My history with comic books is a lengthy one, there are photos of me in third grade reading comics, so while I don’t remember my first comic, I do know I’ve been reading them for a long while. To me comics have always been a stress release. I stopped reading comics, when I first got married… you know the “honeymoon period” and got back into reading them a few years later during grad school. Since then I really haven’t stopped. Even when life wasn’t that stressful, it is always nice to escape into a world where good always triumphs over evil.
As many of you know I’m a teacher by day and last year I switched to a pseudo-teacher on special assignment kind of job which allows me to play with Lego (sometimes). I’ve spent a lot of the past year trying to create the school I would have wanted to go to as a kid. One where a geek can be a geek. I’ve been somewhat successful, but with education the way it is there’s always more to do… and that’s when they ask you to change your job. It’s just a tweak, nothing much, just work on technology training on top of curriculum development, and P.R. and interior decorating, and… You get the idea. I accepted the new challenge, so there is no one to blame but myself. So I’ve been reading a lot more comics in the little free time I have. I’m happy that Boom! is republishing Mike Kunkel’s Herobear and the Kid especially with the epilogue giving a little more back story. I’m just hoping that it will continue once they’ve gone through the first 5 issues. I’m also looking forward to starting my own MOOC dealing with Comic Books & Graphic Novels at the end of the month. But what’s really keeping me going is my local comic shop- Comic Carnival and how they take care of me. As I stray away from Marvel & DC and the hijinks they create in hopes of selling more comics(ultimate final infinity crisis of evil), everyone at the shop, especially Dan & Tim give me some wonderful recommendations that have really helped me get through some of the added stress. If you have a local shop give them a chance, the folks there are a wealth of knowledge and in most cases (everyone has a bad day) helpful and friendly. If not I would recommend getting a cat from a shelter, because everyone needs a cat as awesome as Hemi.
As for website upgrades- just another place for some stress. I was working on updating the site tonight and of course when I did, I broke something. I considered asking for help, but I did muscle through and only 2 hours later the site looks OK and hopefully I’ll have a chance to change a few things including adding a comic now and again. Especially since I signed up to do 24 hour comics day this year.