In some form or another since the late 70s, I have been interested in comics. My collection has changed size, been used for different purposes, and morphed, and what I read has been all over the place, but the baseline sequential art format combined with ideas of good and evil are ingrained into my thinking and overall outlook.
The first comics "stuff" I remember having weren't really comics. Probably a lot of kids come to things that way. I had the shitty Ben Cooper vinyl Spider-Man costume, and I had these huge die-cut posters of Superman and Batman that would fall off of the knotty pine paneling walls of my room onto me as a slept, vaguely traumatizing me as a kid. Those things were fine and all, but what I really remember are the things pictured at the left.
The Hulk album was a full-sized 33 1/3 record with two stories per side, and I recall it being super melodramatic, but awesome. It predates the show in my memory, whether it does in real time or not, so it was my first exposure to not only what the Hulk should look like, but also sound like and some of the rules for the character. The tragedy comes fully baked into the character, and I was hooked instantly. I don't know who got this for me, but it's your fault, all this comics stuff.
Around the same time, and we're talking me at age 4 or 5 here, I had this Batman book and record. This was a 45, and you actually followed along, unlike the Hulk stories, which were essentially radio dramas, and one might argue, healthier for the developing imagination. Observe the Neal Adams Batman, here. This, before I ever saw the 1960s Batman, was what I thought the Batman was supposed to look like. And the Joker and Robin. I remember absolutely nothing about the content of the story, other than it was fun to follow along with in the book, and it made me want to get more things on records, but more importantly, more superhero stuff.
What will follow on this blog for a while, are some entries that examine some comics moments that have been important or influential for me, personally. Now seems as good a time as any to do this. Our comics creator heroes are aging and dying, and the influence of comics on pop culture has never been more pervasive, even as the format itself becomes arguably less popular. As I, in my job use comics as an early literacy tool and the movie-going public eagerly awaits giant comic book movies every summer, seems like as good a time as any to do this. So get ready for a bunch of comics moments, explained to death.
Stan Lee Eternum Excelsior [STAN L.E.E.]
(Bill Maher is welcome to fuck himself quietly & vigorously in the ass with a broken stick coated with fire ants & hot sauce. Any culture who gets its political thought from a failed comedian should question its literature, but hero myth is not where we start, assholes.)