i wasn't a comic book kid
i didn't grow up on super-heroes. i bought the occasional king conan, but that was about it.
for me, it began in high school when someone told me the comic came before the band.
"what!?" me shocked.
"yeah, it was a comic first." my goth friend.
"love and rockets?" i checked.
"yeah."
"with super-heroes?" incredulous.
"never read it." she ended the conversation, turned up her walkman.
so i tracked down a copy. had never been in a comic book store until then. i saw the great spirit of marquez hanging over those pages. i was hooked. great characters, great tone, great spirit.
who said comics need super-heroes?
enter watchmen.
a punk friend lent me his worn copy. he said the only rule is that you can read only one chapter a night. lord knows it was hard not to read the whole thing in one sitting. but i followed the rules and took twelve nights.
famished now, i needed more. batman: the dark knight returns, ronin, elektra, swamp thing. i dined for a while. lotsa dessert!
but soon, this heyday of the late '80s, just like early hiphop, started to dry up.
the hernandez brothers stopped printing. miller produced his gems but took his damn good time. moore was a mystery. he seemed to disappear into one of his conspiracies.
every few months i'd wander the aisles of st. mark's comics or forbidden planet (in its original, more grand location) searching for something. something new, something breathtaking.
wandering. up and down.
but there was nothing much.
for years. nothing much.
i started to lose interest. my trips to the comic book store became more and more rare.
then, after a bite in koreatown, i stumbled upon jim hanley's universe, a new comic emporium in the shadow of the empire state building. i entered, not expecting much. but hoping.
and then i was eye to eye with some bald freak wearing a pair of 3-D glasses and an abe lincoln hat and beard. the artwork was superb -- clever and sharp. the maniacal grin on the character -- interesting.
picked it up, flipped it open.
from word one, i got it. profanity + anger + revolution + cynicism + drugs + cigarettes + truth + justice - fair = spider jerusalem. attitude perfect, tattoos perfect, sidekicks perfect. his name perfect.
he enters the gallery of classics. a true original. i await his new issue with little patience.
but rumor has it -- this is the end?
THE END?!?!?
it can't be. our world needs spider. please warren. please darrick. keep him coming. have him kick batman's ass. have him knock up wonder woman. break him into our world. have him educate bush on truth. let him bring peace to the middle east.
otherwise, i'll be forced to return to the aisles. famished. wandering up and down. hoping inspiration strikes this planet again.
--darren aronofsky
june 6, 2002
for me, it began in high school when someone told me the comic came before the band.
"what!?" me shocked.
"yeah, it was a comic first." my goth friend.
"love and rockets?" i checked.
"yeah."
"with super-heroes?" incredulous.
"never read it." she ended the conversation, turned up her walkman.
so i tracked down a copy. had never been in a comic book store until then. i saw the great spirit of marquez hanging over those pages. i was hooked. great characters, great tone, great spirit.
who said comics need super-heroes?
enter watchmen.
a punk friend lent me his worn copy. he said the only rule is that you can read only one chapter a night. lord knows it was hard not to read the whole thing in one sitting. but i followed the rules and took twelve nights.
famished now, i needed more. batman: the dark knight returns, ronin, elektra, swamp thing. i dined for a while. lotsa dessert!
but soon, this heyday of the late '80s, just like early hiphop, started to dry up.
the hernandez brothers stopped printing. miller produced his gems but took his damn good time. moore was a mystery. he seemed to disappear into one of his conspiracies.
every few months i'd wander the aisles of st. mark's comics or forbidden planet (in its original, more grand location) searching for something. something new, something breathtaking.
wandering. up and down.
but there was nothing much.
for years. nothing much.
i started to lose interest. my trips to the comic book store became more and more rare.
then, after a bite in koreatown, i stumbled upon jim hanley's universe, a new comic emporium in the shadow of the empire state building. i entered, not expecting much. but hoping.
and then i was eye to eye with some bald freak wearing a pair of 3-D glasses and an abe lincoln hat and beard. the artwork was superb -- clever and sharp. the maniacal grin on the character -- interesting.
picked it up, flipped it open.
from word one, i got it. profanity + anger + revolution + cynicism + drugs + cigarettes + truth + justice - fair = spider jerusalem. attitude perfect, tattoos perfect, sidekicks perfect. his name perfect.
he enters the gallery of classics. a true original. i await his new issue with little patience.
but rumor has it -- this is the end?
THE END?!?!?
it can't be. our world needs spider. please warren. please darrick. keep him coming. have him kick batman's ass. have him knock up wonder woman. break him into our world. have him educate bush on truth. let him bring peace to the middle east.
otherwise, i'll be forced to return to the aisles. famished. wandering up and down. hoping inspiration strikes this planet again.
--darren aronofsky
june 6, 2002
<3 ryan at 12:29 AM
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