Fanboys, Fire Permits And Frightening Mismanagement: The New York Comic Con Goes Horribly Awry

Since Mrhood75 was gracious enough to give the Prep Time Posse and it's readers a taste of San Francisco's Wondercon, I figured it would be a nice way of making my official PTP debut by doing the same for the con here in New York.

I packed up my digital camera and a notebook(along with my prepaid and preregistered tickets, to avoid the line), hoping to bring back Kevin Smith ramblings, some cool comic swag, the latest news and a picture of Milla Jovovich eating something (just to prove she does).

After several hours of travel while lugging all of my junior reporter gear and a stack of books just begging for creator signatures, I finally arrived exhausted at the Javits Center.


Only to be denied entrance.

The staff was claiming that the venue had had a visit from the fire marshall and they were not selling any more tickets. When I explained that I had already purchased tickets and registrations, I was directed to wait in a very long line of other confused patrons. Wasn't this what we were all supposed to have avoided? All we needed to do was pick up our badges.

After a significant wait, another less than courteous staff member confirmed that we were not getting into the event, and refused to issue any refunds for the fans in the line (prepaid or not). Some of them got directed to the New York comic con website, some of them were promised entrance tomorrow, some of the more argumentative types (myself included) got a preprinted rejection letter.

I don't have a scanner to get a clear shot of the document, however I'll type out the choice bits:

Dear attendee:
The New York Comic Con refund policy requires all refund requests must be made in writing and postmarked by March 3rd, 2006. Refunds postmarked after this date will not be accepted or considered. No email phone or fax cancellations will be considered. Refunds are not guaranteed.


If you registered with a credit card, please allow two full billing cycles for refund processing.

If you have an issue on site at the event, your letter must be postmarked by Friday March 3rd and you must have this letter signed by a Reed employee.



I won't bore all of you with the full version, but after hours of traveling and a few more hours of waiting, I was a bit less than pleased to be denied an immediate refund, let alone having to mail off a pile of paperwork the size of my college application for the privilege of waiting two months to potentially get my money back. I had been awake since 5am and has spent considerable time and money ( about $200) to get to the con by noon and the closest I had come to anything comics related was a few costumed fans and a Batman made out of Legos.

During this entire process I was treated to a staff that was a combination of rude and incompetent not seen since the heyday of my local McDonald's drive through clerk. Herds of attendees milled about aimlessly, getting directed to hours long lines and being given a different flimsy explanation from every staff member they asked.

I was not the only one who got royally screwed, as even preregistered ticket holders who had waited for hours in the cold before the con even opened ended up being denied entrance, as there was no organization to who was allowed in or any special consideration given to the pre paid attendees to guarantee them entrance or not having to wait on as long a line. Even exhibitors were turned away if they even so much as stepped out for a cigarette( some vendors never gaining entrance at all, even if they had just arrived), with staff making no guarantees if their passes would be honored for tomorrow. From press to exhibitors to fans, it was complete and total chaos.

To add insult to injury, I overheard a chief of event security snarkily remarking to another staff member " Ugh. They're all getting upset because it says refunds aren't guaranteed." What was she expecting these poor people to do? Pass her a gold star and a cookie?

I find it quite suspect that despite a supposed impromptu visit from the fire marshall and the building being over capacity being blamed for the fiasco, that an otherwise completely inept event staff just happened to have rejection/ refund forms all printed and ready on official New York Comic Con stationary. Factor in that many poor souls were directed to the website (which as of the time of this writing has no relevant information whatsoever) and the few that did get the letters were not informed to get a required signature from a staff member, it almost seems a deliberate money grab on the part of Reed Exhibitions ( the event staff).

It would be very easy to suspect that they intentionally oversold the prepaid tickets ( their worthlessness was blamed on a website error), packed the venue with fans coming in off the street very early on, then will most likely pocket the fees collected from both vendors and fans who were given incorrect or incomplete refund information. They could potentially even fleece those of us who did get the letter signed and mail in all of the required paperwork. The letter clearly states that refunds would not even begin to be processed until April and that two billing period wiggle room would place the transaction out of the 90 day limit for better business bureau complaints.

For what was supposed to be a major event for a multi million dollar industry, the blatant disrespect for the fans has put a bad taste in my mouth for any future New York based conventions. I'm sure the hundreds other fans who were treated in similar fashion will feel the same when they realize that their potential "refunds" are worthless due to either accidental or deliberate staff error.


I wonder if Mrhood75 would mind if I flew out to Wonder Con next year.

