J. Michael Straczynski Quotes

To be honest, writing comics is a dream come true - the form is unparalleled and is home to some of the most original and innovative storytelling around.

And that, to me, is the main attraction to comics. It's an avenue to say what you want to say.

Comics, at least in periodical form, exist almost entirely free of any pretense; the critical world of art hardly touches them, and they're 100% personal.

Comics are my first love, and I hate seeing an art form that I love suffer.

I'm not ashamed of comic books. You have some people that are like, 'We're trying to elevate comic books.' Comic books have always told great dramatic stories.

Being able to work in comics at all - I know I came into it from a different medium, but I'd like to stay here. It's not like a weird touristy thing for me.

To paint comic books as childish and illiterate is lazy. A lot of comic books are very literate - unlike most films.

I was able to accomplish pretty much everything I set out to do with my run on Superman, and I'm really proud of how it turned out. I hope that readers enjoyed it, too!

I think comics have far more potential than a lot of people realize.

The most impactful comics that I've read are the ones where the artists swung for the bleachers and tried to immerse you in their world.

I love writing novels, but there is something deeply invigorating about the comic-book medium.

Oh yeah, I was one of the first guys writing comic books, I wrote Captain America, with guys like Stan Lee, who became famous later on with Marvel Comics.

When you tell people you're a playwright, their eyes sort of glaze over. But when you say you write the 'Fantastic Four' or 'Spider-Man,' they perk up. It's a touchstone that has gained more credibility as artistic expression.

I thought I had a great opportunity when I started doing my comic book in 1972. I thought there was so much territory to work in.

We grew out of the superhero comics, but we still liked comics, so we started putting our own experiences in the stories we were doing for our own amusement.

'Thunderbolts' I was mostly attracted to because I really wanted to write Punisher and Elektra and Deadpool, who are characters I have always really enjoyed. But the funny thing is that over time, I came to really like Red Leader; he became one of my favorite guys in the book. Sometimes characters surprise you.

Print and digital comics will always coexist.

Comics are so full of amazing work. And I can't look at a drawing of a woman without thinking of, for instance, Wallace Wood and his amazing way of capturing beauty.

All through my comics career, I was always trying to reinvent the form.

I love comics and have since I was a kid. That is what gave me the idea to create my own.

My brother is a comic-book writer, and I was always in love with comics.

I ended up reading comics and just started drawing at a very young age. By high school, I was putting together longer stories. In college, I started doing strips for the newspaper and doing mini-comics. It sort of grew in scope and scale over time.

I love creator-owned comics. Most of my favorite books these days are creator-owned, from stuff DC publishes, like 'Fables,' to books like 'Saga,' 'Fatale,' 'Hellboy,' and 'Courtney Crumrin.'

I think the genre of comics sometimes overtakes the medium, and people assume that they are kind of frivolous. If you have a good, strong story teller, they can be as affecting as any character in literature. Period.

I'm sure that no matter what I'm involved in, I'll always be doing comics, at least in some minor capacity.