Why Comic Books Are so Popular: Alan Moore, Frank Miller and Comic Stories in Short

Comic books continue to sell for many reasons. The modern era has done much to the comic book, to the heroes and heroines in them, but the basic concepts of comic book storytelling are still there. Heroes fight villains. Heroines fight monsters. And they do this because of the creators behind them, the men and women of the comic world.

Back to the point, why are comic books so popular? First, Sometimes we wish we could act like heroes like Batman. Second, readers want to escape from the regular novel to a pictured story, Lastly, we see justice being done in a way that we wish applied to the real world.

Comic books provide the breath for the story form; no novel can achieve something like "Watchmen" or "The Dark Knight Returns," and no movie could gently lure a reader in like comic writers Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, Peter David, Stan Lee, and countless others.

The comic achieves something in a form to be respected. The melding of words and images creates a different way for a reader to capture a story, making it a creative way to read. Batman can do things on the page, act in a certain way, that could not be done in film or novel. The writing and illustrations are allowed to breath. The characters are so real we wish we could act like them. Batman beats up a criminal, takes him to prison, and return to his million dollar lifestyle. Superman can see through woman's clothes, among other things adolescents adore. All humor aside, the comic book character does things we cannot. When Superman flies to the moon, we see something which took humanity half a million years to achieve take a man from Krypton an hour or less.

The best way to escape from a mundane life is through reading. The novel allows things and is better in the comic in pure storytelling, but many signature writers work themselves into comic book storytelling and do nothing else. Alan Moore, known for his landmark graphic novels "Watchmen" and "V For Vendetta" to name a few, might be just another Brit with an artistic side if there were no comics. Frank Miller would have been stuck writing for the movies, which he does well, but robbing us of one of the more talented comic creators out there.

We escape through Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and other comic book legends. They did have movies made from their books. Alan Moore wrote the original comic book for "V For Vendetta," "League of Extraordinary Gentleman," and "From Hell," and Frank Miller is best known for his movies "Sin City" and "300" each of which came from classic graphic novel stories.

The escape writers like Alan Moore and Frank Miller provide is clear. Alan Moore created one of the finer stories ever in "Watchmen," and Miller did the same in "The Dark Knight Returns." Comic books are popular because of these men. Many a comic creator and fan was influenced by the stories Alan Moore and Frank Miller told. A novel is static compared to the works of these men, and many others. That is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to comic book writers.