The funny thing about my love for comics, is that it started off as hatred. Growing up I loved watching the animated series, Spider-man was my shit, I remember thinking “let that spider bite me, I want powers.” But, my uncle was the comic collector and I felt that it was strange that a grown man was reading comics and asking myself “What is up with that nasty beat up white box?”. Fast forward almost twenty years later and I am that grow up reading comics with a room filled with those boxes (not beat up and nasty, most have graphic designs on them), but how did I get here? How did I fall in love with Comics?

I enjoyed the X-men films as a kid and the animated version of Teen titans was among my favorites, but I would have to say in 2008 the release of The Dark Knight and Iron Man would spark an interest in comics. But, it was mainly the films that had me intrigued, reading the comics was intimidating and plus I had this mindset of what if she catches me reading comics. There was always that one girl that I was trying to impress and this fear of being caught reading a comic would drive her away. I would continue to be a fan of comic based films but I would never read one, until I had no choice. The following year, Watchmen the film was released and I loved it, I had to read the graphic novel.

So I waited until a family trip the following year to finally dive in to Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. My mind was blown by this book, at that time, it would had been shocking to see me read anything but for some unknown reason, this book had capture my attention and imagination unlike anything before. Sadly, I do not recall events from the family trip, but I remember that feeling of falling in love with something I once felt was childish.

After finishing Watchmen, I had to find something else to read and I figured hey, The Dark Knight Rises is around corner, why not check out Batman: The Killing Joke. If I was not falling in love with comics after Watchmen, than The Killing Joke was the final straw, I was hooked.

I would spend years just causally reading, I had no idea what a Wednesday warrior was until I met the other half of Noggin. See, she had never touched a comic in her life and after a couple months together, she borrowed a Deadpool graphic Novel from the collection and from that moment our lives were change. We would find ourselves collecting single issues and graphic novels as date nights. Together, we became Wednesday Warriors and we consider our local comic shop (Issues Needed) as our second home.

So what do comics mean to me? I think they represent an idea of expressive creativity, something that I was lacking while growing up. They also represent a connection and bound that was strengthen between two. I know it may seem cheesy, but comics saved my life and allowed me to find the love of my life.