Imran Ali

Y: The Last Man

Like many late 80s geek teenagers I was consumed by adult comics and graphic novels such as The Dark Knight Returns, V for Vendetta and Watchmen; many of which have been recently re-released as gorgeous hardcover 'Absolute' editions by DC's Vertigo label.

I missed out on many of the long running series at Vertigo,  with just a handful of compilation editions purchased over the last few years (I kinda grew outta comics...)

However, in the last few weeks Vertigo has begun to offer the first issue, of some of their seminal titles, as downloadable PDFs editions, including series such as Y: The Last Man, Death (The High Cost Of Living) and Saga Of The Swamp Thing.

Though some way from Scott McCloud's vision of ComicsML and digital publishing, a dumb, static PDF is good enough. I hope Vertigo are bolder and begin to offer full editions of their works; I can imagine an Amazon Kindle or OLPC XO loaded with a ton of remixable and quotable comics :)

Last night I read the thought provoking first issue of Y: The Last Man - Unmanned - on my
MacBook, wondering if what Kevin Kelly recently termed 'generative values of embodiment' could yield a renaissance in comic publishing.

Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical Persepolis is one of my favorite books and probably the one I've most often given as a gift to others.

Until today's post at AICN, I had no idea there was a movie adaptation in production. The short trailer seems to capture the energy, spirit and humour of the book... I can't wait to see it on the big screen :)

Vimanarama/Imranarama*

I think Grant Morrison wrote Vimanarama, just for me :)

• The story is set in my hometown, Bradford
• The hero is called Ali
• Another character is called Imran (check out this extract...)
• Ali's fiance is gorgeous and vivacious (c'mon 3 outta 4's pretty good...)

So finally, after growing up with fictional heroes, such as Han Solo, James T. Kirk and Batman, here's someone I can relate to after fifteen years of graphic novel fandom. Really, this coulda done my self-esteem some good as a teenager growing up with few native role models around me.

Judging from the artwork, Vimanarama looks beautifully drawn with believable characters, dialogue and even a touch of Bollywood glamour...so my interests in (bolly?)games and comics are finally merging into a suddenly cool South Asian culture...I guess I better learn to love Bollywood...

Metro Maps of the World

The map of the London Underground is universally regarded as an iconic piece of graphic design. Recently I picked up Mark Ovenden's Metro Maps of the World in a Borders store...ostensibly a collection of metro and subway maps from major cities around the world but also a great essay on design, iconography and typography, as applied to designs that come to characterise and embody the cities they represent.

UPDATE: After finishing the book, I decided to start a Flickr group!