Sick days and catching up on comic book heroes

Shoved into one of the corners of the ever-more cluttered home I have are a couple of boxes of comic books. Comics have always been a staple of my reading material, and though the number of titles that I keep up with has dwindled significantly over the years, I can’t bear to part with them whether I like them or not (see last week’s feature).

Collecting comics is an expensive hobby. Like most print publications, the volumes get thinner and thinner while the price stays the same or gets higher. I don’t think I have anything of substantial worth, just a pile of sentimental value. One box is just the tattered remains of old issues that belonged to my dad, covers ripped and pages missing. They’re certainly not going anywhere. Another box the remnants of my childhood hoard, ripped and bent from countless readings. Some of the favorites found their way to preservative bags with protective boards, while most are stacked haphazardly exposed to the decaying elements. 

The first comic book printed in the United States is believed to be the 1849 edition of “The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck,” an illustrated story by Swiss artist Rodolphe Topffer. The work, which previously printed serially in a newspaper supplement making it also the first comic strip, tells the story of a man trying to impress a young lady and all his misadventures between courtship and a happy marriage. 

Less than a 100 years later the world entered what is known as the Golden Age of Comics with the introduction of Superman. The Man of Steel was a genre defining character, pushing superheroes into the limelight. Clark Kent remains a mainstay on pages, the small screen and movie theaters. A copy of Superman’s first appearance, in Action Comics No. 1, sold this year for more than $3.5 million. 

Famed comic creator Stan Lee helped usher in the Silver Age of comics with such titles like “The Fantastic Four” and “Spider-Man.” A copy of the web slinger’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy No. 15, is worth over $1 million. The Marvel Comics universe is full of household names thanks to the seemingly never ending ultra-successful movie chains. 

I haven’t seen all of the buzz-generating flicks and streaming series. If I have three hours to spare, I’d rather spend it on something besides watching a man in tights save the world. 

But such offerings have dominated my life lately. It’s fall and school is in, so that means sick kids. That equates to a lot of television time, time that has been spent watching superhero movies. So many characters have movies now from the mainstream, well-known characters to the more obscure ones, that it is difficult at times to remember how the plot lines are linked.

Thus, my son just got his hands on a Marvel Encyclopedia. We are now learning about heroes, villains and story arcs I have never heard of, but at least he’s reading.

Maybe for the next day I’ll dust off a box of comics. I’m sure there are a few reads left in them. I might not have any hidden treasures, but it’s more valuable than watching TV.   

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