So. Here I am. Trying to figure out why I started a blog about comics when I'm not exactly an expert.
In the past few months I've gotten back into comics pretty hardcore. I've always loved comics, but I haven't always bothered with going to my local comic shop and following along issue by issue.
When I was young, my treat at the local convenience store was a random comic of that spinny rack with random comics on it. I don't remember consciously having brand loyalty, but I
do remember watching the filmation
Shazam! cartoon on my family's Beta Max VCR every night. I've always been very attached to motion pictures - television and film both - so I know I probably stuck with what I knew when I was picking comics up. I can say that I've definitely leaned towards DC as long as I can remember, though there are certain characters of Marvel's that I love (and, of course, I read
The Crow in the mid-90s, devoured
Sandman, and followed
WildC.A.T.S. fairly regularly for awhile, so I'm not limited to the major imprints).
I had no idea what the overarching storylines were (this was during
Crisis on Infinite Earths), all I knew was that I loved the characters and seeing them do Cool and Super things.
A lot of things kept me from the comic book world growing up, and made me gravitate more towards the screen adaptations that were more readily available. First, and most importantly: I didn't have a comic book store nearby. As soon as one opened in the mall, while I was in high school, I became a member. That's when I discovered Frank Miller and Alan Moore. But it's also when I had pretty much zero income and had just logged onto this wild thing called the internet for the first time. Plus, the store closed down pretty quickly. Those were the dark days, prior to geek becoming cool again (thank you
Matrix and
Lord of the Rings) and before we had kick-ass mainstream superhero things like
Heroes and the recent
Batman and
Iron-Man movies (which I think are probably due in large part to Singer's awesome adaptation of
X-Men, my casting issues aside). So it crashed and I was once again left without a comic store until college (when I also didn't have much money).
Second, I'm not a dude. I know! Shocking! These days I walk into my local comic shop and see a woman behind the counter about half the time, which is awesome. But it wasn't always like that. And as much as I'd like to say that stuff like that doesn't bug me, there are only so many times I can be pointed towards the manga sections (seriously, I do
not like manga) or asked what my boyfriend likes before I internalize that a little.
Third, I'm not straight. Sort of less of an issue, in that there have never really been gay or bisexual characters anywhere ever (unless you're into subtext, which I am), but by the time I was in college getting a Women's Studies degree (gasp!), that sort of thing kind of bothered me. On a side note, how excited am I for a lesbian title-runner with a lesbian back-up once Batwoman starts in on
Detective Comics in June?
Wicked excited.
So there was that. And I kind of floated in and out of collecting. I own
Superman 75, because... death of Superman... Mostly I got TPs (notably
Reign of the Supermen and
GenerationX) or graphic novels (would you believe I was lucky enough to snag a hardcover
Watchmen, which I have since ruined by reading too much?). Meanwhile I had plenty of other things to keep me going: Tim Burton's
Batman movies, the
X-Men animated series, then the
Batman animated series,
Lois & Clark (yeah, yeah) and the occasional, more-than-likely-bad, movie (hey hey, Hasselhoff's
Nick Fury).
The first thing that really drew me back to the fold was when Bart Allen became the Flash.
Sold! So I read up on the backstory, got a little annoyed at what had happened to the Flash Family, and then... Bart died.
WTF, DC.
But wait. While catching up on the goings on of the DCU, I found out that Superboy had died, too. (Superboy was a character I enjoyed in his eponymous TV series, that I totally adored rebooted during
Reign of the Supermen.)
WTF, DC.
Meanwhile, over at Marvel... I had no idea. The
X-Men movies had already come out, and they'd already massacred by favorite X-Man ever by turning him into a teenager.
WTF, Marvel movie division?
But now, as an adult, I've started to realize that a lot of what I love about things is... what I can hate. So having a teenaged Bobby Drake helped me rediscover my love of the real (in my head) Bobby Drake, so I got to reading. Having Bart die got me angry enough to read up on when he was Impulse, which led me to Young Justice and Teen Titans. The existence of
Smallville made me want to bash my head against a wall - and keep current on the DCU. I don't know, that's just how I roll.
And along the way, I got involved with roleplaying. That helped, too. I keep up on what's happening so I can keep up. I discovered a new Captain America who could finally make me
interested in Captain America (because Bucky Barnes has to atone, and that's more interesting than any of Steve Rogers' stories that I remember reading). I said hello to Supergirl for the first time since she was Helen Slater. And I found out that the writers at DC had brilliantly adapted Renee Montoya into the comic universe... and she had become one of my all time favorite heroes.
(Expect something on
Crime Bible soon, 'cause I've got lots to say.)
I started to care about the characters again.
And, what do you know... I've got a local comic shop staffed with enough women (and I get treated with respect by the men that work there), the first GLBT lead of a major imprint is due in a month, and I've got a little disposable income handy.
So I'm back. We're on again, me and comics. And it's like I never left.
