PopSyndicate.com

Learn about my first step into Super Hero Comics and the start of a comic reader

Where to start? This is my first column at PopSyndicate.com, well my first column anywhere. I’m as nervous as one can be through this medium, but my overall goal in this column will be to provoke some existing thoughts about comics and hopefully, in time, come up with some new ideas as well. Since this is my first column, I decided to focus on a personal comic first, my first comic book.

Every comic reader has that first comic that brought them into reading comics. I don’t believe that everyone remembers it or can recall it easily. For me it was an issue of Superman from way back in the 80’s. I got it on Halloween. I don’t remember my costume, or anything else really, but I do remember clearly that one house had given me a comic instead of candy.

I got home, dumped the candy, and picked up the book that fell out. Being that the book was much larger than the candy, I picked it up first. On the cover was Superman fighting some Bigfoot-type creature that you couldn’t really see. My memory is kind of hazy about this, though I recall that much of the story had something to do with a woman in a hospital who had been transformed into the giant creature, which Superman fought in a subway tunnel. I read the book enough that the pages and covers were falling off. I had to keep it together with tape. Sadly I can’t say what ended up happening to that book but I imagine it got tossed into the trash. It’s probably been fifteen years since then, but yet I can still see some of the pictures in my head.

While I would like to say I started reading a bunch of comics after that, it isn’t true. I didn’t pick up another comic book until about a decade later. Does anyone remember the death of Superman? When it happened the news about his death was everywhere television, newspapers, etc. Everyone was talking about this.  But not me, I didn’t read the story until a few months after the buzz was over and everyone had bought their Death of Superman issue.
     
After a few months I finally bought the “Reign of Supermen” bundle at the local K-Wal-Tar-Mart store (I forget which). I wasn’t fortunate enough to have a local comic shop in town. I would take each issue out of the plastic container it was sold with and then put it back when I was done reading it. It was tedious but I did it. For some reason the corners always got bent no matter how careful I was.
     
Even though I told my family I needed plastic bags for the comics to keep their value, that wasn’t the reason. The reason was the books became important to me. Important enough that I didn’t want to damage them like all the other non comic books I owned that fell apart. These stories made me feel better. They made me believe in things like a hero, a person who always did the right thing, and saved the day. As a kid its comforting to know people like that existed even if just in print. And capes can be pretty cool, too.
     
This was my start on the road to comics. If I go home now I can probably still find those “Reign of Supermen” issues. I don’t know how well they’ve held up but I know they’d still be there.
     
While my tastes have changed and so has my storage method, I still get a kick out of superheroes. The capes, the powers, the decision making, the whole thing, I’m still a sucker for it. I think that’ll be all for this first week. Thanks for checking out my column and watch out for those bent corners.