This is a question I've asked of myself recently regarding my continually growing interest in comics and superheroes. If anything, my interest and love of comics is deeper than ever, but I was never a kid who indulged and lost themselves in comics. At least that's what I always thought, until I retraced my steps...
I'll admit it. The first comic book I ever owned was given to me... and I never read it.
It was a Batman comic and I remember the cover having a yellow background and four panels like windows. I've looked to try and find which exact issue it was, but to no avail. Considering this was Australia around the late 70s/early 80s there's the distinct possibility that it was a reprint produced in Australia and not part of the actual Batman or Detective Comics series. Some Australian companies used to take individual stories and reprint them in an anthology/collection, so this comic could easily have been one of those.
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But I didn't read it. I remember that it held no interest for me and it languished in a 'stuff' draw for a long time before being thrown out.
So if not Batman what was the initial comic catalyst?
Answer: Asterix.Goscinny and Uderzo's tales of the little indomitable Gaul and his faithful friend Obelix, who fell into a cauldron of magic potion when he was a child (a potion that gave them super strength... hmm...) dominated my primary school years in the reading department.
Yep.That's where it all started. But I didn't think of them as comics at the time. I thought of them as books. They were oversized hardbacks and I read every one of them. Probably because they were easy to read too, not like an actual book...
Asterix - The Official Website is an excellent site for all things Asterix.
Moving into my teenage years saw an growing interest in fantasy/sci-fi and roleplaying. At this time my friends were getting excited about comics, generally X-Men, but I still wasn't that impressed. First of all, it was Marvel. I don't know why but I just had an adverse reaction to these heroes. The DC superheroes, they were the real superheroes. I'd watched the Adam West/Burt Ward Batman, and the George Reeves Superman TV shows. Then there was the Superfriends cartoon, (let's forget about the wonder twins. I don't see how changing into a bucket of water helps any body...). They were DC superheroes. They'd been around, like, forever. I did end up reading the odd X-Men comic lying around--it was the Inferno storyline--but still superheroes and comics sort of didn't do it for me. Unless you counted the Keith Giffen and J.M.DeMatteis (writers), Kevin Maguire and Adam Hughes(artists) run on Justice League of America. They were also lying around and I didn't mind them.
The floodgates opened when I followed one of my friends into a newly opened direct sales comic shop, The Phantom Zone, and saw James O'Barr's The Crow. Wow. This was a comic but it was something different. Prestige format, painted covers, black and white interiors, and bloody violent. The Crow was a cool comic. Was it the first comic I bought? I honestly can't remember.
Hot on the heels of my true comic awakening was Joseph Michael Linsner's Dawn. Man, was I hooked on this chick. Linsner pushed every males' button with this character. The other thing was - she was mine. I bought as much Dawn paraphernalia that I had access to and could afford.
One of the reasons that I probably didn't jump on the X-Men bandwagon was that I don't like to be seen to be jumping on the bandwagon! I want to find my own stuff. No-one else was interested in Dawn. Which is why when they started buying Image Comics - Spawn, Youngblood, SuperPatriot - I wanted to find my own, and Stormwatch was it, followed closely by Gen13. So now I was officially in to superheroes. Something of a lost classic was Jae Lee's Hellshock. Plagued with scheduling problems Hellshock was a combination of highly individual artwork and an emotional story that stood head and shoulders above the stable of Image comics.
The other comic which had a major impact on me was Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. This wasn't a comic. This was sheer artistic brilliance and I still believe the best, and most terrifying depiction of the Joker ever.
Pretty soon I had a standing order at the comic shop, a serious habit of about $30-$40 per month depending on how often I visited the shop, considering it was an hour away by train. Apart from the aforementioned, Justice League (after Superman's death), Eclipso, Justice League Task Force, Vampirella, Team 7, and Hawkman were regular titles I followed.
University study curtailed the habit to a large extent. Cash was needed for so-called important things like food and shelter...
A number of years later I was back at university doing a PhD. At first I tried to kid myself it wasn't about comics. It was. Shape-shifters no less. And gosh-darn-it, it meant I just had to buy more comics. By 2008 I had nearly every single comic in which Mystique and Metamorpho appeared (separately of course). By last accounts I'd spent over $1000 on comic 'research materials'.
Now? Well I recently I ordered nearly $200 worth of graphic novels. I seriously can't keep up with the number of tiles I want to keep up with. Graphic novels and collected editions are a godsend is all I can say. They represent about 99% of my comic buying now.
My tastes lean more towards favourite writers rather than characters - Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Mark Millar, Alan Moore, Brian Bendis, Brian Wood to name a few. Hey, I even liked Judd Winick's run on Outsiders.
I suppose I can't forget artists as well. Frank Quitely, John Cassaday, Frank Miller, Alex Ross, Michael Oeming, J.H. Williams III, all provide something unique and special every time they put pencil to paper.
From Asterix to Planetary. A long road. But getting from there to here, and from here to wherever the road is going, is one I'm happy to be taking.
Oh... and Dogwitch. Can't forget Dogwitch. That's a mad comic.
