Originally published at Fortress of Baileytude. You can comment here or there. Looking back on the past few weeks worth of posts I realized that I have been talking an awful lot about the DC side of my comic fandom. Sure I made a reference to the Hulk at one point but man, I let that DC flag fly. It makes sense. I am a DC guy first and foremost but sometimes you just have to mix it up or at least sometimes I just have to mix it up.
Thinking of a non-DC topic wasn’t all that hard, actually. I was chatting with my buddy Big Honkin’ Steve the other night and he reminded me of a series of books that were put out in 1981 that were a mix of reprints and text giving the reader a history of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and Captain America. Steve related the story of how he found the Fantastic Four and Incredible Hulk volumes in a library when he was a kid, which is always cool to hear. One of my first comic reading experiences came at the school library and with more libraries carrying graphic novels and trades I’d like to think that maybe a new generation of fans could get their start by reading comics for free. Sure it makes comic books sound like a drug; the first hit is always free, but frankly it is an addiction and the question you have to ask yourself is how much of an addict do you want to become?
Sure it makes you feel good, but at what cost, I ask you? What is the cost?
Getting back to the point; in talking to Steve I was reminded of the fact that I own one of the books that were in the series that Big Honkin’ discovered back in the halcyon days of his youth. In the summer of 1995 I was at a flea market with a buddy of mine from college and there were several booths that sold comics. I wasn’t aware of the fact that flea markets sold comics because I had never been one before but darn it all if they weren’t there.
Read the rest of this entry » | 
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
michaelbailey's journal
