I’m a day late. Life has been busy.
I love superheroes. There. I said it. I have loved superheroes for over 30 years.
I remember the first time that I was exposed to comic books. It was a Sub-Mariner issue and I want to say that it was issue number four number six. Had this big green monster coming up from the sea and the submariner was in front flying as this gargantuan piece of algae was destroying everything. Loved that comic. That was when the superhero bug bit me. I was in fourth grade. This is when I began to get the inkling of an urge to write. My introduction to superheroes.
Back in the late 80s and early 90s, I was trying my best to break into writing comics. I was writing all kinds of scripts and synopsis and summaries and sending them off to Marvel and DC trying to break in. The closest that I ever got was a rejection letter from DC with a little note in the bottom, left section (I still have it somewhere). In that little note written by one of the editors, it inspired me to continue to write these kinds of things. To keep on keeping on because I was close. That was a huge. Alas, that’s about the time that I stopped submitting and I didn’t write. Things happened in my life that changed it drastically and I didn’t come back to writing until the early 2000’s. What had motivated me was a video game. It sparked a million ideas and didn’t stop. That game was City of Heroes.
Many of the stories I write are in a superheroic vein so to speak. They have those elements within them though I present them in a different way. They are not “superheroic” in the sense that people run around in tights and flashy uniforms and all the rest of that though that is coming. Do not think that because I am starting off in a different area that that is not coming. I have to write that because I’m a nerd. It is an obligation. However, those fantastic elements that you find in comic books are all over the things that I write.
I’m a comic book collector and I collect comics because I enjoy reading them. I’m not looking to resell them. I’m looking to enjoy them, keep them, re-read them, and pass them on to my sons and grandsons (or granddaughter if she gets the bug later on). Because I also like to read novels, I was always looking for superhero novels to read stories that were more in depth, that would immerse me a little bit more than a comic book would. The problem was that superhero novels were very hard to find in my area. The bookstores hardly carried anything. You have to understand this is during the mid-90s so your options did not include Amazon.com. You needed to go to every bookstore or call them and see if they had any superhero novels. Normally they did not.
A few years back, I began to collect superhero novels. I am still on that quest. The tool that has been instrumental is Amazon.com. Half.com and eBay.com have 
been great as well. The vast majority, however, have come from Amazon. I built my collection from a measly 10 novels at the most to 114 novels presently (a little more than what I had originally said when I was guessing). Yeah. It’s that serious. I’ve got it bad. I’m currently reading one of those novels. Now with Marvel Studios and Time Warner (they own DC Comics) coming out with all kinds of superheroic movies and series being made (yes, I’ve already seen The Defenders and I will be doing a post on it as always), the number of prose novels and their accessibility has gone up and that number is going to continue to climb. I’m not done yet and I am very happy with the novels that I have.
I am superhero nerd. I write novels and stories that have superheroes and superhero-ish elements. I make no apologies for that. I wear the badge with honor. I have a lot of this stuff in me and my hope is that I live long enough to write all of it. For me, that would be a great thing. For you…you be the judge. Go ahead and sign up for R.I.U. Citizenship and see if you like the stories I’m given.
Until next time, see you in the Tapestry.
