There was a time when I could get along without John. I blame university and faster Internet connection for corrupting me, or perhaps more appropriately, getting me addicted to the Internet. This isn’t to say I’m not still fond of actual paper, but I’m more apt to be reading stuff on John than anything else when I’m at home.
Before I had John, I would re-read passages from books I’ve already read — you know, my favorite parts and the like. Then I started collecting comics. I haven’t done the re-reading comics things in a while, so I went and brought out the boxes.
I say I’m a collector, but I think I’m a faux-collector. Sure, I have the backboards and the mylar bags, I even have a long box. However, you’ll notice that the last part is singular. I keep saying I’ll buy more and stuff, but I never do. One of these days, I’m sure I will.
Recently, I got it in my head that I wanted to re-read my few issues of Mutant X, it wasn’t very popular as I recall, but I liked it. I wasn’t allowed to buy comics when I was younger, you know, ‘cuz ’twasn’t “girly” or whatever. So when I started to have money of mine own, and my mom didn’t find out, I bought comic books. I remember buying the first issue at my first job at Crown Books.
It was pretty cool.
Unfortunately for me, my mom rearranged my room. To her credit, she hasn’t gotten rid of my comics as I’d feared, rather she put them into two huge storage crates in the back of my closet. I’d forgotten that I actually have that many comics! Those crates were pretty heavy, but I eventually managed to retrieve them from their shadowed corner.
Not only did I find my few issues of Mutant X, but it turns out I have the first trade paperback collection of Brian K. Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man. I finished reading it and I gotta say, it’s pretty freaking good! I can’t believe I didn’t read this before! (Actually, I think I know why. Back in the day, foul language in comics bothered me. Yeah, not so much anymore.) I like the way the speech bubbles overlap when people are interrupted, and you can still read portions of the text. Yeah, I know, in regular mainstream comics, you can pretty much figure out what the characters were going to say…but this is just so much cooler to me for some reason.
It’s funny. I’d say about half my collection is actually from other people. Just about one whole crate was bestowed unto me by Herschell not long after we graduated from St. Hubert’s, amongst these are the #1 issues of the original Ago of Apocolypse; and part of the collection, well, the trades like Y: The Last Man anyway, were um, “given” to me by Ryan Nardiello. Technically speaking, I borrowed them from him, but I haven’t actually been in contact with him since…Wizard World Chicago 2004. (Holy crap, we went to Wizard World Chicago in 2004?!)
Rummaging through more of the stuff I forgot I had, I found an issue of Preacher that my ol’ roommate Rob said was awesome. Sadly, it’s Issue #7, so I don’t think I’ll be reading it any time soon. I also found an issue of Warren Ellis’s Planetary — I had no freaking idea that John Cassaday was the artist on the book! But again, not the first issue, so I doubt I’ll read that. I thought about having Warren Ellis sign it, though.
That thought prompted me to check out more of the names on my comics. I have issues of Exiles drawn by Jim Calafiore, and I checked the Wizard World Chicago 2008 guest list and discovered he was on the roster, so I’m considering having one of them signed. (Dude, check out the guest list — Bruce Timm is going to be there!)
Sorry, I got a little sidetracked.
Anyway, I started re-reading some of the issues as well as setting aside possible issues to be signed (if Geoff Johns really is on the guest list — there are contradicting sources — I’m totally brining Teen Titans #1 with me).
I pulled out my entire collection of Sojourn, a series by the now-defunct CrossGen that was the first series I ever collected from start to (pre-mature) finish. Beautiful work by Greg Land, and a pretty swank story penned by Ron Marz. I’m still pissed about Kreeg, though. I really liked that dog. Although, I’m more pissed about the fact that the series never finished! Stupid bankruptcy!
Retracing back to Exiles…I really couldn’t tell you why I picked up that series. I want to say it was for Blink, but a lot of my issues are ones after she was returned to her time. Either way, I have a bunch of Exiles. I never much cared for Judd Winnick, which is a funny thing to admit considering I also have several issues of Outsiders, but there was this dialogue between Spider Woman and Sunfire that just…that I just really liked.
Sunfire: But it’s okay…I’m over it.
Spider Woman: Are you?
Sunfire: No. But it helps to say I am.
Man, I wish I could write.
I remember hearing an analogy question that generally ended with “…as comic books are to literature.”
Totally disagree with that! But that’s a whole other post…