Okay, admit it. We all have our own reasons for going out and spending countless
amounts of money for those
comics and figures and so on and so forth. Well, way back in the Christmas season of
'93, my father brought
home one of those Pizza Hut/Marvel Comics videos with the first two episodes of the
X-Men animated series.
I was hooked from that moment. Every week my allowence was spent on any X-book I could
find. I loved the art,
the stories and the color. What particularly caught my eye was Rogue and Gambit
then..(and it still does today.)
Well, as the X-books started to get worse, I started to lose interest...the art got
sloppier, there were more
dangling plots..it just lost my attention. The prices went up, but the value went down,
it became a waste of
money. The first X-book I gave up was Generation X, which I'd been addicted to since it
was created. I'd had
the ashcan preview, *everything* up until Hama began his run...I read this junk about a
Pooka and other crazy
crap like that. I dropped the book faster than anything...then the other X-books
followed one after another.
The only one that really kept my attention was Uncanny X-Men and the occasional X-Men.
And I loved Uncanny
because of Joe Maduriera's run. He was an awesome artist, and I had no complaints with
the Trial of Gambit
storyline. As a matter of fact, it was my favorite. But, then we got past the Trial of
Gambit, and came into
more crap...I stopped buying books all together. Every now and again, I'd pick up a
book that looked like it
had a decent story to it, or had to do with Rogue. Of course, I couldn't look for good
art because there hasn't
been too much of that with Chris Bachalo as artist. So, we have reason number one for
my decreasing interest
in comicbooks.
Reason 2: Have you ever had to put up with a crappy comicbook dealer?
Okay, I live in a good sized town..actually, it's more like a city. Kansas City,
Missouri as a matter of fact.
You'd think there'd be more than one place to buy comics in a place so widely populated
and so big, right? WRONG.
I have one place to go that I can buy comics. That's in Blue Springs, which is a good
20 minute drive from where
I live. So naturally, I go out there to get comics, and I'm quite excited because this
week I'm gonna pick up
an issue of Transmetropolitan. I'm thinking "Great! I can finally see what all of my
comic geek friends are raving
about!" I get there, I pick up my usual comics and go to find Transmet. It's not there.
I ask for help "Oh, I'm
sorry, but we don't sell that." I go insane right there. There's no other place to buy
it, and I don't want to
get a subscription to it, what if I don't like it?
"Well...can't you order it?" I say calmly.
"Nope."
Grr. That pisses me off. The one comicbook store in my area. I waste my time, money and
gas to go there...and
they're too lazy, stupid or inconvenienced to order a single issue of Transmet for me.
Sucks, huh? Would you put
up with that crap to feed an addiction? A nasty old bunch of guys who treat you like
crap at a single word? No way. Never. So, we have my second reason.
Sometimes, it seemed that picking up comics was just an inconvenience for me. I mean,
I'm a 16 year old girl,
walking into a comicbook store filled with a bunch of guys that stare at me like I'm a
freak. "Shouldn't you
be curling my hair or looking at a Teen magazine?" One of them actually asked me that
once! Going out of my way
to a store just to get crappy comics, or make a decent attempt to get comics I couldn't
have just seemed lame
and unreasonable, so I gave it up. Sure, I'll pick one or two up from time to time, but
I seriously doubt I'll
ever be as hooked on comics as I was. I can't say it's a sad thing....at least I'll
have money to waste on other
things now.