I’ll never forget the first comic books I ever owned – glorious, rich images of superhero’s battling one another. They mesmerised me from a young age…and now 36 years of my life have gone by and I still read comic books.
I can sit on a bus or a train or a plane and happily pull out a graphic novel and sit and read it and people still stare. They look at you like you are some kind of Peter Pan who hasn’t grown up.
It’s a weird sensation sitting flicking through the latest Superman or Flash comic only for people to stare. I’ve even heard a few tuts in my time and the occasional whispered comment that I’ve picked up on.
But I’ll continue to do so especially with my iPad. Being able to access the Marvel or DC Comic store (although don’t get me started on how useless they are at times) and downloading a new comic still instills the same happiness in me similar to when my mum or dad would bring me some new comics to read.
I used to take a box of comics everywhere I went when I was young. So that I could always be near the stories I loved. I’ll never forget a weekend I spent at my parents friends place near Ayr, on the west coast of Scotland. I took a big box full of Superman, Batman, JLA, Aquaman, Spiderman and lots of 2000AD with Rogue Trooper stores – and when the weekend was over we drove off without them…
When I remembered I begged and pleased with my parents but they said that we had gone too far already on the way home and that their was no point in going back. I miss those comics.
Even living in Australia now I have stacks of comics back home in Scotland. They are in six long boxes in my parents loft and every time I go back to Scotland I sit in the loft with a torch catching up on some the classic storylines.
I also have a number of comics in their graphic novel format here in Australia as well as a number of collections but most of the time I download them these days as it allows me to enjoy them wherever I am. As I mentioned in my post about my iPad – one of the sheer joys of owning one is simply because I can carry my comics and novels with me.
There are a number of writers out there like Grant Morrison and Marc Miller (both Scottish – wooo!!), Geoff Johns, Brian Bolland, Brian Bendis and Alan Moore to name but a few whose stories could easily sit atop best seller lists if they were sold in novel format – yet once we place images onto the stories (as we have since humans could think) people seem to think it’s a childish endeavour.
Such a shame because a great story is always a great story no matter what medium is used to tell it.
kiltforhire 
I like to think that the Comic Book/Graphic Novel stereotype is changing now to be for a general audience than just a childish endeavor. (I’m idealistic, yes.) Especially these days with comic character adaptations in almost every film topping box office records. But I can relate to you, as even fans of such movies still manage to scoff or do an eye roll at the mention of my comic heavy critique of said films.
But I remain optimistic knowing that the audience has changed to the point where comic book writers are being given their due as artists in their own right in a broader medium (Geoff Johns becoming the CCO of DC) and their work is being recognized as being more than just for kids.
As young’un I to has 2 suitcases full of Archie Comics (my gateway comics prior to obsessing over the DC/Marvel stuff) which were quickly dismissed and discarded before we moved to Canada. It was a dark day I tell you.