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Sympathy for the Devil or Mad (Titan) Love

"Am I not Thanos?! Did I not butcher the woman who gave me birth, who force-fed me into this hell called life?! Is not the wake of my passing crimson with the blood of my enemies and allies alike?! Death is with me every second of the day! My every moment is spent in either dealing out death or worshipping it! So tell me, who under the stars is better suited than I to be Death's consort?"

You know just because he killed his own mother and tried to lay waste to half the universe doesn’t mean you don’t have anything in common with the Mad Titan, Thanos.

How many stupid things have you done to impress a girl?

Granted, odds are the girl isn’t the personification of death but c’mon.

You meet this girl. Instantly, you are attracted to her.

You HAVE to get with her.


She can sense it too. Not sense that she has these amazing feelings for you…but that you have these intense feelings for her and suddenly, she knows she won’t be paying for a movie or dinner any time soon.

You have a couple of casual conversations. You learn she has certain hobbies and things she’s really passionate about.

“You like death and nihilism? I LOVE nihilism!!! We are so alike.”

But now you’ve got to prove it.

Next thing you know you are committing genocide.

What do you think?

Yeah, she likes it but she won’t show it. She’ll let you hang around but you never feel like she’s totally sold on you.

You have friends who tell you, “Man, there are chicks out there than this one. Why are you wasting all your time on her?”

Sometimes you listen, sometimes you become mortal enemies.

"Dude, she's not worth it. There's a personification of
Horny that's always free. Not Love, HORNY!! Seriously!"

You try to become a better person. A person that she can respect. Some people learn Spanish or try to learn how to cook.


You think you’ve got her. You think this is it. But she is still unimpressed.

You’ve got to SHOW her how much you love her.

Someone talks funny about her, you get violent and you are ready to fight.

"She is not a bitch. You just don't know her like I do"

You eventually get tired of her nonplussed attitude and you try and make her jealous but when it appears she doesn’t care, it only hurts you more.

"Did you meet my new girlfriend? Don't you wish you were
sitting on my lap in a bikini? You don't. Get off me, whore!"

You keep trying and trying but in the end…she’ll never love you the way you love her.

Yeah, despite the mass murder and power hungry moves and the millions of deaths at his bloody hands...

...we all know a Thanos.

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Once again another PSA to all those comic book writers out there.....


ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Let these guys die already


Part 2 of ... STORM!!! Number One Super Hoe coming in 2 weeks

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Daredevil: Ladies Man

Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains.
I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me,
For I am much ashamed of my exchange:
But love is blind and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit;
For if they could, Cupid himself would blush
To see me thus transformed to a boy.
--from William Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice

I love girls, girls, girls, girls
Girls, I do adore
Yo put your number on this paper cause I would love to date ya
Holla at ya when I come off tour, yeah

Did you spend Valentine's Day alone? I will tell you who probably didn't.

Matt Murdock, Undercover Lover.

Has there ever been a superhero (from the Big Two) who has spent an equal amount of time on the streets and in the sheets?

Usually a character may have occasional relationships but they are always tied to ONE main woman.

Superman & Lois Lane. Spider-Man & Mary Jane. Wolverine & Mariko.

Only Batman comes close.

But Daredevil.

Let's look at the numbers:

Significant girlfriends/lovers: 8
Significant girlfriends/lovers who were killed/dead: 4 (Yes, including Elektra)
Significant girlfriends/lovers who tried to kill him: 4 (I'm counting Karen Page's selling his secret for a hit)


And you guys wanted to talk about Storm?!?

What is the power Matt Murdock hold over these dangerous chicks?

I mean as far as chick points: he's a lawyer, he's blind and a superhero.

So he can get them day and night.

Ladies love a charity case.

"Oh girl! Yeah, he's a lawyer and a superhero and all but let the cat knock the toothpaste over while he's out and he's all like 'Baaaaby...' It's so cute"

The only other potential 24 hours ladies man in comics is Batman/Bruce Wayne (millionaire by day, Batman by night) but the biggest difference is Matt's not batshit crazy.

Is it his sexual prowess? I mean, he's got them heightened senses. You know Stick taught him a trick or two. Seriously. Black Widow, usually stationed in Russia or California, always shows up in Hell's Kitchen. Why? She's not needed. I think she swings by Matt's window just to see what's up.

"Hey Matt. Wanna watch a movie?"

They say the insane asylum drove Typhoid Mary crazy. I think Matt was just trying out some new tricks and she couldn't handle it.

