In & Out

In:

Superheroes – Some of my earliest childhood memories have to do with watching the 60’s ”Batman” TV show while having breakfast in bed with my parents; having a penchant for camp, they heartily approved of it. The comics of course were off-limits, in part because of the violence, but also because my parents (and my father especially) saw them as basically right-wing propaganda, and took great care to explain to me that this was Not How Things Should Be Done (I of course, being too young to really “get” camp, had accepted the show in earnest.) For a long time I accepted this judgement and, although I’d still have some interest in most things Batman-related, I did always carry with me the certainty that supeheroes were, y’know, opiate for the masses.

First cracks in this showed up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – I don’t even remember how I got into them, but they very quickly became a pretty huge obsession, and since the Turtles were still a lot more light-hearted than most supeheroes, and their adventures didn’t really feature much political subtext (OR DID THEY?), my parents didn’t disapprove. My mum in fact liked them quite a bit, after seeing an episode where Bebop and Rocksteady stole some kid’s tricycles.

Still, my first superhero comic book purchase after that was a disaster. Not only was the Batman I got nightmare inducingly grim&gritty, it also featured KGBeast! Thus reasserting my suspicions of dirty yankee propaganda. I gave it away almost instantly.

Some time after that, someone gave my parents ”Batman: Year One” as a birthday gift. My parents both liked it, and I got to take a look. I guess my dad liked that it portrayed the rich and powerful as being as corrupt as anyone else.

When I finally got into superhero comics fully at the age of 12-13, it was mostly due to ennui with what I’d been reading previously (Disney, Asterix and such.) I’d also acquired a thick hardcover Comics Encylopedia which namechecked a lot of heroes, and the sprawlingness of the DC and Marvel universes really enticed me. So I started picking up the brazilian, digest format comics – I basically started with the Death of Superman, Knightfall, the begining of Image (which I did hate from day one, etc.)…a terrible time to get into superheroes, really, but I was hooked.

Comic strips – I never fully “got into” comic strips due to the simple fact that, let’s face it, most of them are very lame. ”Calvin & Hobbes”, however, *was* one of my greatest childhood obsessions, fully encouraged by my parents. Calvin was pretty much my childhood idol, and much of my behaviour was straight-out aping him.

Franco-Belgian - ”Asterix” was given to me as soon as possible, as my dad already had enjoyed it immensley as a youngster himself. Spirou and Lucky Luke soon arrived to complete my childhood’s frenchie comic pantheon. The only political casualty here was that dirty little colonialist, Tintin.

U.S. children’s comics – This pretty much begins and ends with Disney for me. The german weekly ”Mickey Mouse” was my first experience with floppies, and of course the animated movies and ”Club Disney” (they don’t call it ”The Mickey Mouse Club” in Europe) also ensured that my childhood, like most, was filled with Disney. Fatherly intervention came mostly in attempts to get me to prefer Donald (particuarly the Barks stuff, which he adored) over Mickey. I did very much enjoy Mickey’s whodunnits and sci-fi stories regardless, though.

Vertigo – You know, I’m not sure about this one. I remember being really into ”Swamp Thing” TPBs that a friend of my parents had, and thinking they were by Alan Moore at the time (I’ve since noticed that they were actually the Len Wein stuff.) I cottoned on to the big name authors pretty quickly anyway, through reading ”Wizard” and whatnot – and could name them long before I ever read anything by them.

Adventure comics – My only brush with this was sometime in 2002, when I found some cheapo reprints of ”The Phantom”, ”Mandrake” and other stuff in that vein. I enjoyed them for their quaintness, but didn’t really mind much when the newspaper shop where I bought them (was living on an island back then, no specialist comic stores) stopped having them around.

Underground comics – My dad enjoyed Crumb and ”The Freak Brothers”, and gave them to me to read as soon as he thought it would be even slightly appropriate (which was much later for Crumb than the Freak Bros – though really, I’d be hard pressed to find na age where Crumb becomes “appropriate” in any sense of the word.) Give or take some Pekar, I haven’t followed up much beyond that.

Indie Comics – I got to read ”Maus” around 2001; I liked it well enough, but having already been exposed to more mature franco-belgian stuff and dad’s underground comics, it wasn’t a revelation or anything. Read some ”Love & Rockets”. The first thing I guess I can say I was really amazed with was ”Cerebus”, the first volume of which I got while visting NYC in 2002. As far as “confessional” stuff goes, I picked up the ”Twentieth Century Eightball” volume some time ago and very much enjoyed its Crumbishness. Trips to my local comic book store have been peppered with the occasional purchase in that vein, Bagge and Ware an’ all. I follow ”Scott Pilgrim”, if that counts. As with Vertigo, I knew names and touchstones long before I read anything. This might still be the case for a lot of stuff in this vein.

Porn- Uhm, well, same dude that had the Swamp Things also had some ”Barbarella”, and a comic version of ”L’ Histoire D’o” whose lesbian scenes were very much appreciated by my fourteen year old self (we stayed with him when we visited Germany, he was out a lot, so I had the library to myself.)

