It’s pretty obvious that comic books are a huge part of my life. They influence the clothes I wear, what I do with my precious free time, and the places I go. However, my whole life hasn’t really been steeped in comic books. I remember my very first comics when I was around 5 years old. I used to get Archie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the corner grocery store. After that age, I didn’t pick up comics again until I was in my mid-twenties. Part of the influence there was getting a job at GameStop and basically being around a bunch of well-rounded nerds that encouraged me to read comics. That, and The Watchman movie was new, as well as the popularity of the Scott Pilgrim movie. My venture into comics as an adult started with reading both of those graphic novels.
At this time, I told myself I would just read graphic novels and not get too concerned with single issue superhero comics. I told myself, “That stuff is for kids and not worth my time.” Then, Marvel and DC movies started to get popular, so I thought, “Well, I would really like to know more about these characters.” That’s when I started keeping up with single issue comics – around the time that New 52 and Marvel NOW started. Then I told myself, “I’ll never buy toys. That’s for the immature nerds.” Now here I am salivating over all the figures at the comic book store and spending hundreds of dollars on Funko Pop Vinyls and Legos.
Comic books used to be very intimidating to me. How would I read all those issues? How would I know what was going on? It turns out that comics are very easy to read and get into and usually don’t require you to read hundreds of back issues to understand what is going on. In fact, nerd culture is so mainstream nowadays that the average person probably has enough common knowledge of the more popular characters – enough to comfortably start in the middle of a series.
Currently, my favorite comics are from Marvel. I spent of lot of my childhood watching 90’s Spider-man and 90’s X-Men cartoons and feel at home with those comics. I also love Batman and The Walking Dead.
My most recent focus, however, is on comics with female characters – no matter what the publishing company is. So, from here on out I’m resurrecting this blog and putting a majority focus on female-led comic books. I think it’s important for comics to be inclusive. I for one, would like to see my local comic book stores packed full with people. I would also like my local small-town comic cons to get huge as well. If only one type of person is represented in comic books, stores and conventions will eventually go out of business. The point I’m trying to make isn’t about equality or taking things away from the “typical” comic buyer. My point is the more the merrier. The more people who like comics – the more comics we will get!
R2D2 Cupcake 