The circle is now complete

I used to pretend and tell myself that I wasn't a complete nerd. There were a couple of nerdy activities of which I didn't take part. Reading comics and playing D&D were two examples of these. Now, granted, these are more activities from the 70's and 80's than today, but are still fairly prevalent in nerd culture today. (Although growing up I thought comics were the realm of the "dumb idiots" since there were very few words and large pictures. Television and movies have since told me otherwise).

But I've fallen into the swirling vortex that is DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Vertigo, and dozens of other comic publisher - I've gotten trapped by the plastic covers and mesmerized the by glossy covers.

I thought that I could avoid this pitfall by sticking with graphic novels. After all, those aren't really comic books; they're not released in serial, and they have a beginning and an end, unlike most superhero comics. Even if I couldn't stay away from comics, I could at least avoid recent comics, and concentrate instead on older ones that have been compiled into books. That way I could feel superior by calling them "graphic novels," and more importantly, I wouldn't be stuck waiting a month for my next one to continue the story.

But Joss Whedon had to go and screw things up, the jerk! He had to start writing a Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic that continues from where the show left off. The comics are even labeled "Season 8, # 1" instead of as issues, which even gives hope for seasons 9 and so forth. You might be thinking that these can't be good, but Joss has done a lot of comic writing previously, and the comics portray the tone of the television show very well.

I know this because I now have all four, and am anxiously waiting for the next one to come out in August. Not only that, but I've discovered that Serenity also has a comic series, and I'm going to have to buy that now. I guess I'll just have to embrace my nerdiness from now on, instead of kidding myself.