The first part covered a bit of history and how I was introduced to the hobby. This part continues where the I left off. I'd peg myself to be roughly 7 or 8 by that time.
Having my maternal grandmother as the source of conceives reading was great - firstly, I got to read these comics for free. I would walk into her soon and get a few comics to read. Needless to say, there was a slight pecking order to follow. I could only read the issues that she had read, naturally - and others may have had the opportunity to borrow some issues before I could get my hands on them, of which I would not find the opportunity to read some of those - yup... As early as that time, I was already experiencing frustrations from people who borrowed but never returned things.
As I grew older, my grandmother retired - and so did her practice of getting comics (of which I could only guess that the news stand she'd get the comics from was near her old work place - and out of the way for the usual stop over when not working at all), and I was left with - well, back issues. One of my immediate discoveries - while reading, was the fact that some comics ended their stories - while others had continuations elsewhere... a frustration then since the comics I had access to were rarely complete, hence a lot of the stories were left hanging. Still, I got my fill of super hero stories watching the old Marvel Superhero animations (or what passed as such in those days) - thus did I get an introduction to Ironman, the Hulk, Namor, Thor and Captain America (all registered Marvel characters of course), while I was - at times, lucky to watch Batman (both the Adam West version and the older, more serious - though stranger looking soap episodes seemingly based on the 50's - I can't even remember the actor's name).
I guess, during this time, I had a hiatus with reading comics - having no access to them whatsoever - but because of the cartoons, my cousins and I would meet at our Grandmother's home (my father's side, this time) on Sundays, and we'd play out make believe ideas and scenarios - I would be Ironman (and once in a while, need to look for the nearest electrical socket in the most inconvenient times) and we'd have lots of fun. Of course, to our Grandmother, we were all a bunch of rowdy kids - and looking back, I guess I wouldn't blame her... heh, I find it a miracle that not too many of her things were broken while we had our adventures.
When I was around 12, I accidentally discovers a neighborhood store that rented out comics to people - suddenly, I was getting in touch with my favorite reading materials once again. I still had the problems of continuity between issues (it was not a complete collection being rented out), but I remember one particular issue that I stumbled upon - that literally shocked me. It was a story where Robin, while creeping into a window, gets shot (and even then I knew that getting shot was not a good thing - since people die when they're shot) and the next page, a picture of him in a coffin seemed to reaffirm my suspicion of the boy wonder's fate.
Now bear in mind that being of this age, I would naturally gravitate to - and imagine myself to be Robin, so it should stand to reason that I really was worried. I mean, if Robin dies - who'd I play? I wouldn't want to imagine myself to be playing a dead person... and I certainly did not want Robin to die, either. I finally got to read the entire comic and though I was at a tender age to still wonder how Robin survived a shot (I was later to understand the meaning of a sedative), and frankly I didn't care - I was just glad there was still a Robin. It was also this type of sensitivity to the character that made me cry when I could not watch how Robin (Burt Ward)escaped his seemingly deadly trap - all because an adult did not want to watch Batman.
So what had I learned about comics by this time? Heroes were good - villains were bad. Boy sidekicks were great. Heroes do get shot or blown up - but survive! (with the possible exception of Bucky Barnes - Captain America's WWII sidekick). I had some icons to look up to - but these icons were said sidekicks... and boy did I like it when I discovered the Teen Titans. Unfortunately, I was also at the age where I could not control my reading and viewing pleasures - comics were hard to come by... and television was more often than not, the privilege of grownups. I was, however, able to find kindred spirits - my cousin, for one - though I could only meet him on Sundays, but even better, I met a school friend (or two) that liked comics too.
It was with the latter association that I started getting aware of the 'us' vs. 'them' camp of heroes - more likely, the Marvel camp vs. the DC camp. I can't really remember why I ended up with the Marvel camp - I guess the arguments fro them was more compelling - and worth a separate discussion altogether. Which is exactly what I will do... next time.
Having my maternal grandmother as the source of conceives reading was great - firstly, I got to read these comics for free. I would walk into her soon and get a few comics to read. Needless to say, there was a slight pecking order to follow. I could only read the issues that she had read, naturally - and others may have had the opportunity to borrow some issues before I could get my hands on them, of which I would not find the opportunity to read some of those - yup... As early as that time, I was already experiencing frustrations from people who borrowed but never returned things.
As I grew older, my grandmother retired - and so did her practice of getting comics (of which I could only guess that the news stand she'd get the comics from was near her old work place - and out of the way for the usual stop over when not working at all), and I was left with - well, back issues. One of my immediate discoveries - while reading, was the fact that some comics ended their stories - while others had continuations elsewhere... a frustration then since the comics I had access to were rarely complete, hence a lot of the stories were left hanging. Still, I got my fill of super hero stories watching the old Marvel Superhero animations (or what passed as such in those days) - thus did I get an introduction to Ironman, the Hulk, Namor, Thor and Captain America (all registered Marvel characters of course), while I was - at times, lucky to watch Batman (both the Adam West version and the older, more serious - though stranger looking soap episodes seemingly based on the 50's - I can't even remember the actor's name).
I guess, during this time, I had a hiatus with reading comics - having no access to them whatsoever - but because of the cartoons, my cousins and I would meet at our Grandmother's home (my father's side, this time) on Sundays, and we'd play out make believe ideas and scenarios - I would be Ironman (and once in a while, need to look for the nearest electrical socket in the most inconvenient times) and we'd have lots of fun. Of course, to our Grandmother, we were all a bunch of rowdy kids - and looking back, I guess I wouldn't blame her... heh, I find it a miracle that not too many of her things were broken while we had our adventures.
When I was around 12, I accidentally discovers a neighborhood store that rented out comics to people - suddenly, I was getting in touch with my favorite reading materials once again. I still had the problems of continuity between issues (it was not a complete collection being rented out), but I remember one particular issue that I stumbled upon - that literally shocked me. It was a story where Robin, while creeping into a window, gets shot (and even then I knew that getting shot was not a good thing - since people die when they're shot) and the next page, a picture of him in a coffin seemed to reaffirm my suspicion of the boy wonder's fate.
Now bear in mind that being of this age, I would naturally gravitate to - and imagine myself to be Robin, so it should stand to reason that I really was worried. I mean, if Robin dies - who'd I play? I wouldn't want to imagine myself to be playing a dead person... and I certainly did not want Robin to die, either. I finally got to read the entire comic and though I was at a tender age to still wonder how Robin survived a shot (I was later to understand the meaning of a sedative), and frankly I didn't care - I was just glad there was still a Robin. It was also this type of sensitivity to the character that made me cry when I could not watch how Robin (Burt Ward)escaped his seemingly deadly trap - all because an adult did not want to watch Batman.
So what had I learned about comics by this time? Heroes were good - villains were bad. Boy sidekicks were great. Heroes do get shot or blown up - but survive! (with the possible exception of Bucky Barnes - Captain America's WWII sidekick). I had some icons to look up to - but these icons were said sidekicks... and boy did I like it when I discovered the Teen Titans. Unfortunately, I was also at the age where I could not control my reading and viewing pleasures - comics were hard to come by... and television was more often than not, the privilege of grownups. I was, however, able to find kindred spirits - my cousin, for one - though I could only meet him on Sundays, but even better, I met a school friend (or two) that liked comics too.
It was with the latter association that I started getting aware of the 'us' vs. 'them' camp of heroes - more likely, the Marvel camp vs. the DC camp. I can't really remember why I ended up with the Marvel camp - I guess the arguments fro them was more compelling - and worth a separate discussion altogether. Which is exactly what I will do... next time.
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