I talk about comics a lot and I recommend comics to people (if they ask for recommendations). And a conversation with the lovely Ryan inspired me to just write a little countdown on the comics that I would recommend to developers, based on things that we can learn.

It's a bird, it's a plane... It's Irina with her comics again

Content is queen

When building a new project, planning out your latest idea do you just code? Do you design? If both processes of just jumping in work for you, that's great, but I tend to have a more content first approach. Call me extravagant, but knowing what your awesome project is about and communicating well to others is super-duper important. The process of making comics is a collaboration, artists (if they're not drawing and writing the comic themselves), get a script and collaborate (potentially) with the writer on how it will all come together... SO GO READ SEX CRIMINALS! I haven't met another comic that is as charming, fun, meta, cool and entertaining at the same time. To me, it's the perfect content is queen example. Chip (Zdarsky) and Matt (Fraction) are bloody brilliant.

If Content was a superhero she would be Wonder Woman OR She Hulk.

How I learned to stop worrying and love structure

And I'm talking layout here. Well, not just layout (grids, flexes and semantic boxes), but the basics. The Markup of it all. You can pick up most comics nowadays that have a coherent fluid narrative with panels that draw you in. It's how everything hangs together, how we tell the difference between one part of the world and another... Comics are great at telling stories in very interesting ways. This means variety and means that I can recommend quite a few:

• Jonathan Hickman's and Pepe Larraz's "House of X" - it's a culmination of all awesome things, but the book itself is so beautifully structured, that I couldn't have mentioned it.
• Black Science by Rick Remender (and others) - it's a wild ride, it's complex, it's interesting, it's weird and beautiful.

Now, if HTML was a superhero, who would it be? Superman, of course! I can do so many cool things without CSS, JS and others. You can create Accordions without JS or CSS hacks. AMAZING.

With great colour schemes there must also come great accessibility

Just go read Saga. And when you're done, Invisible. And when you're done Livewire, and when you're done Injustice, and when you're done, new 52's Batwoman, and when you're done all of the Spider Verse comics (including the solo runs)... And when you're done Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates... AND I HAVE MORE RECOMMENDATIONS SO YOU WILL NEVER BE DONE.

Accessibility is the big buzzword in the developer community now. It's awesome to see it finally being taken seriously. And since comics are a visual medium it's very important for that visual medium to:

• Be accessible
• Suit the stories tonally
• Be badass (and it usually is)

Saga for me hit all those beats. It's accessible, its art is fantastic and Fiona Staples's work is so damn good. The backgrounds, composition of each panel, character design, colour - everything works in unison

Honestly check Saga out.

So... If picking colour palettes for your website was a superhero (I think it needs to be shape-shifter), so Mystique? Martian Manhunter?

The two bundles

I buy comics in different formats: I tend to avoid single issues because I want to read more of a story and settle for Trade Paper Backs (volumes of comics with 4 or more issues). I also sometimes get Books (6 - 25 issues), and Hardbacks (volumes or books with a hardback), and I even dip into the world of Omnibuses and Compendiums (yes, that's the plural of Omnibus, I checked).

And the easiest to read are by far trades, books, and hardbacks, and digital (although I don't get the same giddy feeling about reading on my phone/laptop that I do reading an actual physical copy). Smaller books are easier to carry around and take with you to the office, park, coffee shop. This means you're more likely to read it, because you have more opportunities, unless you want to carry a massive book with you at all times (in that case you do you, chum, you do you). So, optimise your apps, projects, sites. Ensure it's easy to use.

And one of the most uncomfortable (but really good books to read), was our Invincible compendium. It's a great story. And you can say "user error" for buying a compendium, but you know... you gotta do what you gotta do... On a lighter side I can recommend you some small graphic novels that are easy to carry with you and read:

• Maus by Art Spiegelman
• The Pulp by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
• Basketful of Heads by Joe Hill

JavaScript's superhero identity is an interesting one: from Punisher to Deadpool, we can't agree. I've been reading Injustice recently, and I think JS is more of an anti-hero. So it's Harley Quinn in my eyes.

Fin

This was an odd one, but hopefully an interesting one. Feel free to react and spread the word :)

Follow me on all the things if you want to talk more comics, front-end, and cats. Have a fabulous day!

Cover photo provided by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash