I started incorporating both the Comic Vine and Invincibly Super Massive Podcast of Stuff podcasts into my mornings at work and started to learn more about the comic industry. (This is when I starting collecting TWD to reimburse the creators for their hard work I’d enjoyed) I bookmarked the home page and checked it multiple times daily. I began to use the wiki to clear any confusion I had about stories or characters. I even sent in questions to the podcast twice. I was honestly surprised when they were read and discussed on the show (some podcast only choose questions that fit their “message”). Having known no one personally who took part in this media I now felt like I had friends that did. Just like all good friends I began to learn what titles, writers, artists and genres they liked and looked into them also to expand my horizon.
One subject that was usually discussed first when addressing the merits of a book was the writer so I began to pay attention to the talent writing my favorite titles. Scott Snyder, being the one who got me to take comics seriously, was a name that I looked for every time I went shopping. This led me to The Wake. Reading Higgins’ Nightwing had me to looking forward to C.O.W.L. Warren Ellis’ terrific kick off to Moon Knight and Cullen Bunn’s handle on Magneto led me to both Trees and Sinestro. I had followed actors before, even video game developers, it only made sense that there would be superstars in this media too.
The next most discussed but equally (arguably more) important aspect of a comic is the art. Now going into this media I had no idea that the “art” actually consisted of penciling, inking, then finally coloring. Each component was as important as the others. I began to notice who styles I enjoyed Capullo, Shalvey, Jock and Murphy only to be disappointed that the best of the best usually only worked on a single ongoing at a time. This hasn’t kept me from going back to their older works or looking forward to new projects (Tokyo Ghost!). I haven’t become as good at recognizing inkers as I have artists and colorists but I appreciate their work. I have taken a liking to certain colorists and understand how much of an impact they can have on a book. Some of my favorites are Marcelo Maiolo, FCO Placscencia, and Jordie Bellaire (I’ll read anything if her names on the cover).
I have to end this blog with saying that it’s been a great year. It’s inspired me to write again, something I haven’t done since my two years of junior college. It’s driven me to be more creative and allow myself to attempt things I wouldn’t have otherwise attempted. It’s also introduced me to some wonderful people, met in comic stores and online. My reading and talking about comics has also allowed me to inspire the creativity in my friends and family. I’m sure many of these effects came from me getting out of the anti-social behavior I developed in public school and hostile work environments but I like to think that the magic that comes from opening a book was what sparked that change in me.
I look forward to continuing to share my thoughts and experiences more in this format. I look forward to participating more with this community. I also look forward to new and continuing comics in 2015. I would like to thank everyone who has read about and/or given positive comments to my experiences these past 12 months. If you take any message from this I hope that it is you should never alienate anyone based on their past but instead welcome them to trying something that they never knew existed, you could change a life.
When I entered my shop I received a warm greeting from a gray haired man behind the counter. He ended his conversation with a co-worker and made his way around the glass cases to give me a brief but clear introduction to the layout of the store. The wall of recent comics was intimidating but I made way up and down them looking for something, anything that interested me. I knew of The New 52 as I had done some research before going about this task and knew the comics were north of 25 issues so I didn’t want to jump into any stories and be lost. With this knowledge I avoided the DC comics that particular visit. Marvel NOW! had a few #1 comics on the shelf and that’s what I gravitated towards.
The only title I can be sure I purchased that first visit was a #1 of the most recent volume of Wolverine, he was the most popular and recognizable character on the stands (The Superior Spider-Man was intriguing but 20 some odd issues in I didn’t want to be lost. And lost I would’ve been). Around this time I grabbed Moon Knight, Iron Fist (Cool covers), Secret Avengers, Winter Solider: The Bitter March (Cinematic Universe Influences), Magneto (Who doesn’t love villains) and Iron Patriot (Had to support a black superhero). There was also the Batman Court of Owls trade by the register that I grabbed, instead of ordering and waiting for Amazon to ship it as I had previously planned.
