An autobiographical pause.

Taped to my desk and the wall next to it are a series of comic strips clipped from my local paper, little snippets of wit and wisdom that bring a smile to my face every time I look at them. They are art, in the same way that any three hundred-year old oil painting hanging in a place of honor in the Lourve is art. But the purpose of this Musing is to use a recent addition to my little gallery as a segue into what I'd like to talk about for this time around: comic books.

Comics are one of a very small handful of what can truely be considered American Art. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself here. The "piece" if you will-ha ha-that now adorns the wall beside my desk where I pound out these little causeries is a strip from a series called Fox Trot by Bill Amend. It's from the color Sunday edition. Please forgive me if you are unfamiliar with the strip and its characters, my favorite of which is young Jason Fox, a very creative, highly intelligent boy who uses his talents for mischief. (I realize many of you reading this are from other countries and probably don't have access to this comic strip.)

Anyway, in this particular strip, Jason and his friend Marcus are reading a stack of comic books and imagining what it is like to be the characters. The first panel shows Jason, as Superman, taking a glowing radiation container into space. In the next panel, Marcus, as the Human Torch, repels the advances of some unseen, betentacled Lovecraftian monstrosity with his fiery fingertip. This is followed by Jason as Thor, Marcus as the Hulk, Jason as Hawkman, Marcus as the new Green Lantern (how did Bill Amend know that there was a new Green Lantern if he didn't read this stuff?), Jason as the Thing, Marcus as Captain Marvel and finally, the two sitting at a table amid a stack of comics, staring at Jason's sister Paige, who says: "More comic books? I just can't figure out what you geeks see in these things." The answer, dear Paige, is on the panels right behind you. You answered your own question. The reason is we want to live vicariously, to wrap a towel around our necks like we did when we were children and pretend to be Superman. To want to be a fictional character who can bend steel and change the course of mighty rivers. Not healthy, you say? I can think of worse entities to emulate. Gangsta rappers, many of whom have died in the very gunbattles they glorified in their songs. Marilyn Manson, a name which, unknown to the kids who glorify him by listening to his music and wearing his t-shirts, is synonymous with murder. No, there is nothing wrong with the child who wraps the towel around his neck, as long as he stops doing it by the time he is eight or nine.

These were my heroes growing up, even through high school I still read (and continue to read) comic books (you got a problem with that?) Although I have always enjoyed reading books, I got into comics in the fifth grade probably because they gave me a different set of sensory experiences. The way you read them is different; the mindset you enter upon opening one is different. Anyway, getting back to what I was saying, they provided escape. You see, I wasn't athletic at all; I'm still not. I wasn't the best looking, either. Therefore I wasn't very popular. Low man on the totem pole. But that was OK, because from the outset I could see what a pitifully small totem pole it was to being with, and didn't mind if I wasn't stuck on it somewhere. You see, I did have one thing that my peers were lacking. I was smarter than them. I knew it; to a small degree some of them knew it and hated me for it. But that made me want to be smarter. I prided myself on it. So what if they were good at sports? So what? When they got out in the real world, then what? They had athletes as heroes. Athletes, shmatheletes. Who was Carl Lewis next to the Flash? What was the eight minute mile compared to the one-eight of a second mile? I didn't care. They were just people. I had Superman. And Firestorm. And Silver Surfer, and Captain America, and on and on ad infinitum. They were limited to what their senses could process from the mundane world, while I was limited only by my imagination, which, like everyone's, is boundless!

And while comic books are a gateway drug into the heavy stuff: SF books, they taught me many things. They have taught me to fight for what I believe in, and helped shape my concept of right and wrong. One character in particular, said something that I will remember to my dying day. The series was called Deathlok. It was about a pacifist computer programmer named Michael Collins who was, unknown to him, helping to program a cyborg killing machine. When he found out, they put his brain inside of it. Now imagine being a pacifist and trapped inside the perfect weapon! But of course he was able to take over the operating system and placed a "no killing parameter" on it so that it couldn't shoot to kill unless told to by him. And this thing he said was: "Sometimes, you have to do what's right, not what's easiest." This has surfaced within me time and time again since that day, and has helped me numerous times. It has helped me to do things right, especially when it's easier not to. Excellent advice for anyone.

Go on, I've bored you long enough, and I some reading to do. I've no doubt you do as well.

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