Karen Page. She got strung out when she tried to get away from the crimson shades.

Elektra. She came back from the dead for some of that braile lovin'.

It would be easy to say "Oh Daredevil's a pimp."

But no.

Because he does have one weakness.

He stays giving up the identity for ass.

Who hasn't slept with Matt Murdock and does not know he's Daredevil?

"Hey Matt. I don't think this is working out."
"Did I tell you I was Daredevil"
"But you're blind"
"I know. I got these heightened senses *wink**wink*"
"That is SO HOT"
"I know. Come back to bed."

Kingpin understood this. That's why after all the assassins and attempts he made on Matt's life, he put all his chips into Echo.

"Hi. Um. What's your name?
Cute gun"

Almost worked too.

So Matt's got the powers, a pimp cane (c'mon, a billy club with a string. You can't tell me a pimp didn't design that), a law practice and the ladies?

What's missing?

The wingman.

Matt Murdock has TWO.

Foggy Nelson by day. Spider-Man by night.

Matt, how many times do I have to tell you?
Mary Jane doesn't get down like that

If Mary Jane ever dies, it's going to be Matt who takes Peter to the strip clubs in Hell's Kitchen (P: "Matt, aren't you blind?" M: "Three words. Heightened. Senses. Lapdance.") and it's going to be Matt who says, "Yo, Peter. I know your wife died and all but...Black Cat. You ever hit that?"

So even though he's in prison right now.

I'm sure it won't take long for Matt to make somebody his bitch.

You can take the playa out the game...

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R.I.P. Seth Fisher



Newsarama has reported the passing of artist Seth Fisher. Prep Time Posse would like to pay tribute to a true innovator. He will be missed.

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Shazam! lost.

Captain Esco is goin' down, son. Word is bond.

Go up to your average non-hip-hop fan (notice how I kept race and/or age out of this), and ask them who Jay-Z is. They'll probably know. Now, ask them who Nas is. They probably won't know. Now, tell them that Nas is as talented a rapper as Jay-Z, if not more so. Watch for the screw face: "If he was really that ill, wouldn't I have heard of him?"

Now, go up tp your average non-comic-book-fan (notice how I kept social interaction level out of this), and ask them who Superman is. Of course, they'll know. Now, ask them who Captain Marvel is. They probably won't know, or they'll tell you he (or she) is some sort of alien that rolls with Spider-Man an' nem. Tell them you mean the "Shazam!" guy, and then tell them that Captain Marvel is just as powerful and interesting a superhero as Superman, if not more so. Watch for the screw face: "If he was really that ill, wouldn't I have heard of him?" (or, alternately, "if he was that ill, wouldn't he have four monthlies dedicated to him?")

"Take THAT, motherfucker!"

The Superman/Shazam! rivalry is something of a comic book history legend. It's like the Jay-Z/Nas battle, but with less swagger and more lawyers:
Jay/Supes= the favored victor with all the money and the power
Nas/Cap= the underdog with the loyal fanbase and the more interesting output).

It's hard sometimes, though, to root for the underdog, especially when the overdog (yes, I just made up a word) has money and power (although not always respect) behind him. Even though Jay-Z is a camel and Superman is a dick, Jay-Z now owns Nas's soul recording contract, just as Superman owns Captain Marvel's soul publishing rights. And don't think either overdog has forgotten about the beef with the overdog. If it takes him years, Jay will bust Nas' chops. Maybe he can take a lesson for Supes, because, on January 4, 2006 (not a whole week into the new damned year), the Man of Steel finally found a way to permanently do away with the World's Mightiest Mortal. It took him fifty-five years, but he's proved to be a dedicated little bastard.

If you've been keeping up with Infinite Crisis and the Day of Vengeance miniseries and special (if not, you're damned late. Get thee to a comic shop!), you know that the Spectre murked the wizard Shazam (how is that possible? I thought ol' Shaz was dead). If you know that, you’ll also know that Shazam's lair, the Rock of Eternity, exploded into a billion pieces. Most of the rubble landed in Gotham City, and the already beleagured citizens of Gotham find themselves overcome by the Seven Deadly Sins and the other demons and monsters that were held captive in the Rock. In the Day of Vengence Special put out on January 4, damn near all of the magic-based heroes in the DC Universe, including Zatanna, the Marvel Family, the Shadowpact, and more, undertook a little impromptu arts-n-crafts project and reassembled the Rock to keep the wild magicks contained. Once they were done, Zatanna dropped Captain Marvel a bomb: the Rock is unstable without someone to watch over it, and Captain Marvel is the only person qualified.

