I haven't always been a comic book lover, that's for sure. Where I live, comic books weren't really a thing you read, at least not in the city I grew up in. The only comic book I read was Donald Duck that we got every week from the mail. I think I got my hands on some Spider-Man books in the mid and late 90s, but for me that was 'a boy thing'. I was more into reading novels and books without pictures. Looking at my younger brother now, who is 13 years old, he actually started liking reading because he was reading some comics. Still, I don't think the demand for comic books is still not at the level that it is in, for example, U.S. But I think that with the recent success of the comic book based movies, there are more for people to pick up.
Back to my journey of becoming a comic book lover now. I was introduced into the comic book universe by the movies. I feel like this is frown upon on the community just like people getting into certain books only after the movie is released. In my opinion, that's just ignorant. Everyone has their own way of joining into their hobbies and getting into something they love. So, for me, the first movie that really lit up that spark to know more was the 5th installation of the X-Men movie franchise, X-Men: First Class, in the summer of 2011. Then through social media I got to know more people who were so invested in this world of massive amount of characters and stories. So during the summer 2011, I made sure to watch all the available movies from Marvel. I was never really a fan of the Batman movies, excluding The Dark Knight, because the movies were really dark and didn't have that comic book feel to it, at least not for me.
The community and discovering the MCU ( Marvel Cinematic Universe ) were a ground breaking point for me. But, luckily for me, there was more to discover. The comics. I started reading some comics online and focusing on certain characters that had interested me in the movies. Reading more comics and watching the movies over and over again, made me see them in a whole new light. This world is almost infinite. There are comic books from Marvel with these characters from the 1960s. That's more than 50 years of stories to read and character development to see. And that's only the Marvel Universe.
During my time in England I got my hands on several issues of my favorite comic books. I think of myself as a bit of materialist, I like to have the hard copies on my shelf even though I might read them online. I would purchase more comics as hard copies, but the only option for me is to order from abroad and the shipping costs are about triple the price of the actual comic. So purchasing them on a reading tablet is what I do.
Maybe few words about how people react to someone who likes comic books. I've learnt that especially guys, who are familiar but would not call themself a fan, are giving a smug grin and looking down on you for it. They give you all these 'questions' to try to seem more masculine, because the major audience for comic books is guys, and when you outsmart them because you actually know what you are talking about, they go very quiet. This is, however, not a hobby with gender restrictions. There are comic books made for girls, for guys, for both and mostly for anyone. Anyone who enjoys a good plot and characters. Comic books, like when I grew up with Donald Duck, are not books that are meant to read while in the bathroom. They are literature just as much as any other novel and they are an art form that should be just as respectable as any other form of art.
I'm always encouraging people to read, whether it's comic books, poems, novels, news or blogs. Hope you go pick your favorite book or magazine and have a nice weekend with some good reading.
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