Friday, February 01, 2008
waves of nostalgia
Back when I was a kid living in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, thirty minutes and a driver's license away from an honest-to-goodness comic book store, I used to get my comics one of two ways. I'd either pick them up at a grocery/drug store (I also bought my first Star Wars figures at a drug store. Way before I'd even seen the movie) or I'd get them in the mail via a subscription service.
The first comic I ever subscribed to was G.I. Joe. The second was Uncanny X-Men. When I first started subscribing the issues were mailed to you in a brown paper sleeve, just like a dirty magazine or something. After a few years the sleeve disapeared and the comics were wrapped in an oversized plastic bag. Probably thanks to idiot collectors complaining about the shape the books arrived in.
I started getting Uncanny X-Men in the mail somewhere around the start of Junior High and continued getting them right up until I went to college.
Most of those comics are long gone now. Either given away, sold, or traded for store credit at a local comic shop.
I've just recently started re-reading the stories from those old books via Marvel's Essential line. Essentials are big phone-book size black & white reprints of various series.
There's an essential volume that picks up more or less right where I started reading X-Men. And three more after that which continue the series just about to the point where I stopped reading regularly.
The X-Men these days are pretty dismal. Years of bloated continuity, fan-pandering, and poor writers have brought what was once a great series nearly to it's knees (the only high point in years being the fantastic Grant Morrison run).
So when I sit down with these Essential volumes I'm able to remember what made the X-Men so great back in the day. I can even remember where I was when I slipped some of the jewels out of their crisp brown wrapper and read them.
There's a lot of things I miss about being a kid, but the thrill of waiting every month for the latest installment of my favorite comic book to show up in the mail is right up there at the top somewhere.
Viva la comix!
Post a Comment
The first comic I ever subscribed to was G.I. Joe. The second was Uncanny X-Men. When I first started subscribing the issues were mailed to you in a brown paper sleeve, just like a dirty magazine or something. After a few years the sleeve disapeared and the comics were wrapped in an oversized plastic bag. Probably thanks to idiot collectors complaining about the shape the books arrived in.
I started getting Uncanny X-Men in the mail somewhere around the start of Junior High and continued getting them right up until I went to college.
Most of those comics are long gone now. Either given away, sold, or traded for store credit at a local comic shop.
I've just recently started re-reading the stories from those old books via Marvel's Essential line. Essentials are big phone-book size black & white reprints of various series.
There's an essential volume that picks up more or less right where I started reading X-Men. And three more after that which continue the series just about to the point where I stopped reading regularly.
The X-Men these days are pretty dismal. Years of bloated continuity, fan-pandering, and poor writers have brought what was once a great series nearly to it's knees (the only high point in years being the fantastic Grant Morrison run).
So when I sit down with these Essential volumes I'm able to remember what made the X-Men so great back in the day. I can even remember where I was when I slipped some of the jewels out of their crisp brown wrapper and read them.
There's a lot of things I miss about being a kid, but the thrill of waiting every month for the latest installment of my favorite comic book to show up in the mail is right up there at the top somewhere.
Viva la comix!
Labels: nerd
Post a Comment
