Awakening old passions.

Sketch by me circa 1995-ish?

I've been getting really into comic books lately. Back in prehistoric times I was a huge comic book fan, amassed a rather large collection over the years, and even originally intended on becoming a cartoonist, believe it or not. I was lucky enough to work in a comic book store during the '80s explosion—roughly from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles blowing up through the whole Watchmen / Dark Knight / comics-for-grownups revolution—but my interest fell as the '90s came in and the scene looked far different.

I kept up with old loves between then and now, picking up books collecting various runs or storylines and occasionally sampling new content to see where things were going in general. But from 1990-2020 most of the new books I read were the indies and not the mainstream superhero stuff. I didn't suddenly turn into a snob, it's just that the superheroes had gotten so convoluted they no longer spoke to me. No judgement!

Over the last year or so I've gradually been exploring more and more new stuff, and when the pandemic hit it only took a few months for that spark to catch and turn  into a new, fiery passion.

More on that later, as well as what Ive been reading that really blows my mind, but it's been nice to return to familiar ground no longer feeling the itch of the collector, instead occupying the mental space of the inspired observer. It's also spurred me to return to ancient sketchbooks to try and remember how I got to the point I was then, artistically, and how much of that I can still salvage and how much has been replaced by decades by new muscle memory when it comes to sketching.

Blah blah blah to most of you, I know. But this is exciting news to me!