Shots Across the Bow

Comic books "Why do you waste your time reading that trash? It's just a comic book!"

I've heard that many times over the course of the last few years. I usually just shrug it off, smile and say something about killing some time, and let it go. How do you introduce somebody to comics when they've already closed their mind? How can you tell them about Alan Moore, and Bernie Wrightson, Steven R. Bissette, and Frank Miller? How do you tell them about how the best comics take the classic themes of drama and literature, love, hate, retribution, and redemption, and play them out on a gargantuan stage of color and action. They are just as artificial as opera, and capable of being just as moving. Comic books may have been the home of violence and simple moral tales, but I defy anyone to read The Watchmen, and call it a simple comic book.

I've been a comic book fan ever since I found out my neighbor had a complete collection of XMEN comics starting from issue #1. Today, with my adult perspective, I think about what a treasure trove that was, about how much those books are worth today. Of course, they were kids comics, and were dog-eared and ratty from being read, re-read, and re-re-read, so they weren't worth much as a collectible. But the kid inside me remembers falling into those stories about kids just a little older than me, with awesome powers, but real life issues that I could identify with. They were heroes, but they were people too. From there, I branched out to the Fantastic Four, (boring except for the Thing), Iron Man (way cool suit of armor, plus millionaire playboy. Excellent!), and then Spidey. The ultimate icon.

A super hero with more problems than I had! What a cool concept! Spiderman would kick butt at night in his suit, cracking wise and cracking heads with equal facility, but as soon as he took that suit off, he was the lowest of the low, a complete nerd. Not by choice, like Clark Kent, but because he was different. He was a science guy, a brain, a geek, so he didn't quite fit in with the other kids. Flash Thompson rode Parker unmercifully for years, even though he worshipped Spiderman, in a nice bit of irony.

I became a collector in college, and continued while in the Navy, and although I had to stop collecting when I started having kids, my collection is still safe and sound, waiting for one of my kids to get interested. Unfortunately, it seems that my kids have found other mythologies to explore, like EverQuest, and Asheron's Call.

Comics were our mythology. We knew they aren't real, but we invested them with a part of ourselves, and made them real. A few lines of dialogue, some stylized drawings, and a load of primary colors could not tell such a compelling story unless we filled in the blanks from our own lives. Like the Greeks who built elaborate stories around natural events, we embellish the comic with emotions and passions from our lives. That is the brilliance of the comic's creators; they provide the framework of a story that speaks to all of us, and key that framework to elicit a certain response so when we flesh out the story, we do it from experiences we all have in common. I may not have ever fought the Green Goblin, but I've suffered through unrequited love, worried about grades, worried about my future, been put down and frustrated by events beyond my control, as we all have.

Some stories have an even more specific impact. One of my favorite Spidey stories is when Peter was talking to Flash, asking why he had always picked on him in high school. This was a central issue in Peter's life, and he finally worked up the nerve to deal with it directly. By this time, he and Flash had become friends, as often does happen in real life. High school divisions disappear quickly once we enter the real world. Peter was shocked when Flash answered that he felt like he had to take Peter down a notch or two because he was such a snob in high school, not joining in with everybody else, always standing apart. Peter suddenly had to re-evaluate his entire life, based on this new perspective. The writer was able to convey all of this in three panels, one of which was just the look on Peter's face as he absorbed this new idea. A novelist would have taken two or three hundred words to convey the same thing, and still may not have achieved the visceral impact of the comic.

I was stunned, because I had been a loner throughout school, never fitting in, and it never occurred to me until that moment that at least some of my isolation was of my own making. I was in the Navy at the time, and not quite a loner, but still not fitting in completely, and I decided to make some changes. I made an effort to get involved, to connect with other people, and before long, I wasn't a loner anymore.

Just a comic book?

Hardly.

my husband is a big comic book collector and would like to find out how much the clive barker hyperkind #1 is worth today?