Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in...

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...