Webcomics – One Summer I got really into ”Sluggy Freelance”, devoured the archives like a fiend. But after I was done with that, the snail’s pace of seeing a story unfold for three or so panels a day made me give up pretty soon. Recently I’ve gotten into ”Something Positive” and ”Shortpacked”, through the same archive-reading approach. I’m semi confident now that I care enough about the characters to handle the pace.

Manga – The japanese anime/manga style of drawing is one of my oldest and most deeply seated hatreds. It’s such an impulse-based thing that I can’t really fight it, either – it doesn’t matter how good the storytelling is, or how well crafted the art, the style just makes me wanna vomit. I can’t help it. That being said, I have gotten into Kazou Koike, mainly I guess because his stuff really doesn’t look like modern manga in the least.

Argh, just noticed wonkyness. Well, I guess the thread will still be there to be bumped/revived.

Revive ILC!

Superheroes:
My older cousin had a large collection of late 70s/early 80s Marvel (predominantly X-Men, FF and, er, Marvel Two-In-One). We used to go for Sunday lunch at my Aunt's most weeks, so me and my cousin of the same age would sneak off and spend hours poring through them. He grew out of it. I didn't. I sniffily considered myself too mature for superheroes for about ten years following my discovery of 2000 AD and Vertigo, but have since got over myself.

Comic strips:
You know, newspapers and stuff. And Calvin and Hobbes treasuries. I've never got into Peanuts or Krazy Kat.

Franco-Belgian comics:
Asterix and Tintin of course! Pretty much required reading for children this side of the Atlantic. I got into Moebius cos my dad bought me a Bluebery GN which he liked the cover of:
http://www.texbr.com/blueberry/eua/imagens/1990_theghosttribe.jpg

U.S. children's comics:
Never got into them. I have never read a single Archie.

Vertigo etc:
Hmm, can't pinpoint the exact moment. I know I was a fan of Moore's 2000 AD stuff before I read Watchmen or Swamp Thing. I can remember a kid at my school introduing me to Sandman and Hellblazer, but I think that was a bit later.

2000 AD:
I always regarded it as a bit scary when I was really young. The sketchy artwork and weird looking characters lacked the comforting slickness and moral certainties of the Marvel stuff I was reading. Then aged about 11 I was getting into roleplaying and a friend lent me the Judge Dredd RPG. I was totally tranfixed by Dredd's universe, and immediately made up for lost time by bulk-buying back issues of Best of 2000 AD Monthly (what a great publication that was).

Adventure comics:
Never got into them.

Underground comics:
Never been particularly interested, they've always seemed to very much belong to an American subculture I'm not a part of. An ex-girlfriend turned me on to a bit of Crumb stuff, which I found interesting but didn't relate to hugely.

Indie comics:
I should check out some more, I've never delved too deeply away for genre stuff. I think I like my comics to be genre, in fact - if I want 'real world' stories I'll read a book (I'm not saying this is the correct attitude). I do love Jimmy Corrigan and Ed the Happy Clown, though. Read Love and Rockets once and thought it was rubbish, although I was probably too young to get it. (Does Cerebus count? That was just an impulse buy of the first phonebook.)

Porn:
The internet caters more than adequatley for my porno needs. I just can't get aroused by drawings, I'm afraid.

Webcomics:
Links on this board, mostly (I'll have a look at those ones you mention, Daniel).

Manga:
I've never read a manga apart from Akira, which I got into (as I imagine most Westerners did) from liking the film. It is great, and I'd like to read something of similar quality, but am intimidated by the sheer amount available, most of which is presumably crap.

Hooray!

Out:

Superheroes – The thick brazilian digests I talked about earlier stopped showing up, replaced by portuguese editions that pretty much adopted the american issue size; this pretty much killed it for me. The new format was very jarring, I felt like I was reading random little excerpts of comics, and by the time the next issue rolled around I would have already forgotten what happened in the last one. From thereon out, I stuck to buying TPBs of more-or-less famous stuff while on holidays; after moving from my island to Oporto, and thus being afforded the luxury of a nearby comics shop, these purchases have become a lot more numerous, of course. I still pretty much only read stuff in trades, though I read the floppies that my friend buys from there, and have occasionally toyed with the idea of getting a pull list.

Comic strips - ”Calvin & Hobbes” ended. After that I gave a few tries to stuff that was getting some hype – I remember buying ”Dilbert” and even ”Cathy” - but I found all of it pretty useless and depressing.

Franco-belgian comics – My favourite series all changed - ”Asterix” became utter crap, ”Lucky Luke” solid but no longer inspiring, ”Spirou” lost my interest when the Marsupilami left (yes, I realise this was logn before I was even born, but somehow the Franquin volumes were all I had seen for a long time.) I was still too young to dig ”Corto Maltese”’s existential angst, and other more mature french comics were hard to come by (again, due to living very much in isolation), so my interest just vanished, hijacked by superheroes and other non-comics pursuits.

