cleaning up and looking back..

From the ages of 10 to about 22, read, wrote, drew, dreamt and vibrated to comic books. The stories gave me a sense of imagination, a method of articulation, a sense of morality and a love of art.

There came a point when I had to walk away. I didn't make enough to support my habit. I didn't have enough time to read the books I was buying and the quality of books coming out was watered down to the point where the search for that amazing art and story was so difficult I was exhausted when I did find them and broke when I did. So I quit.

Occasionally I look back. I will go to a comic book shop and I'm out of place. The culture has evolved.

I still have my collection and now is the time for me to put them away properly. I've put this off for a long time because it meant  looking back and reliving not only the stories but my life at that time. I'm ready for it now.

I put in an order for 500 boards and 500 bags for a stupid amount of money and they came today. I tracked them from UPS the whole way and now like I did when I was 12 everything is out, on the floor.

I'm feeling the paper on my fingers. Carefully slipping the covers into the new bags and sorting titles and artists and heroes. I'm feeling a bit like the 12 year old in a 50 year old carcass.

Its going to take some time. I'm not getting done tonight and as a result I'm pulling some titles out to reread.

I'm reading "The Watchmen" and "The Dark Knight Returns" again so I can see the movies and cartoons.

50 looking back at 12 feels good, but if 12 could have seen through a looking glass to 50, I hope he would have been happy and how things sorted themselves out.