It seems like when all those superhero movies started to come out, everyone and their mom became self-professed “comic nerds.” I was like, okay — were you reading before then? It’s okay if you weren’t and it’s okay if you were, but I didn’t get into them before or after so when it came time to write this I was at a loss. What comics did strike my fancy as a kid? I was a huge Archie fan for some time in like 4th or 5th grade. Don’t ask me what got me into it, and I’m not going to talk about my love of those clean-cut characters, but rather my strip club love — the comic strip that is. Yes, it’s a month dedicated to comic books, but this is my personal take and I love the Sunday comics in the paper; always have and always will.
When I was younger my family only got the paper on Sunday. This was because we couldn’t afford a subscription and it was the day that the sales ads came out. From very early on I’d grab the Walmart, Kmart and Best Buy ads, hoping to one day get everything I craved in them, and also the comics section. I’d read almost all of them, even the ones I didn’t really get, but they didn’t quite compare to the favorites like Luann, Zits, Family Circus, Baby Blues and Bizarro. Hell, even Dilbert was one I couldn’t help but love. Hey, remember when Baby Blues and Dilbert got TV shows and sadly didn’t last? Fact — I now hear the Baby Blues characters’ voices when I read them to this day.
Sadly as a “grown up” I don’t get the Sunday paper, or any paper for that matter, and now can only catch up with my comic love, Jeremy from Zits, when I happen to visit my mom. Even though we spend months at a time apart, I fall right back in love with Jeremy and all my other favorite characters from those strips all over again each time, especially Luann. She is like my generation’s Cathy — a girl who just wants to be the way better version of herself.
So yeah, I don’t have a long heartfelt connection to comic books. Sorry Archie, I loved you and your pals once upon a time but that didn’t really have a huge effect on my life and I’m sure all the books I made my mom buy are long gone in a dump by now. So while I was never a comic book enthusiast, I will always be a comic strip appreciator.
