As I’ve mentioned before, I had been out of the comics game for a while. When I decided to jump back in, I found myself facing quite the quandary. Fifteen years of comics history had passed me by. All of my favorite titles as a kid were either nonexistent (I miss you Valiant comics), or so steeped in their own back story I had no chance of catching up. The thought of plunging back into, say, Batman, and picking up the storyline was not an appealing endeavor. I felt like I was missing out on so much. I had to find another way. This is what led me to non-superhero comics. It was an area of comic life I never got into when I was a wee lad; I thought capes were the be-all and end-all. The problem was, and continues to be, that the cape titles are very well-established and I didn’t feel like throwing down a ton of cash in one go. I saw an alternative in the world of realistic and true-to-life comics.

A friend of mine suggested I pick up “Queen and Country” by Greg Rucka from Oni Press. Granted, it was an older comic, but I found it easy to delve into because of the limited amount of output. Man, was I glad I did. It was refreshing, in a way. No superheroes flying about with crazy crossovers happening everywhere. No convoluted origin stories that make your eyes explode. Just a well drawn, fantastically written story, with just enough twists to keep you interested. It was like picking up a short story that happened to have pretty pictures to go along with it. I guess it’s not a coincidence that Queen and Country is not published in one of the biggies; it took a relatively small press like Oni to put it out there. Since then, I’ve noticed that non-supe comics have become a lot more much more prevalent. Marvel’s Icon imprint has a winner with Criminal, a gritty noir, while Oni has put out several more “real life” comics like Whiteout and Stumptown (a highly recommended read). The list seems to continue to grow and I keep snapping them up - titles such as Northlanders, Unknown Soldier, and Battlefields, just to name a few that I have added to my pull list. I love them all. I guess it really boils down to what you like. When I was a kid I loved the high-flyin’, eye-beam shootin’ roller coaster. Now, at the grand old age of thirty, I find myself really appreciating these more down-to-earth titles. That’s why comics are so fantastic. Comics like Queen and Country and Criminal  help to solidify the idea that comic books are more more than a genre; they truly are a medium.

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