When I was just an itty bitty boy my brother gave me a stack of comic books. The usual stuff was there Capes , cowls , webs and shields but one comic book stood out like a sore thumb. It was CONAN the barbarian # 24 introducing RED SONJA. I was captivated immediately...Sonja in the fountain CONAN cupping her chin about to move in and steal a kiss. The entire sequence left a lot to the imagination. From that moment on I knew that these types of comic books and others like them would be my reader's choice. Warriors and Warrior women. It took me to another time and place a different world. One like other 10 year old boys did not even know about. While they were all flipping baseball card I was having adventures. In my mind in my reading in my loose leaf comic books and yes even with a nice hefty branch to sub as a sword in the woods behind my house.
That one comic book opened up my mind and expanded my horizon's. I read I drew I went to art school to be a comic book artist ( I failed ) but at the end of the day I take comfort in knowing that all that reading about adverturer's and moral's and chivalry and value's just served to make me and other people just like me smarter and more understanding than most people.
I make no claims but I know we as fans....we just seem to care about things a little more than most. For me it was because of RED SONJA and CONAN.
A little independent title called Trollords got me interested in comics, but it was the abundance of fantasy titles put out by the indie publishers of the 80s that hooked me for good. I didn't stumble upon Conan or Sonja until Dark Horse & Dynamite started publishing them in the past few years.
ReplyDeleteAs far as caring more...well, some fans are more moral and chivalrous than others. I don't know how strong a hand comics had in shaping my character (must have been the lack of Sonja and Conan in those formative years).