So, instead of battling criminals, saving the world, and smiling all the way, Cap is going to be stuck for eternity inside the Rock of Eternity, playing solitare and tiddlywinks, and watching Lost reruns on Shazam's Historama device.

And somewhere, Superman is chillin' in his apartment, with Lois in his lap doing, well, her thing, and laughs to himself, "Cap lost."

The circle in the upper left hand corner reads "highest circulation of any comic." Yes, that included anything starring Superman's punk ass.

Perhaps some background info is needed.

Supes was created in 1938 by DC Comics, while Captain Marvel was created for Fawcett Comics in 1940 as a magic-based derivative of Superman (albeit, a better-written and drawn derivative that existed in a more imaginative universe). DC cried fowl (especially when they saw how well Cap was selling), and promptly sued Fawcett. Twelve years of litigation followed, during which time Cap beat Supes to the movie theatres and became the first superhero to appear in film, Captain Marvel Adventures outsold Superman for several years. Fawcett artist C.C. Beck gave Cap a distinctive, stylized, funny-paper look, which gave the character an appealing identity of his own. Fawcett writer Otto Binder created a whole spin-off "Marvel Family", giving Cap a jailbait sister (Mary Marvel), a Mini-Me (Captain Marvel Junior), three liuetenants (the Liuetenant Marvels), an unrealted fool who claimed he was an uncle (Uncle Marvel), another unrealted fool who claimed she was a cousin (Freckles Marvel), and a rabbit (yes, a rabbit: Hoppy the Marvel Bunny). DC, accusing Fawcett of biting their style, did some biting their damn self, and went and conjured up a Superboy, a Supergirl, a superdog, and (I am told) a supercat, a superduck, and a superhorse (the Kent farm must've been populated with Kryptonian livestock).

Regardless, DC kept fighting Fawcett in the courtroom. Fawcett won round one, after pointing out to the judge that DC had forgotten to copyright some of the Superman newspaper strips, and provoking the judge to declare Superman's copyright invalid. DC, pissed as all hell, filed an appeal and instigated a Takeover. Not only did DC win the suit, they squeezed 400 G's out of Fawcett and shut their comic book division down. Cap lost.

During the critical Silver Age of comics, when DC's Supes, Batman, and Flash became popular again, and Marvel Comics characters such as Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Hulk stepped onto the scene, where was the World's Mightiest Mortal? The character who'd outsold Superman? That mofo was somewhere washing the shit offa Superman's boots, begging him for a chance.

"Don't think 'cause I'm holdin' this curtain open for your punk ass that shit is sweet. I own you, bitch. Your ass is still mine."

In 1972, DC gave Cap a chance, or at least pretended to: they set Cap up with a new comic book series called Shazam!. Why call it Shazam! instead of The All-New Captain Marvel Adventures or something else totally '70's? Because the aforementioned Marvel Comics had, while the Fawcett Captain Marvel was on ice, introduced their own Captain Marvel (geez, biting abounds here, don't it?) and copyrighted the name. Bastards.

So, yes, Captain Marvel was now back in publication...but that doesn't mean everything was squashed. Much of Shazam! was made up of reprints from the Fawcett days, and the new stories printed in it were so lame that C.C. Beck, whom DC had begged to come onboard for Shazam!, refused to illustrate them and quit after ten issues. Of course, Shazam! didn't do too well, and the series didn't last that long. By 1979, the once proud Marvel Family was livin' in shame, relegated to the back pages of World's Finest Comics. DC gave Superman a major motion picture. DC gave Shazam! a campy low-budget TV show (with a geeky fat guy playing Captain Marvel during the second half of its run) and a cartoon show, both done by the champions of crappy-ass cartoons, Filmation Studios. Cap lost. Again.

After the 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths brought Captain Marvel into the mainstream DC Universe (he and the other Fawcett holdovers originally populated an alternate world called "Earth-S"), Cap was permanently established as "not-quite Superman", always depicted as being weaker, slower, and more inept than Supes. Moreover, they decided that since Cap was really a 14-year-old kid named Billy Batson, the character should act like an immature teenager, and as a result we have the infamous Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatheis Dimwitt Marvel...a 230- pound, grown ass superhero who always babbles and carries on like a clueless, emo'd-out adolescent. Giffen and DeMatheis apparently forgot that first on the SHAZAM list is the "S" for Solomon. The wisdom of Solomon, that is. How could a motherfucker with the wisdom of Solomon try to lead the Justice League in an impromptu rendition of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (and then bitch when they decline to do so)?

