I don't know anything about comics. I'm writing a story about comic book stores. (Don't worry, my editor knows a bit about comics and will make sure I don't mess it up too much.) Today, I spent almost two hours in Comics & Cards Trading Post in the Sturbridge Shopping Center. The owner and some regulars were kind enough to talk with me about things -- trends in comic book character development/ plot formation, trends in the industry as a whole, the difference between a "book" and a "trade," and more.

This is a huge market, y'all.

I had three years of formal art history study and a lifetime of informal art appreciation from my mother. I tend to enjoy American post-war painting more than I should. I like expressionism well enough, which would account for my appreciation of all the kinetics of good comic book art. I also love Rothko, which is little more (to the untrained eye) than color on canvas. But what I think is most similar to comic book art in classic art history might be something like Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Socrates. It's a painting that tells a story, evokes emotion and can be the subject of academic theses. If we took one important pane of a popular, beautifully-drawn comic and let it stand alone, there are a lot of people who could view it the same way I view The Death of Socrates. There's a story behind it, that story continues, and the single image is merely the depiction of a pivotal point.