OK so I likes me some comic books. I tend to be picky(ish) and I tend to follow certain writers and view folks I don't know with some suspicion.

I'm not as dedicated to the genre as some of you but for the rest of you who think comics are for kids...and for Hollywood types looking for the next hundred-million dollar franchise I tell you, you're missing out.

Certainly collecting things can be a bit of a pain, especially when things are doled out in a serialized format. And especially when you have to change your habits - going to the comics store every week - a bit to follow along. I know how that goes.

For some of you, price is a consideration. One issue might be some four dollars, including tax and such. But one issue is maybe 20 minutes of entertainment? You can get more if you're willing to spend more, as always. But suddenly you're out 20 dollars and still don't quite have an hour filled. So what's the point of trying?

I know we're supposed to leave reading picture books behind in the single-digit ages. And as adults we maybe shouldn't be reading things about superheroes and alternate realities. I'm not sure why. Literature for adults has been idealized to be boring and true to life. The trials and travails of someone who, but for the grace of Whoever, could be you.

Here's the thing though. A really well put-together comic can be true to life without looking even remotely like your life. If you're stuck on the window dressing of alternate dimensions, worlds of what-if, men flying around in tights and busty women who never lose their exaggerated figures no matter how long they've been around... well possibly you're reading the wrong comics (just between you and me, I quit reading X-Men long, long ago and only took up the issues recently written by Grant Morrison before walking away again). But you might be a little bit stuck in going from straight dramatic fiction to the sort of fiction containing the necessary metaphors that give sort of perspective required to critically view life and the world. Maybe.

Good comics don't just have us look at the mundane world, but also take us out into the cosmos where the gods are and recount new myths to us to make it all make sense for just a little while. They reorganize the constellations just long enough of us to see other possiblities before the sun rises and we have to get back to work. Some pack an action adventure wallop that's an amazing rollercoaster ride and leave us entertaining new philosophies before we manage to catch our collective breaths.

If that's not quite your speed, maybe not just yet, and you'd like to start somewhere with feet firmly on the ground I invite you to give Warren Ellis' Fell a try. Each issue is self-contained with only a bare hint in each issue of some sort of back story. In the three issues currently in print each has a story that is wrapped up by the end of the issue. Nothing is left until next time. At $1.99 per issue this is probably the best deal you'll find in a comic bookstore.

The stories are straightforward, the cases are pulled from real-world news bulletins, the characters are people you might have encountered at the store or on the bus. No one is running around with supernatural powers (as far as I can tell), the very simple reality is the one of the rundown town across the bridge.

The art might come across as amateurish but there's a straightforward economy there that shows you everything you need to see. 1000 words an all that. Plus the people look real.

If you need to see/read more before looking up your local comic shop Fell #1 is available online.

It's good stuff, I'm telling you.