A battle of epic proportions is being waged. And at the center of it all:
"Holy Moley, Superman! Why can't we be friends?"
"Shut up and fight, motherfucker!"

There was no way this Captain Marvel could become a premiere DC universe star, and despite the efforts of Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Judd Winick, and even the seemingly unstoppable Geoff Johns, barely anyone today gives three shits about Captain Marvel. Yeah, you might see Cap, Mary Marvel, or Captain Marvel Junior pull a cameo here and there or join a superhero team for a hot second, but they're always under- (and mis-) written in the process. The closest Marvel’s gotten to being cool within the last two decades was:

• Jerry Ordway’s The Power of Shazam! graphic novel and at least the first two years of the series that was spun of PoS (must avoid bad joke, must avoid bad joke). Although Ordway’s writing was sometimes spotty, he did bring back Mary Marvel, Cap Junior, most of the Marvel Family villains and allies…and even the bunny.


• Geoff Johns’ uses of Cap in JSA. Cap finallly overcomes the Dimwitt Marvel stigma a bit (every third word out of his mouth in that series was "wisdom"), and presses up on teenage superheroine Stargirl, only to get kicked out of the JSA because they think Cap's a pedophile. An interesting (if unsettling) look at how being a kid who turns into a grownup can indeed be a bad thing.


• Mark Waid. Alex Ross. Kingdom Come. ‘Nuff said.


• That episode of Justice League Unlimited was cool (although Supes handed Cap's ass to him in that fight)

Now, while Cap has third-string status in the DCU nowadays, the Captain Marvel universe is another story. For the last decade, DC writers have been writing around Cap, keeping him at least present and accounted for, but giving elements of his mythos more prominence and respect in the DCU than Cap has. The best example of this is Captain Marvel's greatest enemy, Black Adam, who went from being "I'm Captain Marvel's evil and corrupted opposite!" to being "I'm a hero again like Captain Marvel...but EXTREME!" through Jerry Ordway's and Geoff Johns’ talented work. In the process, however, DC, so intent on underplaying Cap all these years, discovered something they'd been looking for years in one of Cap’s related characters: Black Adam is a true anti-hero with an attitude, a dark past, emotional problems, his own brand of justice, and the will to kill in the name of justice. In other words, he's just like a Marvel Comics character (and in more precise terms, Wolverine). So, over the last two years or so, DC has been quietly shuffling Black Adam ahead of Captain Marvel, and Adam is now second-string while Cap is still chillin’ at third. Cap lost. And how.

Don't believe the hype.

And now, bringing us up to the Day of Vengence Special and Zatanna’s plan, Cap is gonna be spending however much time remains between now and the next big DCU shakeup stuck inside a big-ass Rock, doing absolutely nothing. You might could point out that Zatanna didn’t quite yet shut the Rock's front door on the Captain, but I don’t doubt that DC’s actually gonna get rid of Cap (hell, they got rid of the Blue Beetle AND the Flashes as well during the I.C. Note to DCU superheroes: if you’re a hero that cracks jokes, your ass is grass). Oh, they’ll keep Black Adam, though. They love that fucker. I dunno what they’ll do with Mary, Junior, or the bunny (please don’t hurt the bunny).

So, by buying out the underdog and pretending that everything is all gravy, the overdog can enact a covert plan to undermine and eventually do away with the underdog….(purportedly) once and for all. Nas, if you’re reading this, consider yourself warned.

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Where Did All The Kids Go?

I was sitting on the subway train trying to finish up the second issue of "Desolation Jones" that I copped off Ebay before I got to work and stepped into reality again and I began to reflect (which really screws you up when you are trying to finish something)...

Kids still don't read comic books anymore.

When did that happen? How did I get hooked into like this when I was a kid and children today only know about Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh or whatever the latest “if you like the cartoon, then buy the cards” phenomenon is ?

I remember going to the comic shop with my boys and looking for that 18th cover of X-Men #1 or Spider-Man #1 waiting to see how long it would be before which X-Men had recently died would magically return or how McFarlane would find a way to get Mary Jane Watson-Parker into lingerie. Before we were allowed to ride the bus, we walked some 6 miles to get to the closest comic shop. That was my childhood.

