(Twelve Days) #4 Comics and Comments

Working at comic/game stores for six years, I did get the occasional question, "So, what DO you read?"

The answer was scant even in the height of my pull list. Let's grab a Faygo, pull up a chair, and let me ramble on about comics for a change.

Early childhood comic reading focused on what was on TV (even in syndication). Spider-Man, The Hulk, and Fantastic Four might show up, but the patriotic kid in me always reached for Captain America. I would rather have 25 cents for a video game than a comic back then. My Marvel domination was only offset by copies of GI Combat and Sgt Rock.

Going into middle school, I tried to break records by checking out an oversized book of classic Superman comics every chance i had. It contained multiple retelling of his origins, from Action #1 to those in the late sixties.

When I did get my own job, a combination of a newspaper route and cutting lawns, I ventured over to the comic rack at the local Rea & Derrick Drug Store. It was Post-Crisis, and the number ones were rolling off the presses. I snagged up a copay of Shazam! A New Beginning with my seventy-five cents and off I went. I was too young for the 70's relaunch, or the cheesy Saturday morning TV show, but somehow I had picked up on Billy Batson, the Wizard, and the base mythology of the character. It was my first exposure to retconning, as the mini-series was particularly dark and modern versus the basic storyline from the 1940's. I hit a retcon whiplash when I started picking up Justice League with issue #3 and DeMatteis and Giffen turned up the hokey-ness of the character up to 11.

I followed Justice League on and off through the mid-20's, until the news agency decided not to stock it anymore. I was going to revert back to sports, reading actual books, not being able to talk to girls, and dabbling in RPGs if not for two important events.

First, I picked up a copy of Sandman #7 from the local Waldenbooks. It looked weird, dark, and if the cashier behind the counter didn't mind giving a young boy a comic with a "Mature Readers Only" label, I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by. Issue #7 was "Sound and Fury", the last issue of the Preludes and Nocturnes storyline. I picked up pretty quickly what was gong on (like any well written comic should be able to do), but the words and the imagery were plenty disturbing. Even Martian Manhunter was creepy nd ominous in his cameo appearance, and I liked the version that munched Oreos.

I was hooked... and that was even before the first appearance of Death (to me at least) in Issue #8.

The second major development was Dreamscape Comics Easton location opening two blocks from my house (and two doors down from the drug store). A pull list is a beautiful thing, but Dreamscape's discount kicked in at four monthly titles, and outside of three months where I read the new X-Men and X-Force, I only had two titles: Sandman and Hellblazer.

When I worked at New Frontiers, their comic situation was so dire that it was easier to keep my tiny pull list at Dreamscape. I did pick up at occasional crossover/miniseries/issue of interest at work, but nothing worth noting.

When I finally got a job at Dreamscape, my pull list expanded and contracted like an accordian player at a Death Metal Polka Festival. My list grew with independents (Strangers in Paradise, Stray Bullets), in support of cheap/entry level books (Over the Edge... and Under a Buck, The Untold Tales of Spider-man), and the usual mini-series of the month. Soon I realized I worked at a comic book shop, so the marginal things I wanted to read could be read right off the shelp. Yes, I know that is blasphemy is some corners. I called it work-related research.

Hellblazer and Sandman dropped by the wayside from disinterest, and a new crop of super-hero funny books got added. Astro-City, Sandman Mystery Theatre, Starman, and, of course, Power of Shazam! With all four, there was a dedication to continuity, even if it was coming from a more mature angle like Sandman Mystery, or creating it's own with Astro City. I also went back to supporting some more "fun" books, like Army Ants, Knights of the Dinner Table, and Bust-a-Nut Comix (That last one was all funny talking animals, nothing else. You people are sick!)

I had survived the Death of Superman, the Fall of Batman, the glut of X-Men, the insanity of Image #1s, and Heroes Reborn, and I emerged relatively unscathed financially and psychologically. I also discovered that a surprsing group of educated customers are sheer suckers for any half-ass gimmick.  Alright, bought into Kingdom, but I sought help afterwards and felt fine.

When I moved onto Griffon Games... and college, expenses were slashed, and outside of our our little rack at the store, I finished my runs of Power of Shazam, Sandman Mystery, and Starman, and settled into the various incarnations of the Justice Society of America... and the various comics Kenzer & Co produced beyond KoDT.


After Griffon Games, when I moved out into the workforce, I kept my sparse pull list of KoDT and JSA. Despite even moving out to the hinterlands of Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, I still managed to find time once a month to drive down to Williamsport and my books. It's even more amusing to note that when I moved to the Wilkes-Barre area after I married my wife, that a drive to the comic book shore (Essential Comics) took just as long.

I spent a few years muddling through Essential Comics, before they were sold and liquidated, and The Unknown in Scranton, before they dissolved into the unknown. Even my sole remaining JSA suffered from the cruelness of what felt like 16 page story arcs. I did partake in the great 52 experiment, but after seeing DC wipe that out as well. Eradicating decades of work for a temporary increase in sales that will force you into more gimmicks 6-12 months down the line. Between that and poor artwork, it holds no interest. Plus the nearest shop with decent hours is now over an hour by highway. I'm essentially done with comics. I have picked up some of the Mouse Guard hardcovers for my daughter, and a random KoDT from time to time, but I think that period of my life is done.

Unless of course, they relaunch things again, with my favorite buddy team looking like this:

Call it Earth-DC, Earth-52, Earth-69, I'm there.