Ascent into a Four-Colour World

I'd like to preface this with a thank you to Scipio Garling, Dave Campbell, and Chris Sims for sparking my long-dormant interest in comics and getting me to finally seek out and visit my local comic book store. Thanks, guys, for ensuring I never get laid again.

You see, I've always held a fascination with comics. I remember collecting Marvel cards as a kid and putting everything I had collected neatly into those plastic binders, leaving room for the cards I had not yet hunted down. I remember watching the X-Men cartoon every day after school and heaving great sighs of frustration every time that useless Jubilee was on the screen. I remember having long conversations about Batman's relationship with Robin. I loved the characters, the concepts, the stories.

But I never bought a comic.* As I grew up, I somehow managed to cobble together the stories from the cartoons and movies and the back of cards, but I never bought the comics. I was happy with the cartoons (especially Batman: the Animated Series). My persistent interest eventually led me to start playing City of Heroes, which I still play and which offered its own comic book. I did read that, but I just couldn't get into it.

It took the internet, the giving goddess of information, to lead me into the comic book realm. For the first time, any comic story was open to me. I spent days - full days - on Wikipedia, reading up on the histories of my favourite characters and discovering a wealth of characters I had never even heard of.

It was overwhelming.

Luckily, I also discovered a sub-society in the blogosphere dedicated solely to comics. Joy! Here were passionate, dedicated people leading me by the hand into a plane of existence I had thought beyond me so many years ago. They willingly shared their illogical loves, venomous hatreds, and insightful treatises to me (as part of a faceless audience, I mean).

How much longer could one hold out? I used a handy-dandy locator, found the shop closest to my house, and when Wednesday came along, took my first trip to my local comic book shop.

This could be the start of something big.

*This is actually not true. I used to be an avid reader of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic. I even had a subscription. ... what?