Clowes' Eightball, Dylan Horrocks' Hicksville, Tom Hart's The Sands and Hutch Owen's Working Hard, and Jason Lutes' Jar of Fools and Berlin.

I can't leave off without also putting in a plug for The Expo (formerly and better known as the Small Press Expo or SPX), our local (Bethesda MD) comics convention, now reduced somewhat from its glory days but still worth attending.