Growing up I learned most of my comic book heroes through television. I know, that seems like sacrilege to some purists, but I didn’t have a proper comic book shop anywhere in my county so it made it hard to get into comic book characters and their worlds any other way. There was a pharmacy/book store about ten miles away ran by an elderly couple. I remember there was one of those old wire spinning racks near the register and on occasion it would be filled with a hodgepodge of comic books ranging from a quarter to a dollar. And the other “comic” vender in that same town ten miles up the road was actually a ball card shop that happened to have a section of current comics. Now I never went into this last one when I was a kid because my parents weren’t into comics or ball cards and no one I hung out with were into comics either, so I didn’t have the opportunity. (I only found out what the guy had in his store later on when I started collecting cards, but I’ll get to that in a minute).
But I DID have access to television and I drank up all that the Marvel and DC universes could give to me. If it weren’t for cartoons like Superfriends and The Amazing Spiderman and Friends, and live action TV shows like Wonder Woman and The Incredible Hulk, it’s very possible the entire world of comics would’ve passed me by and I would’ve never gotten into them. And that would have been a travesty because I am connected to comics in nearly every facet of my life and it’s hard for me to imagine my life without them. I learned basic surface things about DC through the ol’ boob tube, but I learned so much more about not just the first tier heroes, but also the second and third sting characters, and how they all related to the ones I knew, through collectors cards. So yeah, I FINALLY went to that guy’s ball card shop because somebody I knew went in for sports cards, but I found a new collecting obsession thanks to Fleer Ultra’s 1990’s Marvel trading cards. Skybox also had a run with some fantastic artwork with the DC Legends Powerchrome cards, but the Marvel card sets were the best thing the 90s ever created, loaded with detailed backgrounds on each and every character in the Marvel world.
The backs of the cards gave well condensed information about where they came from, how they fit into organizations or with other characters, their abilities and even some had stat charts so you could see that character’s strength, intelligence, speed, agility, etc. The front of the cards however featured some of the best artists on the planet! Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert, Julie Bell, Boris Vallejo, Jim Lee, and George Perez just to name a handful. I was fortunate enough to meet George Perez at a convention and I brought a 12 window sleeve of Fleer Ultra Metal cards that he did in the mid-90’s. I just got one out of the protective sleeve for him to sign, but he asked if he could look at all I had. He took them all out of the sleeve and looked at each one intently. He said he remembered doing each piece of art, but had never actually seen them on the cards as a finished product. He seemed genuinely moved to see how his work was used and smiled the whole time. He signed every one of them and thanked me for bringing them to him to see. That was an awesome experience for us both that day I think.
My point is, I may or may not have the typical story about how I got into comics so perhaps my perspective is different than others, and I’m going to share my experiences with you and my take on things due to my exposure. And please let me know if you have had completely different or similar occurrences/thoughts about the venue of comic book storytelling. How did you get in to comics or superheroes?
Geek Peak 