Comic Books – Why they are and will always be one of my favourite things

I thought it would be good to start this page with a post about my absolute favourite ‘nerdy’ subject: comic books, and how my interest in comics began.

As far back as I can remember I have loved superheroes. I can vividly remember watching a show called Live and Kicking during the 90’s every Saturday morning and waiting eagerly for the Spiderman cartoon to come on. I also remember going to see the Batman Returns film (although I was too young and don’t know how I was smuggled into the cinema for that!) 

My first real memories of reading comic books can be narrowed down to 2 occasions. I was given 5 single issues of Spiderman by my Dad, which were done by Todd Mcfarlane – this is still my favourite drawn comic book and I still have it. The other one is a graphic novel called Superman Time and Time Again. These started an intense love of comic books that has continued to this day. 

I think the reason I am drawn to these kinds of stories has changed over the years. Initially as a kid the fantasy of the stories, the cool powers they had and the adventures these characters went on was so intriguing to me. The artwork was also so incredible and drew you in so much to the comic that I would spend even longer looking at the artwork than reading the comic. The way that they stimulated my imagination and inspired me to pretend to be my favourite superhero and play games was amazing.

As I got older and to this day the reason I read comic books is that they offer me a form of escape from the real world that I think we all need sometimes. To be able to delve into these different stories and characters is always an adventure that I thoroughly look forward to each time. Now, I think I’ve gotten a different understanding and appreciation for the stories that they tell; a lot of them have incredible storytelling and are extremely developed from the characters to the main story. For anyone who thinks that they are just for children and adults can’t get anything from them, just try reading one and I’m sure you would be pleasantly surprised at how complex they can be. 

Something else that has been quite interesting to me as the years have passed, is that some comic books have become extremely valuable collectable antiques. This was of course true even before I was reading them but seems to have become even more popular over the years, with some selling for hundreds of thousands and a few for over a million pounds. Now while I would not begin to pretend that I have any even close that value, I have some that to me are little gems. It is of course pointless me knowing how much they are worth as I would never sell them. They are to be passed down to my son as a family heirloom…even if he doesn’t want them!

I do hope Elias will enjoy comics and their characters as much as I have and still do. He does already know and seem interested in a few of them. I would love it if we can bond over comic books like I did with my Dad to keep the tradition going.

I want to say a big thank you to my Dad for getting me into comics to begin with and still having great talks about them with me.