A World Community
I know exactly what you mean. I got into comics as I had connections from my youth with the characters, but it was only fluke interactions with school friends of mine that I started collecting them with any fervor. It actually became that my circle of friends were interested in comics principally because the rest were, and we were able to trade back and forth with each other to further our interests.

But we didn't have the option to go online and discuss them, we spent our class periods, recesses, and free weekends sitting around our stacks of books, talking about who was cool, why, and who could beat them up if it came to that. This was even during the early 90s when comics exploded and everyone thought that they were better investments than housing and stocks.

I remember that going to comic book shops was one of the few "hubs" of comicdom available, and it was almost with awe that I treated the people that worked there. They seemed so "official" and knowledgeable, but now with the internet I know I can get a book or information anywhere, and comic shops have been boiled down to nothing more than giant newstands that hold a limited number of books.

But of course the upside is that it doesn't take physical word of mouth for popularity to spread. If all your friends haven't picked up the lastest X-Men book, you can always look online to see what half a thousand people think of it.

Even if that does mean that most comic conversations get rehashed a dozen times every second and soon become cliched and impersonal. And what leaves for a comic fan today, I'm not sure.

Yeah, come to think of it, I hate the internet sometimes...

Posted by PseudoSherlock on 2007-04-10 11:59:30
As a 5th or 6th grader, I was WAY too intimidated by the comic shop owners to actually talk to them about comics. They were at least 20 years old and had facial hair and wore black t-shirts. Bracken, Luke and my brother were my entire comic book community. We lived by the price guides and would go to the 7-11s and (on special occasion) to the comic shops to look and ooh and aah. I still remember seeing FF 1 on sale for $4000 and thinking how incredible that was to actually SEE FF1. We loved comics, and it is different now. Then, it seemed to us that there were no writers. The characters lived and just moved. Now, if you don't like a character's actions, you flame the writer and post crap on every board you can think of. Then, if something happened to the character you didn't like, you were kind of like, "well, that's life."

WAY different!

Posted by bigdaddyhub2 on 2007-04-10 13:37:40
Ha! I had the same intimidation of the comic shop employees. Unfortunately, that was not my example of "people I used to talk to comics about." Though I do remember once being shown, so grandly, an original copy of Fantastic Four #1 when I was very young. The shop owner even took it out of the case and let me hold it. I was totally blown away.

I have no idea where he got the idea that I liked the FF, though I must have told him. But I always remembered that comic store, even when it became a record store (or somesuch) and I was attending the University next to it.

And yeah, I never even once considered trying to stop or complain about the way a book was heading back when I was kid. Now I'm old enough that I wouldn't even bother - I'd just not read anymore of the series - now that I CAN flame the writer!

Posted by PseudoSherlock on 2007-04-10 14:44:36
When I was young we lived on a farm. I remember going to the store once a week with my mother to spend my 50 cent allowance on comic books. I kept them in an old suitcase, and several times a year would tie it to my bike and ride a mile to the nearest neighbor and trade my comics for their kids comics.

When I finally could drive, I headed to the nearest large town because it had a drugstore with 3 spinner racks full of comics. Once or twice a month I would go in and buy what I could afford and then sit in one of the booths all afternoon reading them.

A few years after I got my first job I stumbled upon an honest to god comics shop! With books on the walls and a subscription service. The owner didn't know too much, but the guy he had working the counter knew everything! I would go in every Saturday and meet with several like minded individuals and talk comics until the store closed at 5pm.

Ah! Those were the days.

Posted by Tom Reed on 2007-04-10 15:39:40
You know...I really miss spinner racks and slushees.

Posted by bigdaddyhub2 on 2007-04-11 10:34:32
Hear hear, bigdaddyhub2. I have many fond memories of going to the 7-11 near the gym my parents used to work out at and getting a Slurpee and a Silver Surfer comic book. That was where I got "Parable," that really cool Moebius Surfer miniseries. Crazy stuff!

Posted by ljacone on 2007-04-11 12:20:35
I never really cared until middle school. Once there, I met a bunch of guys who I still speak with from time to time.

Posted by jsaccenti on 2007-04-12 11:34:00
I don't know really why I like to read so much,
far as I remember comic-books looked like an abstract painting ( some still do to me )
and it began to be compulsive, " what kind of stories are they @%@@*@@* telling ? ",
far as I grow-up, keeping on my dream to became a comic-book maker and went on art school, I finally discover a world completely new, better than whatever I could have dreamed of, all this comic-books were here for me, all I have to do was to live with.

The comic-books owners became very closest friends as for others readers, yet we talked about comics we had read, some prefered the plots,some others the characters.

One of my best friend just told me " think about the story you'd like to read ",
if he's not here to tell it to you,then I'd like to share it with you,
I never had a better advice .




Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-04-14 14:49:06
Hear, Hear
I coudnt have said it better myself, you know? some times I miss those times back then. You know every friend that I had growing up never got into comics until I introduced them to it, so I really did have people around me who were interested in comics BUT NOTHING LIKE TODAY. As a community we are stronger then ever, and I love the internet bringing me all the anwers to questions that Ive had since I was child. When I was kid my parents never was interested in my hobbies so they never took me to a convention. NOW hell I met Whilce Portacio two weeks ago, last year Jim Lee and the year before that Chris Claremont, I AM ENJOYING THIS COMMUNITY!!! and you have to suck it up while its here and now because you never know when we all might get sent back to those times at the 7-11.

Posted by terciera on 2007-04-27 02:40:35
I remember those scary clerks in the comic book store too! Straight out of the Simpsons, I think they were scarier than record shop employees!

Most of my old comics that are worth anything today also came from the 7-11. I recently returned to reading a couple old titles, and I was pretty disappointed when I couldn't find anything at the local 7-11.

It's pretty sad; I'm currently a third-year law student who has clerked with the local public defender's office for the last two summers -- I'm still more intimidated by the judgemental stares of those comic book shop clerks than I am by opposing D.A.'s, Police, or any of the other scary stuff in my job!

Posted by erodstrom on 2007-10-04 14:50:46