Comics, graphic novels, visual text medium...make up your own name. The art form has come a long way. I admit, I read comics since...I couldn't read. It was the late 1970s and I was probably two-years-old, sifting through my uncles' collections of old comics at my grandparents' house while "Challenge of the Super Friends" played on the television. Good times.

But again, comics have evolved. First, into an art, and then, into a multi-million...no billion dollar industry. At least, I think it is in the billions. Think about it, Spider-man will rake in 300-400 million, and then there is the Fantastic Four film. Stardust, which also comes out, was based on a series of prestige-format comics written by Neil Gaiman.

But for people who don't know (or care) about comics...why should you?

Have you ever sifted through the paper and read a one-panel drawing that pokes fun of politics, or perhaps someone's pathetic personal life? Several comics in the independent scene are dedicated to doing just that. They are not about super-heroes, but rather, they explore everyday life. Dating, sex, politics, war, depression-all of the issues we thinking about but often keep inside.

Art Spiegelman broke ground when he wrote Maus. While it was not the first independent comic, it was the first comic to win the Pulitzer. He wrote a nonfiction account on his relationship with his father, who recounted his life during the Holocaust, as Spiegelman drew it out. Using metaphors, Spiegelman made Nazis out to be cats, Jews out to be mice, Americans out to be dogs, Polish out to be pigs, and his wife out to be a French poodle.

If depressing acts of genocide are your reading of choice, Joe Sacco does it better than Spiegelman. While he does not incorporate the visual metaphors, he uses his own brand of self-deprecating humor which caters to the gonzo style of journalism. Among his best accomplishments so far are Safe Area Goradze and Palestine.

Maybe you've heard of Ghost World? Art School Confidential? Bad Santa? The writer of those films is Dan Clowes. Ghost World and Art School Confidential are based on comic stories he wrote. Some other works of his include David Boring, 20th Century Eightball, and Caricature.

A few years back, American Splendor won received some critical praise at Sundance and Cannes. It starred Paul Giamotti in the role of Harvey Pekar, the author of the comic American Splendor. Both the movie, and the comic are worth checking out.

Leaning more toward the mainstream and super hero genre, it never hurts to look up comics by Alan Moore or Frank Miller. While Alan Moore's work has translated poorly on the big screen, he is considered one of the greatest writers in the comic medium. Among his more famous works are Watchmen, From Hell, V for Vendetta, and his run on Swamp Thing. As for Miller, he had a bit more success in film, but his work as a writer, while great, is not quite on par with Moore's. Among his best works are Sin City, the Dark Knight Returns, and his run on Daredevil.

Additionally, I would like to mention Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise. While I could never quite get into the comic, several girls pressured me to pick up a trade paperback (TPB) called "I Dream of You." I listened to them, and it turned out pretty good. I liked it enough to hand it over to a girl I was seeing, and suffice it to say, I never got it back.

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