nostalgicSee, when I was a kid, most of the book stores and comic book stores and retail stores with magazine racks didn't trust children anywhere near the precious, precious reading materials. We might touch things. We might breathe on things. We might, heaven forbid, learn something that our tiny brains weren't yet prepared to handle. I didn't think much of this attitude then, and I don't think much of it now. If you can be respectful of books, you should be allowed to have access to them.
Joe was the owner of the only comic book store in the area that not only allowed me access, they encouraged me to take advantage of it. When we visited my Aunt Debbie, who lived a quarter-mile from the store, I would beg quarters off every adult I could find and walk down to the comic book store, where I would dig through the quarter bin looking for treasures. I always found them. I discovered the X-Men that way; Spider-Man; the Teen Titans. I also discovered the Omega Men, the Wanderers, Amethyst Princess of Gemworld, and a lot of others that people who aren't fans of comic books have probably never heard of. I learned a lot about storytelling -- both good and bad -- from that quarter bin, and I learned a lot about generosity with stories from Joe.
Yesterday, I went to the comic book store I've been going to since I was a kid, and went up to Joe, and said, "I sold the books." And he held my hands, and he laughed, and he hugged me, and he understood. And we're probably going to have a party, in my comic book store, when the first one sees print.
I have given stories back to the man who gave stories to me.
That's the best thing in the world.
May 17 2008, 00:14:29 UTC 9 years ago
May 20 2008, 14:04:18 UTC 9 years ago
I wept when Terra died.