It's All A Soap Opera In Spandex

I've had people ask me many times about why I still read comic books. Many of them are under the impression that this is a hobby meant for the young and people just naturally grow out of it. They seem to see it like chewing your fingernails or having an imaginary friend. Once you reach whatever the golden age of adulthood that they have in their minds, then you stop being interested in those childish thing.

The trick is that I tend to see what they're saying as being totally wrong.

Back when I first started reading comics regularly which I believe was somewhere around my tenth year of existence, it was all about the cool superheroes and the adventures. The suburbs were my childhood battleground and it tended to be just as calm as it sounds. The stories in those comics showed me the big world that was out there. It didn't matter that none of the characters were actually in the flesh. All that mattered was that the were alive in my mind.

Fastforward to a grown-up me and my interest has kind of shifted. From just being interested in the color and the sparkle, I've now moved into a more story driven frame of mind. The series that I read are ones with more realistic plots and believable characters. These comics are like all of those shows crowding the television dial. Comics are my Lost, 24, Desperate Housewives, and any other show you can think of. I just have to wait around a month between the story installments.

I sold off a large portion of my collection a couple years ago. There were a couple reasons, including needing the money and space. Maybe it was a little moving on from the stories that I read in the past into a more adult future or whatever you can think of. Either way, I'm still heading over to the local shop every Wednesday to get the next installment of the four-color soap opera.