A comics primer

Chris Ryall and Scott Tipton make geeky seem cool. They've done so since their Movie Poop Shoot days earlier this decade and continue to do so as comic-book writers and on their spin-off site, Comics101.
Like many of us, the guys have spent their 30-plus years buried in illustrated, bag-and-boarded drama, but unlike nearly all of us, they've got something to show for it. Ryall is the editor of IDW Publishing and he and Tipton have written comic-book scripts for several series, including "Transformers" and "Star Trek."
With their book "Comic Books 101: The History, Methods and Madness," the dynamic duo has put together an authoritative history of the comic-book industry. The book is not due out until June 5 but is available for pre-order.
Well-researched and structured enough to work as a college textbook (and what a class that would be), while lively enough to be a beach read, Ryall and Tipton drop enough knowledge to let you hold your own on any fanboy message board.
Comic-book series are famous for making "jump on" books that dispense with convoluted history and start from scratch, allowing you to start reading the series without feeling hopelessly lost, and "Comic Books 101" acts as a "jump on" book for the entire industry, which only becomes more prominent as Hollywood raids comic-book mythology for movies and TV shows.
Charming caricatures of both authors pop up throughout the book, letting Ryall and Tipton pontificate on their memories and gush about what really hooked them onto certain franchises and characters. And both prove their street cred by reprinting letters they had published in the back of comic books as kids. In a similar manner, loads of comic-book luminaries check in to add their commentary, most notably Stan Lee in the intro.
Ryall and Tipton not only take you throughout the 60-plus years of comicdom, which spawned from newspaper funny pages, but through the offshoots and cousins of the hard-core comics industry, including graphic novels and anime. They look at the mythology and exploits of the main DC and Marvel superheroes, the careers of several industry greats -- as well as juicy conflicts that simmered between the comic-book gods -- and review movie adaptations.
One nitpick I have with the movie chapter is a bit of a conflict of interest in which the guys gush about the magnificence of "30 Days of Night" (based on an IDW comic), which was a decent but forgettable vampire flick, and generally insignificant in the grand scheme of comic-book flicks. Still, it's fun to see them unload on the likes of Catwoman, Electra and "Superman Returns."
I could not put the book down, racing through its 288 pages over three days. I'm no comic-book maniac, but I suspect that even hard-core geeks will find plenty to relish. It was a thrill to freshen up on details of the comic mythos I'd forgotten, while also learning a hell of a lot. The book also turned me on to several titles, particularly graphic novels, which I'd never heard of but now see as must-reads.
I'd also file "Comic Books 101" in that classification. "Comic Books 201" can't come soon enough.

(Pvillarreal(at)azstarnet.com)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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