Not a Library

There are a few things that got me in to comics. My friends at school were in to them. My dad once brought me home an issue of ROM: Spaceknight. An annual Christmas gift was a roll of about 10 comics--the first year my mom did that I was very surprised, but subsequently looked forward to a cylindrically shaped package. When my mom took me to the library on Fridays after school, I'd often read young adult mysteries or The Chronicles of Narnia. I would also frequently take out a Superman anthology.

I remember being bored with supermarkets as a kid; still am. I liked when my parents went to Pathmark, though, because their magazine section used to carry comics. I used to read a lot of books until my parents were done shopping or some pimply-faced bag-boy informed me that “it's not a library!” It wasn't long before I was buying my own comics though. Eight years and 4,000+ books later, I finally stopped. I was out of college. I had a girlfriend. I had better things to spend my money on, and I was starting to wake up to the fact that in nearly twenty years I hadn't saved a dime; I didn't even have a bank account. Whatever money I got, I spent. I remember once finding money on the street while shopping with my mom. She was very happy for me, but when I “wasted” it on a Robotech figurine not ten minutes later, she scolded me. I still have that toy though, and all the comics I went on to “waste” money on. I think that stuff made me happy and was worth it, but I really don't know where I'd be today if I had been smarter with my money.

Even though I stopped collecting comics, I still like to pick up the occasional trade paperback or graphic novel, or just check out current storylines via the internet. The internet is the new “not a library” for me in many ways. Earlier today while some friends were shopping in Tower Records at lunch I got back to my roots and flipped through TPBs in the store. There's a lot of good stuff out there still. One Ultimate X-men story I read blew me away. A teenage boy awakens to find his home empty, his mom's clothes laid out on the kitchen floor. He leaves her a note and walks to school, passing an empty dog collar. At school while talking to another student things really get weird when everyone around him seems to spontaneously combust and disintegrate, leaving only their clothes behind. As she dies, the girl he was talking to tells him “It's YOU!”

Later, we find the boy on the outskirts of town holed up in a cave. He's joined by Wolverine who sets a campfire and breaks the bad news to the kid over a few beers; upon hitting puberty the young boy's uncontrollable mutant power emerged. He's toxic to anyone around him, and has already caused the death of over 200 people. Wolverine is immune because of his healing factor, and when the kid sobs about his curse and how he can't live with being death to anyone around him, Logan's silence tells him why he's there. After some more silence, the boy regrets, “I guess I should have done more...enjoyed life while I was here.”

We get a few silent panels of the cave entrance, and then a somber Wolverine emerges. Powerful stuff, stuff you wouldn't see in one of the mainstream X-books.

Speaking of living life to the fullest, I highly recommend the film Without A Paddle which I feel was VERY misrepresented in trailers. Thirty-somethings especially will appreciate a tale of high school friends separated by growing up and reunited by tragedy, to discover what really has value in this world. I'm glad a friend recommended it to me; I've got to stop going by trailers one of these days and take more risks...