Redartz: Well, summer is on it's last few weeks, autumn is getting warmed up (or should I say cooled down). The kids are back in school, and time continues to march ever forward. I always get a bit nostalgic as fall approaches (some might say maudlin). So it seems a good time to reflect back on the start of school during our Bronze Age.
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| You might see some familiar books. |
In the course of some recent discussions here at BitBA, several have commented that the return to school, or more specifically, the start of college, curtailed their comic book reading. In my instance, that wasn't the case; it actually increased the collecting fervor. I was fortunate enough to be attending Art School, in hopes initially of becoming a comic book artist. Soon enough I realized my figure drawing skills were hopelessly inadequate, but I found other creative avenues, and completed my BFA. More importantly for our discussion, I was suddenly surrounded by like-minded people:
creative types, comic fans, music aficionados, D&D players, the whole bit. It was much like heaven.
From the first year, all of the comic fans gravitated together. Every week we'd pile in somebody's car and head for the local comic shop, and cough up scarce funds for some four color inspiration. And that local comic shop was an excellent meeting place, near a record store, near a McDonald's , near a cheap used clothing store, and also an occasional visiting place for Roger Stern.
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| Discussing comics, art, or something else? Remember, this was art school. |
Later on, we'd crash at someone's apartment and discuss art, politics, music, and frequently comics. I wasn't the only one hoping for a career in comics, one of our group actually made it professionally. Several others are active in commercial art, and one is big in rpg's and cosplay these days. It was amazing and rewarding, having so many friends around with which to talk comics, seriously talk comics (in those days long before sites such as this one). Even birthdays were part of the fanfest- several of us chipped in one time to buy a member of the group the Spider-man drug series (ASM 96-98), as he hadn't read it.
Another time, several of us did pencil drawings of our favorite superheroes, and passed xeroxes around for everyone else to ink (we had hopes of starting up a fanzine or comic- never got off the ground, but a lot of fun was had). Learned I'm a better inker than penciller...
Then there was the time a group of us hit the road together to the Chicago Comic Convention. If there's anything better than four college buddies hitting the Big City for comics, food and fun, I'd like to hear about it (a highlight: a late night at the Palmer House with fellow comic fans watching an animation festival, including a bunch of classic Betty Boop shorts).
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| Betty Boop and Popeye onscreen... |
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| Panelists at Chicago Comic Con 1981 |
Although, come to think of it, hitting the Big City with several blogging buddies was pretty top notch fun too.
Anyway, the long and short of all this: by having so much reinforcement around, my comics years were extended by a long shot. Had I attended a technical college, or majored in Astronomy, those comics I loved for so long might have been left behind long before they were. And even more, those shared times resulted in lasting friendships that remain yet today. Looking back, I realize how incredibly fortunate I was...
Okay, enough about me. Let's hear your story. When you started college (or high school, or the military, or whatever road you followed to your future), did your comics go along? If so, in what way? If not, was it hard to let them go? What brought you back? Time for 'telling tales out of school'.
10 comments:
Very nice article Red. I have much to say but another busy day. I will be back - but I hab to point out that I was at that Chicago 1981 convention and I remember a panel just like that.
I headed off to college in fall of '81, and had stopped collecting 4-5yrs before. Like most I was caught up in sci-fi with Star Wars, model-building, etc.. I just started back up when around 1984, I had met a cool friend who was very big into Marvel and Xmen.
At that point, I started joining him at the LCS every other week for the latest comics and started in with filling Silver and Bronze holes (especially CA&F and Avengers...), then with the New Teen Titans..., starting just after Perez had left unfortunately, but buying up his recent issues weren't all that expensive.
Going away to university actually reignited a lot of my comic book interest. I'd pretty much wandered away from them, but finding myself in a strange small town not knowing anyone, I was at the corner store, saw a bunch of Marvels on the rack, and gave myself a nice jolt of familiarity. This was 1991, so it was the dawn of X-Men vol. 2, X-Force, Infinity Gauntlet...
It's seen as a low point in Marvel creativity by many (Bob Harras just re-booting all the hits of the past, setting everything back to the 70s/80s status quo) but at the time it was a comfort to me. Taking a trip to the corner store became a pleasant routine, picking up the new issues of comics (and Wizard magazine). Friends on my dorm floor liked borrowing 'em too.
-david p.
I stopped when I went to college because of cost, but in the early '90's I started hanging out with some of the local hip-hop DJs. They asked if I was into comics, and when I said, "No, but I used to be," they all looked at me like I was crazy to have left. They reintroduced me back to the scene with Watchmen, Sin City, the McFarlane Spider-Man and Jim Lee X-Men. But I think it was the Jae Lee run on Namor which really sealed the deal, and I've been collecting again ever since.
I started reading comics at a very young age (pretty much since I learned to read). And I started becoming interested in saving and collecting them at around 12-years old. Then I got really serious about it around the age of 14 when I bought my first long box and poly-bags. And I never once stopped buying, reading, and collecting comics, until just a few years ago. However, I still buy plenty of TPBs and other collected volumes though. I just don't buy any new comics anymore.
Anyway, I read comics all through high school (and beyond). When I was 20 years old I joined the Coast Guard, but I still kept buying comics. When I was in boot camp, my parents would pick up my books for me at my LCS every couple of weeks. They even paid off my Amazing Spider-Man #2 and sent me a polaroid of it while I was still in basic training. (That really helped boost my spirits). After basic, I was stationed on a cutter out of Key West, FL. I grew up in the Fort Lauderdale area, so I was able to travel home at least once or twice a month (it was about a 3-4 hour drive), and I would hit my LCS and pick up my comics while I was there. I would bring a stack back to the ship with me and store them in my locker to read whenever I had a chance.
