I agree with Qatana, it was the same with me also, to go to a movie after reading the book. It is almost always a disappointment. There is no way a small\big screen can compare to the human imagination and if an author is good he\she can take you places and introduce you to people you couldn't get to any other way.

As for comic books....it just doesn't compare to a novel. They have great art and interesting stories, but --to me--they are like fast food. It is sad we are trained to always want it NOW and FAST or it isn't worth the time. I know some will disagree, but it is true.

I completely agree. Movies are a medium separated from literature by sheer commercialism and the need to condense. Disney movies especially go out of their way to conform to some sort of strange societal 'norm'.

Most comic book movie adaptations are atrocious!

Comics as fast food; a good many of them are, I agree, but there is also a lot of fast food prose out there, just as there are also very challenging works in both media...

Check out authors like Alan Moore; notably The Watchmen (deconstruction of superheroes), Promethea (A kind of magical primer with a look at how magic effects out lives), V for Vendetta (a look at fascism which I might even say is timely)

Or LORE by Ashley Wood (IDW press) which mixes prose with comics and beautiful paintings.

Or even The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller, which is a great, political "ending" to the Batman mythos.

Comics can be really easy to pass over because they're illustrated, but a good comic...a skilled illustrator and a skilled writer can turn a page of comics into a riddle that is just as challenging as a page of text to decipher.

My advice to Joel is to not approach these media as if they're the same. If you're going to read a book be prepared to work a little. Conversely, to those prose readers, try to approach a comic with the diligence you would approach a novel.