None of these books went unread for more than a few hours after returning home. Court of Owls accompanied me to work countless nights and I read and reread it (No lie) at least 7 times. Each time catching some piece of dialogue or some subtle detail in the art that my other excited reads had missed. My shop bagged the comics before putting them on the shelves so my protected books had began to pile up on the coffee table in the living room of the home my fiancé and I shared. She hadn’t seen me with such a passion for anything outside of the video games, that I collected and been collecting when we had met four years prior. She encouraged it, while she knew I read iBooks associated with various video game properties, she liked the fact I wasn’t glued to a controller or to a Netflix/Hulu program. Her support plunged me deeper into the abyss.
Fully committed to following the existing stories I had started reading and as many new titles as I could responsibly afford I began to seek out 2-4 volumes per title from The New 52. These included Batman, Nightwing (Thanks to Higgins Fatman on Batman appearance), Batman & Robin (Since I heard Grant Morrison killed him, also from FoB), Justice League, and Action Comics (Morrison again). After acquiring the most recently available trades (Why DC? Why must you take so long to release trades?) I began to hunt down single issues to catch up and be current. I became a regular face at 4 different comic shops in Metro Atlanta (Bunjee Comics McDonough, GA Book Nook Decatur, GA and Oxford Comics & Games Atlanta, GA) to get these illusive books. In the meantime more Marvel Now! titles including The Amazing Spider-Man were released and I became a weekly visitor to my closest shops, Book End (Near home) and Book Nook (Near work).
Excited with my new hobby I began to read reviews and news on IGN. They were frequently sparse with news or linked to other sites anyway so I Googled comic book sites and a few moments later discovered. . . . Comic Vine!
About 11 to 12 months ago was my first time stepping into a comic shop (Book End, Stockbridge, GA) with the intent to buy a comic book. I’m the middle of three boys in a Black middle-class family. My father was born in Detroit during the 1950’s to hard working GM and Chrysler plant employees and my mother, in the 1960’s in the southern part of our state, near Fort Benning, to a career military father and full time mom. Comic books were never part of their childhood so they were never introduced during mine. I collected baseball, basketball and even Pokémon cards so I had been in this shop before but the books never caught my attention. I wouldn’t read an actual comic for another decade at least.
Growing up I knew of Marvel and DC comics, I knew all the super heroes (Batman being my favorite) from the classic 90’s cartoons but it wasn’t until I seen the first season of AMC’s The Walking Dead that I knew this media was used to tell mature stories. Inspired to absorb the source material I searched online and read all about Robert Kirkman and this universe he had created. It wasn’t hard from there to actually find the PDFs to over 100 issues of zombie delight. Now before you rant and condemn for theft understand I was ignorant to anything comic book, from the way they were released to how much money, time and dedication is invested in them by the writers, artists, colorists, editors and publishers. (Still out for my blood) I’ve since purchased both Omnibus that have been released along with four trade paperbacks (Volumes 17 through 20) and every single issue since #122. (We good now?) Like I stated I wasn’t hip to how often or on which days they were released so every few months I’d do I Wikipedia search to see which issue was most current and download how many ever issues were released. I would immediately read them all and be left waiting for more.
The job I had the past two years was in a warehouse and required me to be alone most of the time during the wee hours of the morning. With nobody tweeting and no one to text my main entertainment became various podcasts, one of these being Kevin Smith’s Fatman On Batman. First I only listened to the episodes about Batman The Animated Series, which I grew up on. (90 babies salute!) Once all those were exhausted I stumbled upon a podcast where current Batman writer Scott Snyder was a guest. I was taken back by the passion that he had for his work. I was amazed with this fairly young guy and how he translated his real-life experiences in New York to tell stories about this cartoon character that I had left in my childhood, with the exception of Christopher Nolan’s films. I listened to the episode twice that day, followed by an episode with Kyle Higgins and Greg Capullo and all it did was increase my curiosity. I found Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee episodes and hearing from these men was no longer enough to feed my hunger. I had to actually read some of these stories for myself. A short Google search later and I rediscovered Book End not 3 miles from where I lived.
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