After I got out of the Coast Guard I started going to art school, and I kept reading comics. I met my future wife at school, and after we were married, I still kept reading comics. Although shortly after I got married, I sold off a big chunk of my collection (about 6 long boxes of comics). But I still kept going to my LCS every wednesday for new comic day.
I thought I'd pretty much keep reading new comics forever, but alas, it was not to be. The thing that finally broke me was the modern trend toward "decompressed" story-telling, and the "deconstruction" (i.e. destruction) of the traditional superhero. Plus, most of the art today looks like it was created by a machine instead of a person.
So, I would say for about 4 decades, nothing kept me from reading and enjoying comics: Not school, not the military, and not even marriage. However, so-called "writers" like Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar, and J. Michael Straczynski finally, and effectively, put an end to my life-long hobby. (At least when it comes to reading new comics).
Going away to college in fall of 1989 was the final nail on the coffin of my comics buying and most reading, at least for a good long time. Sure, comics were never fully out of my life, as a freshman I got my hands on things like Maus and started reading Matt Groening's Life in Hell, but I would not really get back into comics to any degree until nearly 8 years later, when I returned to college after having dropped out for a time and finally graduated. By then I had a close set of friends I spent a lot of time with and played a lot of D&D with and one of them was slowly getting back into comics himself, and kept passing me stuff to read like Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Garth Ennis's Hitman and Busiek's Untold Tales of Spider-Man. Batman the Animated Series probably helped to re-ignite my interest as well. Despite this, I would still go on to sell most of my collection in around that time (something I mostly regret - though at this point I have bought back all of what I would have wanted from that collection that I can remember). It would not be until 2000, however, that I would starting buying comics again, and not until about 2002 when I would become a Wednesday regular at the comics shop by my job.
But going back to that first year, I just had too many other interests and a desire to "grow up" to stick with comics. I picked up guitar and I started several bands. And didn't really have friends at the time who were into that stuff. And I had little idea that I would end up working with comics as a part of my career as an academic.
I hung on to reading comics for my first couple of years of college ('81-83), but my last couple of years, I moved away from home to go to a university and I ended up stopping in the fall of '83.....mainly because I was in engineering and the classes were kicking my butt and left me with little time to read, but also because there were NO places in the city where I attended school that sold comics and also because I didn't know anyone else at school who read them. There were very few who read them in my hometown but the combination of lack of fellow fans and distribution more or less sealed the deal. I've revisited a couple of times and picked up a few collections of my favorites, but when I was able to start back, I just wasn't that interested in the new stuff.
I read comics from age 9 - 15, roughly 1970 to 1976. Interestingly, that used to be the targeted age for comic companies. I stopped because they were no longer fulfilling to read.
I started again around 1990 certainly, in part, to recapture the joy of my youth. But I can say with confidence that I buy far more of back issues and non-Marvel / non-DC comics: from Peter Panzerfaust to Prince Valiant, from Dante's Inferno to The DMZ.
I can say with near 100% certainty that in my first 55 years on this Earth, I met only a single living person who indulged in comics. Never saw one at a spinner rack and just one kid in junior high (and he was mostly a d.b.). NO one in college, work, etc. Then, through this blog, I met Red, Marti, and Doug, in person and went to C2E2 with them! I enjoyed every minute of that experience, truly! Hope to do a repeat!
Cheers.
Davids b and p- there's nothing like the power of a friend to help stoke the hobby fever. It seems like the enthusiasm one feels inspires the other, and this leads to further continuance in a cycle of shared interest!
Selenarch- that Namor run you mention must have been pretty noteworthy for it to have affected you so. Haven't seen it at all; so there's another on the ever growing list of 'things to check out'...
William- you're the 'Cal Rikpen' of comics; you just kept on going. Most impressive, and it was very cool of your parents to take such care of your ASM 2! Were any of your shipmates comics readers?
Osvaldo- you had some pretty solid reading there during your 'out of comics' period. And some fine works mentioned that brought you back. Glad you mentioned Busiek's "Untold Tales"; one of the high points of 90's comics imho.
And, your comment about a desire to 'grow up' is intriguing. For so many years, 'society' has looked at comics basically as something to grow out of, at least in this country. Perhaps that has changed in recent years. I wonder how many of us had, to some extent, internalized that old idea. I too, when finally selling off in 1990, looked at it as 'moving on'. Turns out I was wrong...
Graham- as someone who didn't have much positive reinforcement of your comics fandom, do you find today's world (with an internet chock full of fellow comics fans, and full of a lot of other stuff) tends to re-excite you a bit?
Charlie- I could ask you the same question, but I think you answered it already! I hope for a repeat as well!
You are correct, Redartz. I wasn't really that interested in comics and had actually taken on other interests during college, but the internet really opened my eyes to the number of folks my age who read and enjoyed the same comics that I did. I follow this blog and several others and it's really cool to see that I wasn't really alone. I don't comment very much because usually someone has already spoken my thoughts about whatever topic is discussed. I do get excited about the Bronze Age comics, but the few new comics I've tried don't really excite me as much. There's still plenty to discuss from the 70's and 80's comics for me.
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