Random musings about comics

I love comic books. Anyone who knows me will tell you this is true. Look at my Facebook and Twitter profile pictures. 90% of the time it will be of a comic book character (usually Batman). Even my profile picture of this blog is of Mike Allred's Madman. I started reading and really collecting comics around 1986/1987, so I've been around this environment for quite a while. I recently read an article talking about the state of the comics industry in the 1990's. It was quite a time to be a comics collector. Image Comics had been formed, Superman died, Green Lantern went crazy, Batman had his back broken, etc. It was a time that produced some really good comics,and some really abysmal comics. But the article was saying about how these huge comic events (i.e. the death of Superman) were terrible. The creators have to keep people interested to keep their business going. I will admit, I still have my Superman #75 in the black bag still unopened and bought a 3rd printing just so I could read the story. But what really got me irritated was reading the comments about how these hipsters never read and will never read the "capes and tights" comics (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, etc)and they only read the indie or "good" titles such as Hellblazer, Sandman, etc. C'mon, EVERYBODY has read those titles. It's what we all read when we started reading comics. Batman and Superman have been around 70+ years, and the Silver Age Marvel characters have been around for 50 years or so. Don't try and be so cool as to say you've never read a Justice League comic. I will not believe you. My brother and I used to play Batman and Robin all the time. Now, 30 yrs later my two young sons play Batman and Robin. My point is, these characters matter and are still important. Do you think that Neil Gaiman never read an issue of Spider Man and just one day decided to write comics? I doubt it. There would have been no Sandman (or it wouldn't have been near as popular) if Neil Gaiman hadn't been a fan of established "capes and tights" characters. Another point of contention with me is that I hate The Watchmen. I simply do not like that story. Truth is, I can't bring myself to read the whole thing. I've tried reading it several times and just can't get into it. Comic readers I tell this to act like I am simply out of my mind and don't know what I'm talking about. That story just didn't speak to me the way that Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, Jim O'Barr's The Crow, Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, or Garth Ennis' Born. Or even Ron Marz's Emerald Twilight that ran in Green Lantern #48-50. The stories have to elicit some kind of emotional response. I still get giddy when I flip the page and see Batman standing in front of a group of thugs knowing that they are going to get the shit kicked out of them by Batman. Or in Punisher MAX #1 when he is mowing down a group of guidos with an M-60 and is making reference to historic battles. That's the kind of stuff that gets a response from me. So leave me alone if I don't like Hellblazer, Sandman, or Watchmen. Enough bitching.