As a kid I’d flip through the cartoons in the New Yorker. In my early 20s, I started picking up Spiderman. After a while I found the plot repetitive and formulaic, but I kept buying it anyway. Then I discovered US independent comics to my relief: I could feed my word/image addiction without feeling like I had been lobotomized.
Years later, I segued into manga, whose storytelling standards were a level up in my view. It’s still a hobby.
Manga? A level up? Your mileage and mine wildly differ.
Well, compare Love and Rockets with Death Note or the reboot of Battle Angel Alita (aka Gundream in Japan). I like the Hernandez brothers, but after the first story arc or so, it ran a little thin. Also, manga artwork is better than US alt comic stuff. And 99% of superhero fare is formulaic.
It is said that drama is about change and TV is about things staying the same. American serials have that problem: things at the end of the story are much like things at the end of the last story. In Japan, characters can die and series can finish up. That permits the overarching plot to have such things as beginnings, middles and endings. The Joker can die once.
Alt comics in the US have similar amounts of freedom or even more, but they lack the long tradition of craft that manga has.
First Comics! I remember them–heck, I’ve got all the issues of Jon Sable, Freelance.
In a way, Sable got me back into comics. I had read them as a child, but grew tired of superheroes. A friend introduced me to Sable, who had great adventures, but was still totally human, with all that entails.
I still read comics today, but as before, next to no superhero comics. I’ve found series like Sandman, Fables (and all its offshoots), and Lucifer, among others, more to my taste.
I do, not as much as I did in my 30s but I still do. I prefer British comics like 2000AD and US comics by British writers (Moore, Gaiman, Morrison, Ellis & Ennis etc.)
I have never, however, collected comics. I have stuff like Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Lost Girls, League oEG etc on paper because I’m an Alan Moore fanboy, but otherwise, I read digital.
I mostly grew out of them in my 20s. Though not in a maturity way, more just in a moving-onto-other-kinds-of-entertainment way, which in this case was the Internet. I also read less books. I find my free time is constantly occupied with some ridiculous yet compelling thing online.
I have bought a few trade paperbacks within the last ten years, but nothing that has actually brought me back into the fold.
I moved to Korea and China, where getting hard copies became impossible and I gave away all my old comics before moving here. Digital comics don’t pack the same punch and, at 55, my eyesight just can’t process the tiny new font sizes. The thing is, I got into comics around 1973, the absolute crappiest time to get into comics (Kirby had left Marvel at this point and his most groundbreaking titles at DC were cancelled before I was really aware of them). I got hooked anyway.
I still sort of keep up with a few titles, but not like when I lived in the States, that’s for sure!
Yep. I’m a child at heart. (I’m 62.) I don’t read anything regularly, but I will pick up an occasional comic book, especially if it’s by Neil Gaiman or Alan Moore. These days I find the movies are better.
Yes, although it’s typically as graphic novels I check out from the library. I do still visit the local comic store regularly to pick up the current issue of Elfquest, which is currently in the middle of their long-awaited “Final Quest”. I’ve bought every issue of Elfquest since the late 80s. Which is a lot of comics.
I’m in pretty much the same boat, down to being a fan of PS238. Grrl Power is another superhero webcomic I’m fond of, but it’s farther from the print comic issue-based approach than PS238. Aside from webcomics, I don’t follow any given comic consistently. Different characters catch my eye, and if something interesting is going on with them, I’ll follow them for the current story (or just read a compilation). Then I wander off again. I like pretty self-contained stories, even in a shared universe–the DC Animated Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe clobber their print counterparts in that regard.
The only comics I ever read are in the New Yorker.
Never. I had a few as a kid that I attempted to read but just never could stand comics for some reason. I was more interested at the advertisements in the back of comics as a kid than anything else.
No, with one exception–Spiegelman’s Maus.
When I was a kid in Minneapolis (early–mid '60s), there was a used book store on upper Nicollet Avenue, near where The Chestnut Tree restaurant and White Castle were. I used to spend hours in there, going trough the *huge *stacks of old comics it had, some of which went back to the '50s!
The owner was a really nice guy in his 30s who used to sit behind the counter drinking coffee and reading while I went through the stacks. I forget his name (Marv, maybe?), but he would sometimes throw in a free comic or two because I was such a good customer.
I had a enormous collection ranging from DC war comics (my favorites!) to Harveytoons (my favorite character was always Baby Huey). I also had a lot of very obscure (sometimes single-issue) titles. When I spent summers with my dad, the back seat of the car belonged to me and my stacks of comics.
I would give anything to have them all back and read over again!
I’m gettin’ on towards being a senior citizen, and I’ve read comics all my life, from Harvey Comics (Casper the Friendly Ghost, et al) when I was a tyke, to a wide range of titles today. My very favorite is “Gold Digger” from Antarctic Press. I’m a DC Gorilla and a Marvel Zombie.
I believe comics are much, much better today than in the past. Overall, the art is good, and the writing is good. I’m adoring the revival of “Archer and Armstrong” which really puts the comedy back in comics.
Yes, I’m 46 and still visit my local comic book shop.
Regular reader of Wolverine, Old Man Logan and the X-men.
I’ve been reading comic books since about 1977.
The quality has varied over the years, but I stick with it because I like the characters. I suppose it’s a bit like soap operas, but once a month.
Webcomics definitely.
My old ones too.
Whatever the nephews leave around, to have half an idea what they’re talking about. Sadly, SiL’s attitude towards drawing managed to ruin any and all interest in it for The Nephew, he’s hated both drawing and drawings since he was a toddler. The Niece doesn’t carry that baggage. OK so yeah, it’s material appropriate for a 7yo. I’d be worried if she was reading The Crow… or maybe not, knowing that girl (she may be a little princess but she’s the kind of princess who does the rescuing thank you much, or better yet who manages the rescue, and woe betide those who dare get in her way).
Almost every time I try to pick up a Marvel run nowadays I end up throwing my hands up in disgust. Dani chopped from the navel, wearing robot legs that look like they got stolen from a Volkswagen factory. The death of Wolverine (a single “momentous moment” crossover miniseries whathaveyou) had Sabretooth appearing multiple times in completely different situations (he’s both at large with Mystique and a slave of Madame Hydra - okey dokey). There’s the occasional good one, but I get those from the same friend with whom I used to exchange comics back when our ages were barely in double digits.
Me too!
And my favorite thing to do is the same as it was fifty years ago:
hop on my bike, hit the comic book store and buy a Jimmy Olsen comic*. Roll it up, shove it in my back pocket**, then off to the 7-11 for a Coke slurpee and a salted nut roll. Then find a nice park or beach and read some high-brow literature.
*or another equally silly, equally optimistic classic silver age comic (now I have to buy 'em with the covers ripped or they’re too expensive)
**Hope I don’t give the guys at Capital City Comics a heart attack…
I never was into comic books much, but I always read the newspaper comics every day back when I got a newspaper. I quit taking a newspaper years ago. I have been checking out Berkely Breathed’s Facebook page as of late, however.
I read them as a kid. Stopped when I was about 12. I recently, about 2 months ago, binge read all of The Walking Dead comics over a week period, to catch up on the differences between the show and the comics.