Let's get personal. I've always been a fan of comic books and superheroes, from my days as a rebellious six year old, to my days as a generic teenager. It was only after I got out of high school that I started reading comics and digging deeper into the 76 years of comic book history. I didn't just learn origins and stories, I learned about writers and artists and editors, lawsuits and legalities, I started uncovering what made the comic book industry what it is today. Lately though, expressing my comic book wisdom has made me a different kind of person. I've become...The Comic Book Friend.
This is a tough thing to write, mainly because in the long-run it doesn't even scale up to the social problems of other people. Really I'm just complaining and voicing the kind of annoyances that come from wasting years reading fiction. I guess that's the first con of being a Comic Book Friend, nobody takes what you read seriously. I can't have the "what are you reading" conversation simply because comic books-in the decades they've existed-have never made that transition into respected fiction. It's actually really odd that most people scoff comic books off as kids books considering the dark places comic books can go. Further more, comic books receive just as much time and effort as novels, maybe even more. If you write a novel you're committing your time to focusing on a story and your grammar. That's it. If you're working on a comic book you need a writer who can paint a picture with words, an artist who can translate those words into visually pleasing images, an inker who can use the best colors for the story being told, and a letterer who can take the writer's dialog and present it thematically. It's a team effort and a lot of the time you'll see the jobs get passed on to others simply because people who work on comic books have a lot on their plates. For the time spent on these "kids books" the usual $3.99 price tag seems merciful to those of us who buy them. And yet if I'm asked what I'm reading and I respond with "Superman: Last Son" I'm looked at with titled head and forced interest. One of my favorite Stan Lee tales was when he was writing comic books back in the 50's-60's, he would be asked at parties what he did for a living and he'd say "I'm a writer". He'd walk away from the person, but they'd follow and ask what he wrote. So Stan would say "I write children's books". Different situation now, but regardless the person would ask exactly what children books he'd write and Stan would say "comic books", which lead to the person just walking away from him. Being the person who makes the comics or reads the comics is an instant deal-breaker for a lot of people, it stands to reason that I didn't start wearing superhero shirts until I was out of high school.
But hey, comic books have movies now and movies are harder to make then comic books. That should mean those social anxieties go away right? Mostly, but if I'm not talking to someone who teases my interests I'm talking to someone who's only interested in comic book media. If I talk to someone who likes The Teen Titans, I'm going to bring up how great Marv Wolfman was on the book. Eight out of five times they'll respond with "oh, but the cartoon-" and that's a real bummer. It's a real bummer how if I tell someone Bane is my favorite Batman villain they'll respond with the stupid Tom Hardy Bane voice. It's a bummer if I mention a cool Superman moment someone will make fun of how he destroyed a whole city or snapped Zod's neck. And with Marvel and DC covering the landscapes of TV, film, and video games it becomes harder and harder to tell someone about a comic book character without hearing "Yeah, but in the movie-".
Like most nerd culture, comic books are one of those things where people who like them don't want to be one-upped. This is probably the ego portion of the post, but I find it uncomfortable when someone asks me "Did you know" about a comic book character. Most of the time I do know, and sometimes people are wrong or they don't have the facts straight. What makes it worse is that I don't want to be the annoying know-it-all, I mean I started this blog to teach people but I never wanted to push up my glasses and correct them. There is a big difference between teaching and talking. But if I ignore it I allow that person to constantly bring the subject up. Then again there are people who are too stubborn to accept what they learned on their own to be false. It's also why I really dislike comic book guides. They're kind of like Pokedex books. No? Okay, phone-books! The problem with comic book guides is that while they update you on everything Spider-Man has done since the 1960's, they stop at whatever point you bought them. If you have a Batman guide from 2010, you might still think Dick Grayson is Batman and that Cassandra Cain is a long-standing Batman sidekick. Comic books are constantly changing so having a book that is limited to the year it was published only gives you a set amount of knowledge. That's why internet sites on comic books are a lot more productive given that they can be updated. One of these days I might start an encyclopedia that covers the past and present of comic book characters. Maybe!
And the thing that hurts the most is that I know more people will learn about Black Panther and Doctor Strange from a film made to make money and continue a franchise rather than reading something someone put time, effort and feeling into. That we live in a time where the written format that lead to comic books is and will always be overshadowed by the post-it note live-action versions. I guess all I can hope for is that those of you who read this blog have learned something and have put what you've learned here above what you've seen on screen. I can only hope to run into one you loyal readers someday and talk about how confusing the Speed Force is, or which Green Lantern is your favorite, or which Wolverine costume is the best. That's the kind of comic book future I look forward to.
So in the end I can say being the guy who's associated with comic books can be testing and flattering. I like knowing that when someone sees a big red S the second person who comes to mind is me. Really, I like having people tell me superhero jokes or talking about a film. Sure having to correct missteps can be tiring, but I still get closer to the kind of world I want. A world where two people can talk about comic books and be treated by others the same way people who talk about sports or music are treated. I want to be able to say "I read "Spider-Man: One More Day" earlier" and have someone reply with full honesty "Oh, what's that book about". And then I can be all like "Well, Marvel Editorial hates progression, so-".
Thank you all for reading. From then, to now, to later!
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