Comics at Thirty Plus: Introduction

My foot is in my mouth about comics. Throughout my teens and early twenties I believed that comics were not worth my time. I was your run of the mill snooty-toot on the matter. I had plenty of friends with comic book collections, some of whom had boxes and boxes of them carefully packed away in their plastic wraps. I was curious what the allure was, and at times, I looked over the shoulders of someone who was reading a comic, but I never committed myself to reading one cover to cover. I never asked to borrow one. I never searched them out in the library (nor did I know they could be found there). I never really gave them a chance until quite recently, something like wintertime, 2009.

At that time, I had been invited to join a group of writers and artists at Denver's Drink and Draw, which meets at Leela's European Cafe every Tuesday. I was introduced to many artists and a few writers with whom I became enamored right away. It wasn't difficult to see the amount of talent contained in one room. It also wasn't difficult to see that the main emphasis at this particular shindig was comics.

Because I was so impressed, I began asking some of the artists I met what their top five comics suggestions were so I could become savvy to the medium. I wanted to be able to talk about comics with the Denver Drink and Draw Crowd. I had my mind blown by quite a few of the suggestions, which resulted in my deeming comics as a medium more than worthy of respect and study.

That is why I have decided to do a series of little articles featuring these top five lists. I hope to relay what I have learned from the artists and a little bit about the artists surrounding Cellar Door and Denver's Drink and Draw.

I hope you enjoy what is to come!

originally published at the Cellar Door Anthology Blog (http://cellardoorbook.blogspot.com/2011/03/comics-at-thirty-plus-introduction.html), March 27, 2011.