92615_RAA_LooseCannon_Text_R1_PROOF

Anything, here; a character who reacts to a situation in a novel way, a joke I don’t see coming, a new look at an old archetype. A fresh storytelling voice, a new style of artistic expression. A unique vision.

It resonates.

All of the comic book stories I really enjoy are ones that have a particular message to me as a reader. Sometimes the message can be a simple moral ity play from a well-told action-adventure; other times, it can be a graphic novel from which I get new meaning upon every subsequent reading. But at the end, I have to have cared . It’s difficult to quantify something that’s inherently a matter of taste, after all. But reader Max Leibman got it best last week, though, I think: “A good comic is one that I feel I got my money's worth from.” Two Seemingly Unrelated Things that Really Are About Comics, After All March 16, 2001 Editor extraordinaire Jonah Weiland came over to Chateau Lar when he was in San Francisco for the Alternative Press Expo last month, and during our luscious repast I excused myself and went to make sure the TiVo was recording Dennis Miller. A few distinctive beeps as I scrolled through the onscreen menu, and Jonah called in from the other room, “Mmmm; sounds like TiVo.” Unless you have one of these things, like Jonah does, it’s hard to imagine just how cool they actually are, and just exactly why a few beeps evokes such a positive Pavlovian response in the listener. It's almost hard for me to articulate how much better my life is for having this thing hooked up to the television without sounding like some sort of Moonie. I didn't want to get the TiVo, but Mimi really did, and so I said, "OK, but this is like a puppy. You have to take care of it, because I don't want to deal with this thing at all ." I’m not exactly a technophobe; I can hook up the gizmos and rip-and-burn CDs, and that sort of thing… but the gadgets Whatever that means to you. Just get your money’s worth.

40