I picked up my first comic book when I was a wee tyke. I still remember it pretty clearly. It was Hanna Barbera TV Stars #1 with Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels and Grape Ape. At the not too inexpensive (for the family at the time) price of 35¢.
I picked up some newsprint a few years later with a couple GI Joe comics (including #1). Both are now long since destroyed and devalued.
Another couple years passed and a friend introduced me to the X-Men. I clearly remember that issue as well: Uncanny X-Men #171. Welcome to the X-Men, Rogue. Hope you survive the experience. She did. And I had a new hobby that lasted for the next twelve years (give or take a year or two).
But in my early twenties things changed. I had bills to pay, college to pay for, and a brief period of unsteady employment. Comics fell by the wayside and didn't even get back onto my radar until I was almost thirty. I started picking up various compilations/graphic novels from the local big box book retailer. It was a nice way to drop a few dollars (and introduce me to some neat new series) and not feel guilty about buying comics.
Fortunes changed again, and I had to stop buying them.
Fast forward a few years until this August, when I had an urge to watch my DVD of "The Shadow" again. Hell, I've watched it half a dozen times in the last two months. I'm not a huge fan of The Shadow as a character, although I enjoyed the movie more than a little. But I'm not what you might call an aficionado.
Sure I went to a Halloween party as The Shadow (including a six foot red silk scarf sewn by my indulgent wife), and I've found a company that makes replica rings (I'm pretty sure they have a license) that I'll probably buy before next summer, and I did get caught up on the movie related news which all seemed to dry up two years ago.
That led me to do something a little weird, though. On a complete whim, I searched for not only "The Shadow" but also "Grendel." I shouldn't have done that because, completely unbeknownst to me, and it's been many years since I last picked up a comic or any comic news, Mr. Matt Wagner (creator of Grendel, writer of the many more books including "Sandman Mystery Theatre"--my first experience with Wesley Dodds) is writing a Shadow/Grendel crossover, and wrote a "Year One" story for The Shadow, and there's an ongoing monthly series.
Shit.
As long as nobody does a "Big Trouble in Little China" follow-up...
Dammit.
Just when I thought I was out...
