What is it about comic books that frighten people, the fear of not growing up? All my childhood I didn’t read books, I didn’t like them much. I felt that the pictures in graphic novels awoke my senses. They give passion behind the words, and allow a whole new world to enter into your fantasies. The struggle of what’s right and wrong, and facing your fears with an iron fist, squashing them.
In many comic books, it is not really a fight against an enemy that has an ugly face and bad breath, but the shadow self, the nemesis. If you read comic books enough you will find patterns alluding to the idea that everybody has an alter ego. Meaning, in these stories you are your enemy; you can’t beat them unless you beat yourself as well. Then what is so amazing about these story lines are that this is true in real life! You often don’t like an individual because they are exactly like you or better than you.
Webs of story line intertwine, telling of times past and things that may be in the future. It’s not that the fantasy and wonderment can’t be found in a book, but the lifetime of stories that never seem to end. When that sixty-paged book ends for the week/month, you just can’t wait for the next episode to come out. To see if the hero really dies, will the secret be discovered, or will the hero finally be defeated?
I truly can’t express in words how much comic books mean to me, and the lingering sensation I have after treading one. The only way I could have shown my love was through this multi-colored collage. I put everything in here, from magazine clippings to my own drawings, to photographs. Everything in here shows that it is okay to grow-up reading comic books. Keep the imagination running, don’t be afraid to let go of the past, hold on to what is important and run with it, and use it in the future.