Another couple of comic shop 'hating' articles online. I just don't have the heart to read them. What they say may even be true. Though I think there has to be just as many bad bookstores, record stores, shoe stores, whatever.

It smacks of self-loathing, somehow.

Comic shops are usually underfunded, run by aging fanboys, and sell product that attracts a certain type of clientele.

Meanwhile, one of the two writers absolutely falls over over himself to extol the virtues of an independent bookstore that carries....gasp!....50 graphic novels!

That I don't get. I carry something like 6000 graphic novels, but I suspect the writer still prefers the social status of the actual bookstore to any comic shop no matter what the reality.

Like I said, it smacks of self-loathing.

Actually, I think we're making slow progress toward cultural acceptance. Very, very slooooowwww progress.

I'm reading Road to Paradise by Max Allen Collins, which is the third book in a trilogy that started with Road to Perdition, then Road to Purgatory.

But I wonder how many people know that Road to Perdition was a graphic novel? Yes, the Tom Hanks movie was based on a comic.

There is a story that when the David Cronenberg filmed History of Violence, he wasn't aware until well into the process that it was a graphic novel. Supposedly, he said, "If I'd known that it was a comic book I never would've taken on the project."

Someday I'm going to take on the task of listing all the movies made from comics; especially the ones that no one suspects.

Some everyone knows, like Spider-man and Batman. Others most people know, like Sin City and 300. Still others, people can make a vague connection, like Hellboy or Mystery Men. Others, like Ghostworld and V for Vendetta, probably very few people know. There are dozens of minor movies that were comics first; The Fountain; Tank Girl; Constantine. Actually, it's a huge number of movies.

Want to get a movie made out of your book? Write a graphic novel instead, and your odds went up.