Growing Up as a Comic Book Geek

 Hey everyone! Happy New Year! Yes, I know, it's January 5th, but I haven't posted anything since the end of December, so this is my first chance to talk with you since the start of the new year. How're you all doing? I'm quite well. So today, because of a video I watched from Wonder Meg, I'm writing this post about me growing up as a comic book geek in the '90s and 2000s. I've mentioned her before because she, along with her co-host for those particular videos, Scott, is the one who helped me to understand Dune by Frank Herbert a little bit better because of their chapter by chapter analysis videos. So that's going to be today's post. Let's get into it.

As with many things, I got into comic books because of Star Trek. Specifically, because of Star Trek: The Next Generation. You aren't surprised are you? I mean I got into pretty much everything I'm into because of Star Trek. So why not comic books too? Back in 1992 my dad brought home a brown paper bag with two comic books inside it. Star Trek #31 (cover not shown) and Star Trek: The Next Generation #31 (cover shown above) were those comics, though I put Star Trek: The Next Generation #31 as my very first comic book ever, because it's the first one I read. Movie era Sulu and Uhura were on the cover of the other comic, but I didn't know who they were yet (I don't remember when I started watching reruns of TOS). I knew who Riker was though, and seeing him on the front cover of this medium I had never heard of before, drew me right in.

For a year the only comics I ever got were the two Star Trek series published by DC Comics. But then sometime in 1992, possibly in the spring or summer, a TV show began airing in reruns on YTV that would change my life forever. That show was Batman (1966-1968) starring Adam West and Burt Ward. I'd never heard of Batman before this. Even though Batman Returns had come out in theatres that summer I wouldn't see it until the summer of 1993, after it had come out on VHS, and by the time I started watching Batman '66, Batman: The Animated Series hadn't started yet, so Batman wasn't everywhere for me like he would be in a few months from then when Batman: The Animated Series would start. So for a year I got nothing but the two Star Trek comics. 1993 would change all that.

 In 1993, in about March or April, I was at the hospital for an appointment and afterward my mom took me to the gift shop on our way out, and there weren't any Star Trek comics there. At least, none that I didn't already have. Then this cover caught my eye because it was Batman. In a style I hadn't really seen before. I'd seen commercials for it on Global, but I hadn't watched Batman: The Animated Series yet because my siblings were quite young at the time, and my parents didn't want them watching something so violent, even though it was animation rather than live-action. I was surprised that Batman was in comic books though. Because this comic would be mine and I could put it away so my siblings couldn't get at it, my mom bought me The Batman Adventures #7.

Then a month later, I got my first Batman comic set in the DC Universe. Batman #493. I got into comics during the Knightfall era, so I grew up with Norm Breyfogle as one of the regular artists on the book and Kelley Jones as the definitive Batman cover artist of the period. And of course Doug Moench and Chuck Dixon were the de facto Batman writers of the era too. In other words it was a fantastic period to get into Batman. Though that cover alone almost convinced my mom NOT to buy it for me. But, the saving grace was that Robin was in the issue. Yes folks, Robin being in a Batman comic was the reason it was bought for me. I won't go into her reasoning for that, but that's the truth.

I kept reading comics as the years went on. Aside from the two Star Trek books, I never actually committed to following one series. I'd get whatever issue of whatever book my mom felt was appropriate for me to be reading so my comic book collection was pretty random since I never had a complete run of any series. I had two or three issues of a variety of titles. The two Star Trek books are the only ones I had a ton of. With the exception of five issues, I had all of Star Trek: The Next Generation from issues 31 to 80 which was the end of the series. Of the TOS comic I had every issue, except for #46, from 31 to 75, missing the last five issues of the series. Though in my teen years I picked up issues 30 and 46, giving me every issue from 30 to 75. I got a few more issues of Batman as well, but at such a random intervals that I rarely, if ever, had consecutive issues of the series. 

Comic book collecting was actually pretty difficult for me because we moved out of the city, and so we weren't as close to any local comic book stores. Also, I wasn't having to go to the hospital quite as often as I had in the early '90s, so visits to the gift shop were less frequent as well. But I got a lot of issues of The Batman Adventures and it's follow up series, Batman & Robin Adventures.

In high school, I started collecting back issues. Back issues are older comics that you pick up from your local comic book store to fill in gaps in your collections should you miss a month for whatever reason. This is how I was able to fill in my Knightfall collection, which ran through all of the Batman and Batman related titles from 1993 until 1995 and encompassed four story arcs (Knightfall, Knightquest, KnightsEnd and Prodigal). It's also how I read earlier issues of various Batman titles that wouldn't get collected in trade paperback or hardcover until the 2010s.

