If you are anything like me, you were into comics as a kid and are pretty likely to have stuck with em or re-discovered them later in life. For me, I got back into comics after having been a serious Batman fan for a long long time. Once I caught up on all the Batman storylines, which took me about 2 years, I moved on to other characters in the Bat-universe, then Daredevil and other Marvel titles. Of course there were classics, many of which are now or soon to be, movies like 300, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Y the Last Man etc. The comic book medium is amazing in that it puts out so much material each year. But that is also it's curse in that you have to put out material, no matter what. What you end up with is a pretty high good stuff to crappy stuff ratio.
The industry is pretty open to trying different things, like adapting Stephen King's classic the Dark Tower series to comics and graphic novels. A graphic novel is essentially a long format comic book with more pages than the skinny ones that come out each month. There are some that are over 300 pages long and they are pretty damn entertaining, especially because they usually contain a complete story without having to know a bunch of other things.
Hip hop definitely has been influenced by, and influenced comics. Tony Starks is of course the civilian name of both Ghostface Killah and, originally, Iron Man. Wu-Tang Clan had a comic book series that was actually pretty dope. References to Batman, Spiderman and the Hulk are too many to count.
M.F. Grimm is a pretty dope MC who is also known for frequently collaborating with underground buzz master M.F. Doom. Doom is no stranger to animation, having voiced several commericals for Cartoon Network and working with Danger Mouse and Cartoon Network for the Danger Doom album. While Doom did his thing in an audio format, Grimm gas flipped it and released a graphic novel comic.
The graphic novel tells the story of M.F. Grimm's real life. Grimm is physically disabled and uses a wheelchair. He has been shot numerous times and fought back from paralysis to live a full life. Without a doubt, his story is an interesting one. To turn his story into a comic is truely an amazing achievement.
You can check out an interview with M.F. Grimm here:
and you can pick up the book at a local comic shop or at Amazon: