Okay, So I’m A Lazy Writer

It only just occurred to me that while I read quite a lot, I haven’t actually read a novel (Unless you count me rereading Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game a little while ago) in years.

It’s probably incredibly philistine of me to admit it, but for the most part, the majority of things that have influenced my writing sensibilities lately have been movies, video games and yes, comic books. For example, when Neil-O’s 1602 finally came out as a compilation, I devoured that. I’m currently grokking Y: The Last Man On Earth by Brian K. Vaughan in a big way, and when I feel like I want to immerse myself in something inspirational, the only novel I immediately pick up and cruise through is Neuromancer by William Gibson. The other stories are, invariably, Moonshadow a graphic novel lushly illustrated by water color god Jon J Muth and written by J. M. DeMatteis, or else one of the Sandman compilations written by Neil-O, usually either The Doll’s House or The Kindly Ones.

In my defense, I am not a total product of pop culture decay. I have read actual novels and run the gamut of Kafka to Dickens to Miller to Nin to Vonnegut to Pynchon, and of course, Science Fiction wise, the old fathers, Clark, Asimov and Heinlein.

But lately I find myself really attracted to just the weirdness of what guys like Neil-O and what comics in general can do when they get really going, occupying that weird axis between film and literature, since they have words, but are also largely visual. There’s some amazing stuff floating around in there and comics have their own classics that have stayed with me (Like The Watchmen. Puuuuuure geniuuuuuuus…) and it seems like there’s so much cross over going on now it’s crazy. I never thought I’d see the day when the likes of J. M. Stracynzski or Joss Whedon would actually write for comics, let alone Kevin Smith.

But of course, would I even be mentioning I hadn’t read a novel in a while if it weren’t bugging me?

Okay, so maybe it’s time to get out there and actually read a book. Fine.

Any suggestions?