Two years ago I got into comics and you may wonder, how does a 26 year-old married father get into comics? What is so appealing about comic books and super heroes? Although we won't get into all the details this time, I want to look back to where it all started for me.... way back.
Growing up, no one I knew read comics. I don't recall ever thinking about comic books when I was young, but that didn't stop me from loving super heroes Like most people, the start to my love for super heroes came from watching cartoons. Growing up some in the ‘80s, but mostly in the ‘90s, there were some great cartoons back then. You know, back when cartoons only came on Saturday morning and a few hours after school. You would try to hurry and finish your homework so you could watch them. It was because of those great cartoons then that would pave the way for me to want later on pick up comic books.
Lets look back for a little bit on some of the great cartoons I grew up with. Hands down, my all time favorite cartoon was, and still is, X-Men. What a great series huh? I know if it came on TV right now I'd turn it on. There are so many great X-Men characters and the cartoon helped me learn their names and powers and personalities. But the amazing part is that years later I found out it was all based on some awesome comic books (same story lines, costumes etc.).
(check out this link. It will bring back memories.)
Another great cartoon was Batman: The Animated Series OH OH.... Spider-Man was amazing!(no pun intended) WOW... we had it good back then!
Now, cartoons come on all the time on several different stations, and some show reruns of the ones I grew up watching. The Hub shows Batman: The Animated Series and I find myself turning it on while my wife is out of the room. I ask my 3 year-old daughter ‘Do you want to watch Batman or Micky Mouse?’ hoping she says Batman. And she sometimes she even does.
Batman: The Animated Series and Spider-Man I loved as well and like with X-Men, I learned all the characters really well through the show. With these two it was great because Batman and Spider-Man have so many villains that I looked forward to who was in each episode.
There are some other great cartoons that were not new when I was a kid that I enjoyed reruns of, like Super Friends. I still laugh about the Wonder Twins. They were very comical and I could never take them seriously. They did come out with a much better Justice League cartoon later on though. I still enjoyed it. It seems most of the cartoons I enjoyed growing up were super hero ones, but there were a lot of good ones back then.
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I guess I grew out of the cartoon thing or maybe they just canceled all the good cartoons. Either way, I have always enjoyed super heroes These great cartoons paved the way for this new nerd to pick-up comics and helped me learn all of the different characters, personalities, powers, origins, and even gave me some great memories of my childhood. (Maybe I've been a nerd the whole time and didn't know it.) Obviously these cartoons are not the same as the comic books but it was all I had then and I loved them.
You may be 26 dude, but I have been reading comics for thirty years! Nice article. As for cartoons, I grew up on the Superfriends initially, but quickly moved to "Spider-man and His Amazing Friends". That one was a great show and, as usual, Marvel opened up the Universe and brought in groups like the X-Men, Fantastic Four, the Hulk and Captain America. From there I snagged my first real comic from a gas station, Uncanny X-Men #173. This was it! X-Men in the early 80's was incredible and that story-arc with Silver Samurai was one of the best (and going to be in the Wolverine Movie this summer!). From there my mom began taking me to comic book stores around town in Kansas City and the rest is history. Superheroes and their stories are the myths for our age. They reach out to the epic story within all of us and call us to something greater! So glad you dove into COMICS! Thanks and keep writing the articles!
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