Today was an extraordinary adventure for Dadurday. I was reminded why my right brain was always far ahead of the left brain.
I remember spending roughly about 6-7 years collecting and reading just about every comic book I could get my hands on and then zap….comics were gone from my life. My excuse….I just got busy.
It wasn’t until recently, at a lightscameralists.com screening of the Comic Con/Stan Lee & Joss Whedon documentary, that I was reminded that I have this craving to imagine; to dream. Many of my memories are spun out of imagining I could lift things using the ‘force’ and reminding myself I could make it happen only if I trained harder. I dreamed of colossal feats that could only be done if I could just turn into the Hulk and get ‘angry’ enough. ( I was already 6 foot tall my 6th grade) #fail
So, when I won a $20 gift certificate at the screening raffle mentioned above, I was then set on a course to visit my past. AND bring my 2 year old son with me for his first time visit to a comic book store. YES!
As I pulled up I could feel my comic #cred go from 1.5 to 2.0 (out of 10) and wondered if Pat, the owner of Columbus Book Exchange in Columbus, Ga, would recognize me. He didn’t. I wasn’t sad……maybe a little. I glanced around and man had things changed. New location, new stories, no ‘cards’. I bounced around with my son, Gus, and tried to make sure he didn’t break anything as we both fumbled around akwardly while I tried to not appear out of place. Ha!
To give you the mind set, my comic days ended about the time Image launched. I was very proud of my Rob Leifield collection of ‘Youngblood’ and Todd McFarlane was just producing ‘Spawn’. I think that puts me around 1989 thru 1996 (9 years old through 16). During this time, I also began a love for drawing. I still have stacks of pencil and ink booklets that contain free-hand ‘tracings’ of all my favorite characters and even my own characters and a few years of abstract and artsy drawings. Not much though; matter of fact I just had a thought that I am not 100% sure where it all is. But I do think about it when I see others drawing and creating.
I am so glad I was able to experience the freedom of imagination through comics and I still to this day vividly over-conceptualize everything. I always ask ‘what-if’ and often take risks because deep inside there is this Hulk/Batman/Superman mentality that will allow me to prevail.
That mentality is also why I took my son to begin his long term obsession with imagination.
In his first comic book store trip, I have captured the images of his first time in a comic and hope one day I can show him where his right brain began to overpowered the dark side…um…I mean the left brain.
One of Gus's First Comics