Out of all of my friends, I am the only one who still hits up the comic shop every week for the latest releases but they will ask me what's up with their favorite X-Men and did they ever say what Wolverine’s origin is (to which my response is usually “They’re dead” and “No”)

Sorry, I digress...

Did Marvel/DC price kids out of the market? I mean I have a decent job and pay rent and I can barely afford all the comics I have but a pack of Pokemon cards cost $3.50.

Maybe it was the sex and violence that finally turned the kids away. I will admit in the 90’s things did get a little bloody. I remember seeing Batman carrying Robin’s bloody body out of the wreckage and seeing McFarlane’s bloody Spider-Man face off against Calypso but that was nothing compared to what I saw on TV then and what I see on TV now. And since when did sex and violence turn away children. (Side note, a little kid tried to look over my shoulder while I read Desolation Jones and I covered up faster than…well, Desolation Jones in sunlight. Wasn’t my place to expose that little boy to things he wasn’t ready for.)

It could be availability. When I was a kid, while my parents went to the supermarket, I went to the cigar shop and bought Batman comics with my allowance or whatever loose change I stole from my brother’s room (Sorry, bro). Only recently have you seen comic books getting back into 7-Eleven’s. Virgin Megastore and B. Dalton, on top of carrying a lot of trades, regularly have a comic book racks.

Maybe it's that kids these can't read. What a lot of people who knock the art form don't understand is that it is written by adults for a semi-intelligent constituency. I mean, reading comic books when I was nine years old and going to the dictionary trying to figure out what Reed Richards, Dr. Doom or Thanos was babbling on about helped my vocabulary greatly. Most of the malapropisms I made in grammar school, for better or worse, I got from Frank Miller, Jim Stalin, Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Peter David. Today’s kids don’t read anything that isn’t on a website.

It can’t be that kids have outgrown superheroes. According to Box Office Mojo, 9 of the 100 top grossing films of all-time are comic book adaptation or based on comics (Yeah, I counted The Incredibles). We currently have cartoons for Justice League Unlimited (R.I.P.), Teen Titans (R.I.P.), The Batman & Krypto The Superdog (seriously, who greenlighted this?) and, coming soon, The Legion of Super-Heroes and another Superman cartoon (like The Batman unfortunately so Lex Luthor will probably be president of Google or something). Smallville is the only real hit the WB has and it is spawning an Aquaman spin-off (stop laughing). I’m sure Marvel and DC thought “This will get the kids back into the comic shop”. Maybe they need to have Levar Burton in the Reading Rainbow studio at the end of each of these shows and say “If you like these adventures, please check out ____ in your local comic book store).

Maybe it’s our (the comic book fans) fault. Are we too insular? Are we not reproducing and handing down our collections to our offspring? There are two people responsible for my comic book addiction: my older brother and a family friend, Dan. My older brother would constantly be leaving comic book around the house and I would read them here and there, mostly Batman and X-Men comics. Then one BBQ at Dan’s house, I went into Dan’s room and went into his dresser and started reading his comic stash. Dan, who was 25 at this point, asked me “Yo, do you want all of those? I’m moving out and my mom is just going to throw them away.” I just sat there stunned because it had taken me 3 years for Dan to actually ALLOW me to read his comics and now here he was giving them to me. I ran downstairs with the box of comics (probably 200) before he changed his mind (or sobered up). In there was all of the David/McFarlane Hulk run, a bunch of Silver Surfers, a bunch of Wolverines and other stuff I didn’t know existed up until that point. To this day, I will always buy a comic with Silver Surfer on it.

Do these geeky rights of passage still go on? Or are we telling kids “If you touch my comics, I will kill you” when they come over for family functions? Are we handing this down to the next generation?

I guess were aren't sharing because when I go into the comic book shop, all I see are grown adults...adults who 18 years ago were getting yelled at by the Comic Book Guy to not read the comics in the store and you bend, you buy. The same guys who had posters of Punisher drawn by Mike Zeck and Wolverine drawn by Frank Miller.

Well, not me. When (if…I still have a framed Batman poster on my wall, it’s gonna be a while) I have children, I’m going to buy them some children friendly comics with Batman and Wolverine in it and I’m going to watch my Batman: The Animated Series with them. Because I want to ground my son and have him tell me, “You will rue the day you grounded Sean Andre Campbell the Second!”

Whatever it is, the powers that be better figure out something soon. As it stands now, comic has until my generation dies out. Whether it be digital comics or more Free Comic Book Days, something's got to happen. I want my great-grandchildren to come to my tombstone and let me know if they ever sorted out Wolverine's origin.

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