As a kid, I was quite a bit different from my younger brother Benjanime.  In fact, we had quite a few differences in hobbies.  He has always loved video games; I hardly have ever played them.  Rarely did he ever play with action figures and such, whereas that was all I ever played with.  And I also liked collecting certain things.  Not collecting as far as keeping them in their original package till the end of time, but collect and PLAY WITH EVERY SINGLE PIECE SIMULTANEOUSLY just to add on to the creativity and adventure I had embarked on in my imagination. 

I collected only whatever suited my favor as a kid:  Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars (kept in a holiday cookie aluminum can), G.I. Joe figurines and vehicles (kept anywhere I could keep them within eyeshot), Legos (kept in a huge cardboard box), etc.  It wasn’t until later in my mid-teen years when I would start collecting something that did not require my creativity, but was rather prewritten.

One year, while in the Air Force on leave at home in VA, I went into Ben’s bedroom closet just to see what was left of mine while everyone was at work and school.  In there I found a Sam’s Club double value-styled cereal box on the floor in the back with the top cut off.  Just as I had pulled it out and saw what was inside, I remembered what was in there. 

Comic books.  I had almost completely forgotten I had started collecting and reading comic books bought at yard sales and thrift stores before I joined the military, consisting of random issues of Spawn, Daredevil, and mostly Batman.  There were none in particular order, however I had some graphic novels, one that grabbed my attention the most and affected the entire Batman series.

 

In case you’re not brushed up on Batman 101, here’s a short little synopsis of the book.  CAUTION:  SPOILER ALERT.  Batman catches a young Jason Todd stealing the wheels off of the Batmobile one night, so instead of scaring him off with intimidation, Bruce Wayne kind of adopts Todd on the spot.  Wayne sees potential in Todd, training him in martial arts and immediately promoting him to the first Robin.  Todd investigates his family past, discovering his own mother had been held captive by the Joker in the Middle East.  He pursues her freedom only to find out she willfully volunteered to work for the Joker.  As a result, she sabotages Jason, giving him up to the Joker, and is also sabotaged by the laughing loon.  The Joker beats Jason to near death with a crowbar, and sticks him and his mother in a nuclear warhead facility filled with explosives to cover his tracks.  Jason does all that he can to save his mother and himself, but both perish in each other’s arms from the explosion. Jason ends up forgiving his mother in the final moments of their lives.

This is a pivotal point in Wayne’s life as Batman, because it makes him more cautious about getting close to those around him, just to have them ripped away from him by death.  But I digress…

This particular book was the reason I started collecting and reading Batman graphic novels.  There are other ones I had as well that I really enjoyed, such as the Killing Joke, which gives the story of how Barbara Gordon ultimately becomes the Oracle.

Also Arkham Asylum, which is beautifully illustrated with watercolor, screen printing, and every other style of art you can imagine that adds on to its extremely dark and morbid greatness.

With the box full of comics stuffed into my suitcase, I flew back to my place at the end of my leave.  Pretty much the next day, I was at Barnes & Noble looking through their graphic novel section for Batman books.  I think I may have walked out with about $120 worth of books that day.  I've never been a fan of B&N primarily because of their lackluster customer service, however to this day their variety in graphic novels has surpassed any other bookstore I've been to.

And I think that’s why I prefer graphic novels over individual issues nowadays, because novels in the comic book world are literally the entire series collection of individual issues.  They’re cheaper in the long run, and you don’t have to wait each month for the next issue of the series to come out (you just have to wait till way longer for the graphic novel to come out).  Thankfully, my wife is totally cool with my collection, only because I’m semi-cool with her strange collection of ceramic horse carousels.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading my first article as much as I enjoyed writing it.  After having read Ben’s articles, I felt this was a good start to my series of articles.  Cheers!