A Comic Addicts Profile

It came to my attention that since I was attemping to join knitting rings and such, it would be prudent to update my profile. While going about this stalker friendly chore, it asked me a question about my favorite books. Well, I just HAD to talk about my comic book collection. Hmpf. only 400 chracters are allowed. Thats just so wrong on so many levels. So here it is, what I wrote and it refused to publish (take THAT blogger script editor that is clearly biased against cartoonfoolery):

*Did she just say she had a comin book collection? That grown woman with 5 kids?*
Oh yes I did.

I've always loved my comic books. When I first learned to read at 5 years of age, my mom would get me Archie comic books to 1. encourage me and 2. to shut me up. I loved reading from the very start and was voracious in reading every piece of script around me. I ALWAYS needed something new to read and I knew how to bug her enough so that she would continue to purchase obscene amounts of comic books just to get me to leave her alone for 2 seconds. I adored Betty and Veronica, Jughead, Dilton Doiley, Midge and Moose, that rascal Reggie, poor Mr. Witherspoon, I always knew he had a crush on Ms Grundy. I myself had a thing for Jughead. We are talking about a serious collector here folks. I mean, I had a HUGE dishwasher sized cardboard box packed with comics that I read ALL THE TIME. I had them layed out in time line of events and everything. To an adult it looked like a box full of dead colorful trees, but to my 11 year old mind, it was a treasure trove of Riverdale history and I knew each and every inch of it. When we moved from Memphis, my parents left the box behind. The scar is still bleeding on that Ma, BLEEDING.
But I forgive you.
Yes, there were less than appropriate rags in there, like Cracked and Mad, but those were purchased before my mothers sanity returned to her. What 7 year old needs to be reading Mad magazine I ask you? One destined to be warped I think....
Still, my collection was awesome.
Now, as an adult, I can't bring myself to collect Archie and the gang anymore, its just too awful thinking about how many I once had, so I have turned to others.
Calvin and Hobbes. Brilliant stuff. I would love to know what Calvin is like now, as he would be about my age in cartoon land....my kids read and reread Calvin, so though we have the whole set, I regularly need to repurchase as they are boys, and treat books as hard as they treat toys. *sigh*
For Better or For Worse. I love the Patterson Family. I started this collection when I was first pregnant and am always looking for the lastest book. I was with Ellie when she first had Michael, and when she had April, I had another baby too. Ahhhhhhhh
Baby Blues. Man I love these two grown men who draw the funny side of family life SO well. Its a must have for new parents. The personalities, the delimas, and the flat out grossness that is sometimes parenting, well they capture the whole shebang. I am so totally Wanda.
Get Fuzzy. Okay, there is no explaining this cartoon, there is only loving it. Get a Darby Conley collective book immediately. You will thank me. I find my own pointy "attack first and never bother to question later" attitude in Bucky T. Katt every morning before coffee.
And Foxtrot rounds us off. The similarity to my own family is disturbing and riotous. My kids love this set more than all the others put together, and strangely I find comfort in that. I think its the idea that they want to emulate Jason more than Calvin that comforts me the most.

I really enjoy Rose is Rose, but Himself had to put his foot down somewhere, I mean, we just don't have enough room for a new collectiuon to grow if I'm going to continue buying knitting books like a mad librarian on a knitting mission. The funny thing is, My husband is most like Rose's husband Jimbo Gumbeo. I love that.

I think comics as a whole are completely underated as a literary genre. Ever since the printing press was first invented, comics have been a part of our daily lives. From political cartoons, and editorial commentary, to plain ole good natured guffaws. What is not to love?