U.S. children’s comics – The Disney comics that came to Portugal started being less about the good stuff (Carl Barks, the brazilian stuff with Zé Carioca) and more lame european stuff. I remember reading one issue with a grade schooler Donald Duck who’s obsessed with Elvis, and that was just the last straw.

Vertigo – I guess by virtue of never having “gotten into” these in the conventional sense, I also never really got out of them. Bought at least one trade or two every year since I started up on them.

• Supeheroes
kit lent me xman morrison. no just joking. kind of. um. i guess miller early 80's (daredevil then dark knight) and moore same time and chayky revisionist. don't think i was AT ALL interetsed before.
• Comic strips
nah, nebver. what?
• Franco-belgian comics
eh? does all that shit catalan spread rate? heavy metal (hey, actually i wld like to have a complete run of hm and mebber epic illus, how great wld that be?)
• U.S. children’s comics (Archie, Little Lulu, Disney, etc.)
never
• Vertigo/non supehero “mainstream alternative”
i was a swamp thing etc fan and it was just oh here it is here it is thing. i'm old.OUT whren i went travelling in 94 and never really picked up again (so i dnt understand why youse all hate it...)
• 2000AD/brit sci-fi
nah i tried. i think you need to be a 200ad weekly at 12 and go on , othwerwise...nah
• Adventure comics (Tarzan, The Phantom and such)
nope
• Underground comics (Crumb, Pekar, etc.)
yeah ah ur. the guys who reintroduced me to *cougfh* graphic lit o no i mean comics gave me both ug stuff and moore swampy/dalgoda etc. later i werked at a london art skool and the boss was a comix fan and he GAVE me shit (o tom, you big beatiful oirishman)

Indie comics (Peter Bagge, Daniel Clowes, etc.)
still IN. dunno why. 60's/70's= go to nu-indie? fave=peepshow hardcover.

• Porn (well hey, it’s how Fantagraphics keeps alive, after all)
yeah i have some eros. its fanta! special mention for BOX.
• Webcomics
never
• Manga
don't. CONVINCE ME>

o dear i appear to be DRRRunK

*oh* indie comix epiphany - MAGGIE

ILC Drunq Thread, for future reference. :)

• Supeheroes: Grew up watching Batman on TV, and reading random issues of black & white Australian (Murray Comics) reprints of DC stuff - Batman, Brave and Bold, Justice League. Stopped for a few years, then got back in again on the strength of the first Burton Batman, then gave up again with Knightfall. Only recently came back full-bore via the beauty of CBR, although in the intervening years I bought collections of various things (ie Authority, Morrison X-Men, etc).

• Comic strips: Peanuts! Footrot Flats! Calvin & Hobbes! Far Side! Stopped when they did, although I sort of keep up to date with the bad ones I never read before via the excellent Comics Curmudgeon.

• Franco-belgian comics: Have been reading Asterix as long as I remember. In Australian primary schools you were either an Asterix boy or a Tintin boy (or, you know, a girl). I was for Asterix, my brother was Tintin.

• U.S. children’s comics (Archie, Little Lulu, Disney, etc.): My grandparents had a pile of mid-70s Donald Duck and Archie comics left at their place from the childhood of my youngest uncle. I read them a lot, yet never laughed once.

• Vertigo/non superhero “mainstream alternative”: Morrison Doom Patrol! The first thing I read that made me realise comics could be more than, well, Murray Comics b&w reprints of foolish DC po-faced etc. And Milligan Shade, too. Still read some Vertigo (ie Y and interesting-looking miniseries).

• 2000AD/brit sci-fi: Never got 2000AD, but then I read random issues borrowed from friends, and never actually had a whole story to read through, so that didn't help. I did, however, have a 2-year addiction to the British Transformers weekly, which I only gave up when I realised I was (theoretically) an adult.

• Adventure comics (Tarzan, The Phantom and such): Never read, though the Phantom strips in the daily paper used to drive me up the wall with fury, they were so stupid.

• Underground comics (Crumb, Pekar, etc.): Always liked the idea more than the reality, and have yet to really get into them.

• Indie comics (Peter Bagge, Daniel Clowes, etc.): Maus and Daniel Clowes via Ghost World when it was first collected. Whatever looks intersting in the comic shop. Eddie Campbell, Artbabe, some Top Shelf, some Fantagraphics. Still wrestling with Love & Rockets (ie trying to read it in order, but trapped very early on in the, frankly, crappy space mechanics stuff).

• Porn (well hey, it’s how Fantagraphics keeps alive, after all): Some cheerful Milo Manara, I think, though I gave him up after the first nastily detailed rape episode. And a collected Wally Wood Sally Forth that was $5 in a second-hand book shop.

• Webcomics: Only if reading 'Get Fuzzy' on the web counts.

• Manga: I've tried and tried and tried, but I just don't get it.