“Heroes, Villains, and Me” is a periodic article on Geeky KOOL by Larry Litle about the world of comic books and my reaction to it. “Heroes, Villains, and Me” is not a comic book review article. I will write about current events, speculation and rumors, or my own wacky thoughts about the world of comic books and related stuff.
I went through a weird time in 2017. It was some sort of mid life crisis with my love of comics. I still collected comics but I wasn’t reading comics like I used to read them. It was a dark time in my relationship with my favorite form of entertainment.
Some of my earliest memories were of reading comic books. They were my great escape from a life of poverty in the middle of the country. I would read and re-read my comics until the cover and pages would fall off of them. It wasn’t until 6th grade that I learned how to take care of my comics when my friend John Paul taught me how to collect comics.
For most of my life, comic books have brought great joy to me. They weren’t something that cost me much money (in the past- cost a lot more now) but made me very happy. I could easily be transported into a world with heroes and villains. I dreamed of being a part of their world. I was disappointed I didn’t have a mutant gene when I hit puberty (even though I felt like a freak often).
Last year, I got behind on my reading of comics. Not just a little behind. I was almost a year behind on my reading and collecting. I kept buying them but not reading them. I wanted to read them but some how never made time. I would go to bed at night and see my stack of unread comics and say, I will start reading tomorrow but that didn’t happen much in 2017. I felt guilty going to the comic store and spending hard earned money on comics when I would just pile them up.
I am not sure why I stopped reading them. It could be a lot was going on with my mentally and emotionally last year. In the past, this would have been a good reason to read and escape but not in 2017. Part of it might have been that they weren’t convenient for me to get to because they were so unorganized. It might have been that I had simply just fallen out of love with comics.
It wasn’t the fact that I wasn’t enjoying comics on the rare occasion that I read them. I found the stories and the art to me amazing. Of course not all comics I collected were hitting a home run but all of the stories were at least good. I had a great time when I would read them but I wasn’t making time to read them. I don’t know what was wrong with me.
After the first of the year in 2018, I decided I needed to make a change. I couldn’t keep spending money on individual issues if I wasn’t going to read them. I either had to start reading them regular, read only digitally, read only in trades, or stop reading all together. This fact jarred me enough to make a plan.
I determine what I really required in this situation and made a plan. I bought a short box to fill up with unread comics. This would help me to organize. I went through and added all of my unread comics to the box and it was over flowing. I organized them in titles and put the ones up front that I wanted to read first. I was determined to read at least 2 comics every day before I started watching TV in the evenings.
This worked like a charm. I have rekindled my love and passion for comic books. I love making time to read them every day. I am slowly getting caught up with my reading and enjoying every moment. Yes I am still months behind on some of my comics but I am almost caught up with several titles.
I no longer dread going to the comic store. I look forward to picking up my issues and talking to the staff.
I have found my way out of my dark place. I am back and I love comic books.
Stay Geeky My Friends!
