I’ve loved comics since before I could read them on my own. Growing up, I had a filing cabinet full of comics.
One of the drawbacks of having comics as a kid is that kids aren’t good at taking care of things and I read my comics until many of them fell apart. But just because they were ripped and cover-less doesn’t mean that I didn’t love those books. When my family moved from the Bronx to Miami, I threw many of my old beat up comics away and only a handful survived the move.
Since, that move I’ve established a new collection, long boxes full of comics are piled up in my home-office and dozens of trade paperbacks line the shelves. Nowadays, I find myself reading each comic and filing it away and maybe reading it once or twice more, if I’m particularly wowed by it. But the comics from that filing cabinet the Bronx, I read over-and-over again, the panels are burned into my brain. Where they better comics than what currently comes out or do I remember them fondly the same way a girl in her late 20’s remembers the Backstreet Boys, not because they were good but because they were popular during her formative years?
I’m determined to find the answer. None of my comics were particularly special, most were single issues, not worth much money. I decided to find as many as I can on Amazon, Ebay and conventions and pick them up, not to send them away to get graded but to read them and see if they hold up to my childhood memories.
I am Matt Masdeu and I am the Re-Collector!
I decided to change this week's blog and not do the book I previewed in last week’s edition of the Re-Collector in order to pay tribute to a great artist that we lost this past week, Berni Wrightson. Wrightson’s worked for both DC and Marvel, creating Swamp Thing as well as illustrating The Stand and The Dark Tower for Stephen King.
I was reminded of this books existence after watching Guardians of the Galaxy, I was filled with the energy that a comics fan has after seeing a great comic book film with a non-comics fan and was frantically explaining to my wife the concept of the Infinity Gems and how as a kid I had a Silver Surfer book, where the Reed and Sue Richards brawled under the possession of the gems.I was reminded of this books existence after watching Guardians of the Galaxy, I was filled with the energy that a comics fan has after seeing a great comic book film with a non-comics fan and was frantically explaining to my wife the concept of the Infinity Gems and how as a kid I had a Silver Surfer book, where the Reed and Sue Richards brawled under the possession of the gems.
