I've watched “The Big Bang Theory” on TV for several years now. One thing that always intrigued me was the
sign in Stuart’s shop that read “One Dollar Comics.” One dollar comics? What kind of comic books could you buy for a
dollar? At Stan Lee’s Comikaze, my first
comic book convention, I discovered that you could buy quite a lot of old comic
books, some of them for as little as one dollar. Among those were the comics I missed out on in
my youth.
After my friend took me to the movie theater to see “Star
Wars,” he also introduced me to “Star Wars” comic books. Back then, the only places you could purchase
comic books were the spinner racks in Liquor stores, and no respectable church
attendee ever entered such places, right?
But in this as well, my love for Science Fiction and Fantasy triumphed,
and I braved official scorn to peruse the spinner racks in such stores regularly. In the process, discovered a variety of
titles that, while told more simply than in movies and in books, nonetheless
transported me to worlds of wonder. The
only problem? Sometimes months went by
when, for whatever reason, I couldn’t track down the latest issue of a favorite
title.
During college I finally got smart, and subscribed to the comics
I loved most. But after graduation, my
interest in comics waned as prices rose and the industry changed, until amid the
demands of an evolving life, I forgot about them altogether.
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| Yes, in case you're wondering, I am a Conan fan. (And a Red Sonja fan, and a King Kull fan, and...) |
Since Comikaze, I’ve tracked down several comic book shops
in my area. Perhaps I suffer from EAS
(Easy Amazement Syndrome), but I’ve been stunned to discover that I could plug some
of the most gaping holes in my collection, and do so affordably. I can relive the excitement of the comics
I’ve held onto through the decades, and experience, for the first time, those
adventures that I missed out on, because I could never find them in the shops.
I used to wonder why guys with genius level intelligence
like Sheldon, Howard, Raj, and Leonard preferred comic books to novels. After spending the day writing and
researching, I sometimes lack the focus necessary to immerse myself in a novel,
particularly the more demanding and challenging ones. A comic book offers a literary alternative to
TV for the fatigued brain, and reading the comics of my youth reminds me of that
earlier era, when I fell in love with Science Fiction and Fantasy, and began to
dream of writing my own stories.
Given the way Stan Lee has reawakened my love for comic
books, maybe someday I’ll have to write him into one of my stories. How about Stanley, loveable handyman by day,
but gruff, international crime-fighter by night? How about A. N. Sleet, the cool visionary who
always wears Raybans? Or hey, consider Teal
Sen, a caped crusader from the planet Levram? Ooh, think of the possibilities!
Dragon Dave
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