I also got a few new issues at the time though they were a random issue of Superman, random issues of JLA (the series started by Grant Morrison in 1997), and one issue of The Flash (during Geoff Johns's run on the series). And I got them at a convenience store near my school.

It wasn't until 2009 when Brad and I started going to a local comic book store that I began collecting new issues as they were coming out again. As much as possible anyway because I began to follow two or three titles regularly or semi-regularly. And all of them were Batman or Batman related titles. Because, as much as I like Superman, Green Arrow, the Flash and the rest of the DC Universe, Batman is my favourite character. Not just my favourite DC character, but my favourite comic book character of all time. 

When my parents were buying comics for me, the rule was they would only buy one issue, two if they were the two Star Trek books I was getting regularly. Because it was their money they were spending on comic books that I wanted. It wasn't until I was an adult and buying my own comics at the local comic book store that Brad and I always go to, that that rule ended, though occasionally I will still only buy one comic, either because that's all I can afford, or there aren't any others that I wanted.

Also, until I was in high school, trade paperback and hardcover collected editions weren't really a thing for me. I had one trade paperback collected edition and it was...you guessed it, a Star Trek trade. It was called Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Saga, which collected issues 9-16 of the original 1984 ongoing monthly series that DC Comics published following the comic book rights moving to them from Marvel Comics. I still have it in my collection today. 

Aside from the more adult oriented books like the works of Alan Moore and Frank Miller, trade paperbacks weren't really a thing yet for the mainstream books. Particularly for Batman, as even though stories like Year One, Year Two, and The Dark Knight Returns had been fully collected by the time I got into comics in 1992, Knightfall was only partially collected and the vast majority of Batman stories from before that weren't collected until two decades later. Superman had faired slightly better as The Death and Return of Superman (the umbrella title for the "The Death of Superman" "Funeral for a Friend", and "Reign of the Supermen" story arcs) was fully collected, as was John Byrne's Man of Steel (one of my favourite comic book stories ever), but, unlike Batman, Superman didn't have as many story arcs, as everything that Byrne did, as well as everything that the Superman Story Group did leading up to The Death of Superman and everything they did leading up to Lois and Clark's wedding in the late '90s, was one continuing story much like a TV soap opera. Not to mention trades and hardcover collections were more expensive than the single issues.

It wasn't until high school, around 2003 or 2004 that I started getting more trade paperback collected editions, because that's when they became more popular and stories would get collected almost as soon as an arc was finished in the ongoing monthlies. Batman: Hush and Identity Crisis came out around this time. So collected editions were REALLY coming into their own by that point, even though they had been around since the '80s. 

As a comic book fan, I was alone growing up. None of my friends and classmates were into comics when I was in elementary school. Those that enjoyed reading like I did, read novels. So like I could geek out with them about the Star Wars novels or Animorphs or Goosebumps, but I never had conversations with them about Batman, who was pretty much the only comic book character I knew aside from Superman and Spider-Man. Even to this day I don't have too many friends who are comic book geeks like myself. Especially offline. Brad and Jonathan are the only comic book fans in my group of friends. So until I met Brad, I actually didn't have anyone to talk about comics with. So I didn't know the histories of Batman or Superman or Spider-Man (beyond what was shown in the opening title sequence of the 1994 animated series). Didn't really know any of the other DC characters until Justice League and Smallville started in 2001 even. Same with Marvel when movies like X-Men, Daredevil, Hulk, Fantastic Four, and The Punisher started coming out in the 2000s. I knew nothing of Marvel, because, aside from Spider-Man, I didn't grow up reading Marvel books. I mean, I'm kinda glad I didn't read those books from the '90s, because they did some weird stuff back then. Not to mention alot of really violent stuff that kids probably shouldn't be reading, but did anyway.

Anyways, I think that's going to be it for me for tonight. I'll be back at some point with that series of Disney posts that I want to do. But I think before that I'm going to do a post on Blu-rays and the reasons I've heard that the format didn't become as successful as it's predecessors, DVD and VHS, did, as well as talk about some of the shows and movies that we probably won't ever get on Blu-ray even though it's 2022 now. I'm not sure about the timeline on this post, but it should be sometime later this week, maybe on Friday. So until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you later. Take care.