I read a blog this week that truly got to me. Ramblings of a 40 Year Old Adolescent is a source of pride to me. John is one of my own. I was the last comic book guy that John bought books from and I saw them fall from grace in his life. I also saw that they never fully left him. He and I have shared several conversations and he’s still a pivotal part of what I do, when every time I write something other than this weekly column for The Celebrity Café, he’s the first person I share my unfiltered thoughts or ideas with. I knew John’s brother read comics. I did not know it was a love that was passed down from their mother.
I received my first comic from my brother. He was younger than me and I don’t know where he got it. I have an idea but that’s not a fully coherent memory nor is it important to this thought. What is important is that I know neither of my parents ever gave a second look at comics, but they also didn’t mind me spending my allowance on them. Until I figured out that I didn’t need either of their signatures to take money out of my passbook savings account. Every day I would get out of high school and forgo my own bus to take the downtown city bus, where I would go to the bank and take out $100.00, go across the mall to Treasure Island, our local comic book store, and spend it all. Every day. It’s not that I was hiding this behavior, it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever brought home, yet I’m sure I failed to reveal this ‘discovery’ as saving was a big deal in my house growing up (sure enough my own kids now live with those same rules I did). Until the day my father came through my bedroom door, and “through” is a very polite phrase, I had never heard of a monthly statement or even guessed at its existence. That very well may have been the second time I sincerely thought my life was over.
Thankfully, after much “discussion”, an involuntary and embarrassing trip back to Treasure Island, and even more discussion, my parents discovered there was some value in these things I was buying. They may not have been into comics but they had their own collections of pride and that bug surely hit me. They also noticed that I was taking care of the books I was buying. Then came the moment of truth: I joined the Navy, and while I was on active duty, even stateside, my parents made the trip to Treasure Island and continued to make payments and pick up books for me. I didn’t serve in the military to come home and find my collection gone; I came home to find it grown!
Comics are a way of life for me. My wife, Ann, reads them and shares in the discussion of finer story points, both of my children read well above their grade level because of comics. My daughter, Danielle, is a recognized and welcome fixture at the Archie Comics Booth anytime we see them at a convention. While I may sometimes feel like I’m too hard on my kids, while I may go through my more depressing stages, we have comics, we share comics, and we even still sometimes read them together. We all get excited about comics. I had a complete run of Batgirl set aside hoping for the day I could give them all to Danielle. I bought them for her. Sure enough, she read a Supergirl that Batgirl was in and asked me a question about it and when I gave her the entire stack… It wasn’t Christmas or her birthday. It was a shared love.
I shudder for the pain that John and his mother, and their whole family, is going through. I’ve written before that unlike comics, death and loss in the real world mean something. There are no LMD’s, Skrulls, doppelgangers, Cosmic Cubes, Infinity serums, deals with the devil, or anything else that will stave off the inevitable end (and here I’d like to give a loud shout-out “Thank you!” to Dave Sim and Cerebus for the best end, EVER!), but John will always have the memories and the reality of what his mother passed on to him. I find hope and comfort that someday my own children will look back on what I’ve given them. I read John’s thoughts about his mother and I love her more for it. I’ve never met her, and in her fine son that I’m so proud to be a friend to, she and I both passed our love of comics to our children. She’s the role model I didn’t know existed. Also through her son, the tendrils of her life have touched me.
This week I’m going to think about stories that I think would make some wonderful conversation between John and his mom. That begins with Marvel Comics Battle of the Atom part three in X-Men #5, $3.99, by Brian Wood and David Lopez. Three X-teams from three different ages and it’s a nice little look at how the past is trying to be reconciled with the present…
I just love Valiant Entertainment’s Archer and Armstrong #13, $3.99, by Fred Van Lente and Pere Perez, and with this issue they promise “… and then things got really out of hand!”. I can’t say enough about the quality of these characters and the quality of the creators and everyone involved in producing these books…
Dynamic Forces may have updated The Bionic Man #23, $3.99, by Aaron Gillespie and Edgar Tadeo but as something that I imagine was on in the Payant household back in the day, this would probably be worth some conversation…
Herobear and the Kid #2, $3.99, created by Mike Kunkel and published by Boom Entertainment makes the list because seeing it made me immediately smile. This is one of the books I read with the kids, and because of those fond memories, my son Jon recently shared it with his teacher…
Graham Annabele and Aaron Renier have created Spongebob Comics #24, $2.99, for United Plankton Pictures and it’s as funny and enjoyable as the cartoon is…
As a lover of DC Comics and their characters this is a pretty poor month as it’s a “Skip month” and all of the DC storylines are on hold for the point comics that are utilizing the 3D Motion technology for Forever Evil Month. Sure it’s an improvement on a gimmick first used in the 90’s, but it’s a sweet looking gimmick and I’m sure some of these covers would be shared and talked about. The full list for this week is: Action Comics #23.2 Zod, Aquaman #23.1 Black Manta, Batman #23.2 Riddler, Batman and Robin #23.2 Court of Owls, Batman: The Dark Knight #23.2 Mr. Freeze, Detective Comics #23.2 Harley Quinn, Earth 2 #15.2 Solomon Grundy, Flash 23.2 Reverse Flash, Green Lantern #23.2 Mongul, Justice League #23.2 Lobo, Justice League of America #7.2 Killer Frost, Superman #23.2 Brainiac, and Teen Titans #23.1 Trigon and they’re all $3.99 each if you can find them.
And there are plenty more that are not listed. For a more complete list, feel free to visit your local comic store or favorite site. If you’re interested in more of what I think, follow me on Twitter at Mycomicstore001 or like my Facebook page.
Michael R. Murray is a full time Letter Carrier for the United States Postal Service who is for the first time right now looking forward to sharing his love of comics with his grandchildren even though he knows it’s way too soon for that!