I don't remember exactly when I encountered comic books as a concept. I know it must have been via my friend Cat, because she was the one who introduced me to... oh, pretty much any form of pop culture up until I was maybe twelve years old, at which point Vicky began to explore her own tastes and I started borrowing her books and sort of idly watching her shows. The part I remember most dramatically is when Cat talked me into watching the old X-Men cartoon on Fox, back around 1992. That was, quite literally, the first television I watched that wasn't either PBS or the evening news. (No, wait, I lie; I also watched the occasional football game with Dad.) Basically Cat wanted somebody to squee with and I guess she figured I was her best target in our mutual friend group.
She was right.
I assume she introduced me to comics around the same time, mostly in the form of various interrelated X-Men titles with a side order of Spider-Man. She was a Marvel girl through and through and I had no frame of reference for this strange new world, so I just read everything she owned. Then we squeed. And you know, in retrospect there was not a lot of great literary merit in, for example, the X-cutioner's Song crossover arc, but hey. It was a HELL of a lot of fun, and even more fun when shared. :D
( But the thing is, comics were a secondhand obsession on my part... )
Also, recommend me some good power fantasies that feature non-sexually-objectified women, please, so I can maybe put hold requests on them too? (I can't buy anything, I'm broke, but at least these days there's a chance some library in the system might have copies of obscure things.) [ETA: I already know about Girl Genius, and yes, I am familiar with Elfquest; that was one of Cat's big things for a while, sometime after her Dragonlance obsession.]
She was right.
I assume she introduced me to comics around the same time, mostly in the form of various interrelated X-Men titles with a side order of Spider-Man. She was a Marvel girl through and through and I had no frame of reference for this strange new world, so I just read everything she owned. Then we squeed. And you know, in retrospect there was not a lot of great literary merit in, for example, the X-cutioner's Song crossover arc, but hey. It was a HELL of a lot of fun, and even more fun when shared. :D
( But the thing is, comics were a secondhand obsession on my part... )
Also, recommend me some good power fantasies that feature non-sexually-objectified women, please, so I can maybe put hold requests on them too? (I can't buy anything, I'm broke, but at least these days there's a chance some library in the system might have copies of obscure things.) [ETA: I already know about Girl Genius, and yes, I am familiar with Elfquest; that was one of Cat's big things for a while, sometime after her Dragonlance obsession.]