Growing up as a comic fan.

IFanboy just did a podcast dedicated to Hellboy. I think I had what would be described on G4tv as a "nerdgasm." The basis of their singular focus on this one book for the episode was that they had all read Hellboy when it first came out and didn't care for it and had come back some years later and loved it. They made the comment that they were maybe not mature enough for it at first. That got me to thinking as I find myself looking down the barrel of age 30 how have my tastes changed. I discovered that Hellboy was actually the book that got me back into comics after my hiatus in college, and has ever since been the book that I measure new books in my collection. Hellboy led me away from X-Men, Spiderman, and others towards Preacher, Transmetropolitan, Ex Machina, DMZ and others. But that's not to say I went all dark and Vertigo-gritty. That's the wonderful thing about Hellboy, it contains a good balance of the dark supernatural and whimsy that it also led me to seek out books such as Invincible, and Amazing Joy Buzzards. It taught me what good writing in comic books could be. So thank you Mr. Mignola, for teaching me what modern comic books can be.

Not your average Fanboy....

I've been noticing something lately, as my tastes in comics change and I get busier and busier with school work and more work, I haven't been into a comic books store in the better part of a year. I know that's partially due to the fact that the nearest comic shop is a good 20 minute drive into the deepest darkest depths of suburban west omaha where the untamed suv's and the wildest trophy wives and soccermoms fight for dominance but I digress. My wake up call was when I logged on to my Amazon.com com account and realized it knows me better than some of my friends! I'm not entirelly sure how to feel about this. I jumped on there during class the other night to get a publishing date for a book we were talking about and found myself distracted by the "Recommended for you" front page. Ohhhhhh Hellboy! Dear god, I don't think I've ever gotten a Hellboy comic from there but they still know!
Now I'd love to be the new-age hipster who rails against the depersonalization of the electronic age touts that cell phones, ipods and computers are causing us to all be anti-social. But the fact of the matter is every "LCS" I've ever been to (save for one in K.C.) has been run by some facsimile of Comic Book Guy who's gonna sit there and make me feel stupid for not digging on Silver Age Green Lantern or some shit. I know my experience is not the norm but out here in the fly-over states I'm more than happy to let a web-page be my LCS and to have my comic friends on message boards. So I guess I'm not your average fanboy.

Education and the Future.

So in an effort to become a "real" writer and get out of the corporate/call center drudgery I've found myself in for the last 4 years or so, I've taken on the task of going back for my bachelor's degree in creative writing at the prestigious Creighton University in Omaha, NE. I'm somewhere between a sophmore and junior at this point, and existential crisis' aside, am hoping to parlay my degree into a career in writing or editing. A lot has changed since my last time round in higher education, primarily in the fields of literature and writing. Blogging is now taught in a schools as E-Writing, and I've done several projects and assignments for my lit classes on comic books. This gives me hope that I can finally take my passions and interests an hopefully make a fulfilling career out of them. If nothing else I'll at least have the tools to pursue my passions in such a way that my day to day work is more tolerable due to having something else to fulfill my creative needs. From time to time I'll post some of my more creative works and other endeavors on the sight for public review. As always feel free to comment.