One of the very first posts I wrote for yr an adult, before I even knew that, literally, hundreds of people (I know! Hundreds!) might be interested in reading what I had to say about how weird I think adulthood is, was about my recently returned love of buying comic books. If you weren’t with me since the beginning (don’t worry, that doesn’t make you a poser), I’ll summarize: I’m dork, I like spending money impulsively, and there’s a comic book store around the corner from my apartment, so I’ve been spending $20-40 bucks a month there of late, all in a claim to not being a complete grown up yet. Anyways, late last night, my mind wandered to, of all things, Miles Morales, the new alternate-Marvel Universe black Spiderman, who created an obnoxious race-is-a-thing-we’re-still-not-good-at-talking-about media stir late last year (it’s summed up pretty perfectly by Jon Stewart, here). “Was that still a thing?” I wondered to myself. A couple iPhone strokes and I was wikipedia-ing whether the comic had lasted since the summer and whether the “critics” thought it was any good. After a little perusing, I was filled with a sudden impulse to read the comic book, but, it being 10:00 pm on a Sunday night, that didn’t seem possible. Then it occurred to me:
“Can’t you buy electronic comic books on your iPhone?” If less-practical lightening has ever struck, I’m not sure where.
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by Henry Goldman
The comic book store in Eugene was walking distance from my childhood home. This meant, from ages 10 to 13, whenever I got my allowance (between three and five dollars), I immediately walked over to Emerald City to promptly spend all of it. I usually one new comic for $1.95 and spending the rest on the bargain bin; worn, colored-on-with-crayon issues of Spiderman from the 80s and weird, discontinued comics, all for 5¢ to 25¢ a piece. I was a fiend, not just for the stories of outsider violence and the unrealistically drawn pictures of female superheroes. I was addicted to the instant gratification of wasting money. Once, for my birthday, I got a 50$ dollar gift certificate to the store. Now, a rational comic book enthusiast would spend it over time, carefully considering how to make the most of the gift. Me? I marched into Emerald City Comics, took one look at the display case and bought the 1st $50 comic I saw, a copy of Batman #500 signed by the writer. I was in and out in less than five minutes. And I had no regrets. Sure, I liked the comic books, but I loved wasting the money on them.
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