If you haven't picked up a comic book in the past 10 years, you'd be forgiven for thinking the source material for the varied likes of 300, A History of Violence, Constantine, Ghost World, Road to Perdition, Sin City and V for Vendetta were exceptions to the rule, and that comic books were still dominated by Batman, Spider-Man and their colorfully costumed counterparts. Besides being one of the fastest (and few) growing segments in bookstores -- with mainstream publishers of all stripes jumping on the bandwagon, doling out contracts and advances to creators more used to eating their pride than prime rib -- the sheer variety of offerings would likely surprise the average bookstore browser.

Despite usually being lumped into the incredibly generic "Graphic Novel" section of your local bookstore -- Western comics getting about one-third of the allotted space, while volumes upon volumes of translated Japanese Manga dominates the rest -- there is something for almost every taste waiting to be discovered there. Sci-fi fans have dozens of Star Wars adaptations, plus the lesser known but equally good Fear Agent, Little White Mouse and Runners. Sword and sorcery fans have a slew of Conan and Dungeons & Dragons adaptations, plus Artesia and Robotika. For historical fiction, there's a wide range to choose from, including Jean-Philippe Stassen's harrowing Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda; A. David Lewis, M.P. Mann and Jennifer Rodgers' riveting The Lone and Level Sands; and Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix' imaginative, award-winning Stagger Lee.

Even literary fiction is well-represented, with stellar examples including Rob Vollmar and Pablo G. Callejo's three-volume Bluesman, Jessica Abel's La Perdida, and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (coming soon to a movie theater near you, much to the chagrin of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad).

The best of these Graphic Novels stand toe-to-toe with their picture-free genre and literary counterparts, and in many cases, the seamless integration of pictures and words results in something much more compelling and lasting than words alone can achieve.

Fans of gritty crime fiction, in particular -- and good storytelling, in general -- would do well to seek out the work of Ivan Brandon, the Cuban American author of NYC Mech: Let's Electrify, NYC Mech: Beta Love, The Cross Bronx, and Ruule: Ganglords of Chinatown, as well as the editor of the anthology series 24Seven. Brandon's parents left Havana in the early 60s, moving first to Miami then, eventually, to New York City, where he was born, intermittently raised, and currently lives and writes.

SPINDLE: What neighborhood did you grow up in, and how has it influenced your writing?

Ivan Brandon: For whatever reason, my writing seems in one way or another to gravitate to Manhattan's Lower East Side.  It's a place that's very quickly morphing into something else, but so far retains a very unique personality... my neighborhood was comically interactive, I'd see the same people every day on the block, and we all knew each other's business, to whatever degree.  It's the only place I've ever been jumped as an adult and the one place I can't imagine ever fully "gentrifying"... or at least I hope not.

SPINDLE: How did you get into writing comic books as opposed to straight fiction or screenplays?

Brandon: Well, I've done and will continue to do writing for other media... film in particular is a love, but it's also a polar extreme to the process and business of making comics... it's as far as can be from the control comics allows you in shaping your stories.  That's the major thing that keeps me making comics... there's a level of immediacy there, where there are only so many places to trip over, you know?  Good or bad, I'm able to make my comics the way I want, and it's nowhere near as hard as in film, for example, to get the ideas out to the world in a timeframe that relates to your intentions.

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