I wanted to express some thoughts about the history of comics.  Please keep in mind that I am not a comic historian.  What I am is someone who has read comics since childhood and continues to do so in my adult life.  I am writing this history based on my experiences. 

First and foremost (to me) comics are a visual medium.  Even before I could read the words I remember pouring over the illustrations on the covers.  My cousin Charlie always had tons of comics that his Mom gave away when we visited.  She would let my brother and I take stacks of comics home.  This was late sixties early seventies.  Lots of great Marvel stuff.  After a while I got to know the artist’s names like:  Jack “King” Kirby; “Big” John Buscema; Gil “Sugarlips” Kane; Don Heck;  Gene Colan and Neal Adams.  These were my first art instructors. 

I was especially fond of John Buscema’s work, to me it seemed as if no one else’s work was as natural, emotional and graceful.  I like Neal Adams for his naturalism and clean illustration style; Gil Kane for the structure of his figures; and Gene Colan for his use of shadow.  I didn’t appreciate Kirby back then, but I always loved his Fantastic Four and later I appreciated the dynamism and fun he brought to his drawings.  These artist and the books that they illustrated (The Kree Skrull War; Galactus trilogy; Silver Surfer vs. Mephisto; Savage Sword of Conan Magazine, etc) are joyful memories to me. Also consider what began to happen at DC in the 70’s as a result of Marvels success.  Wrightson and Len Wein did Swamp Thing,  Kaluta  Worked on The Shadow, Neal Adams worked on Deadman and Green Lantern.  Kirby moved to DC and created the New Gods. Just look at the difference in styles from Kirby to Kane to Colan to Buscema, Adams, Wrightson, Kaluta and Steranko.  What variety.

The comics currently produced today have lost a step - not in talent, there are so many talented artists out there and color has improved a hundred fold.  They just don’t seem as fun a read.  Instead they come off as corporate and predictable. Not all, but enough of the books being published today have a similar graphic look.  Sometimes they are sold as collector’s items, rather than the collector deciding the value for themselves. 

These days I like to pick up Hulk, Thor (I read anything Straczynski writes) and of course Conan.  Beyond that I often search for an interesting read, but it changes from week to week, month to month.

I have also been looking at webcomics. This is a new thing for me. While I enjoy some of the daily humor strips my real interest lie in something closer to the Marvel, DC comics I grew up reading.  Some of the digital comics look interesting but I’m not ready to single out any one of them yet.  What I see is a new medium with a lot of possibilities. Comics are moving on to a new playing field.  The old ones were crowded and cramped, now there is room for more voices, more experimentation- like the golden age starting all over again in a different arena.  There may be new opportunities for some fun memories.