Roger’s Comics Ramblings: A comic that changed me
New Teen Titans Archives Vol. 1
by Roger Ash
If you read this column last Friday, you know that the comic that got me into collecting was Howard the Duck #25. That will always be a milestone comic for me, but there is another that is just as important, but in a different way. Settle back and let me tell you how a Marvel Zombie turned into something more.
When I started reading comics, I was Marvel Zombie. Marvel was it as far as I was concerned. And all of my comic reading friends were Marvel Zombies too – except for Craig who was my one friend who read DC’s. None of us could figure out why he would do that because Marvel ruled. I wouldn’t even cast a glance the way of the Distinguished Competition, as Stan Lee referred to DC.
For those of you who are younger than me and are used to a myriad of comic publishers, let me explain something. When I started collecting in the late ’70s, Marvel and DC were pretty much it. Sure, you could find some Gold Key comics based on cartoon characters, but not much else. I think there may have been some underground comics here and there where I grew up, but to get them, you’d have to go into a head shop and my parents would most certainly have objected to me doing that in 6th grade. So when I started reading comics, the discussion pretty much came down to Marvel and DC.
So, as I said, I was a huge Marvel fan. I loved Howard the Duck. Spider-Man quickly became my favorite super-hero, but I also collected X-Men, Avengers, Shogun Warriors, Micronauts, Battlestar Galactica, Fantastic Four – the list goes on and on. And I loved ‘em all.
New Teen Titans: Terra Incognito
But something changed one fateful day when I went to the grocery store with my mom (for those of you reading this who grew up in the Southern Wisconsin area, it was Woodmans in Janesville). Instead of following her around through the aisles, I headed to where I usually went – the magazine rack. The main reason I went there is because they had a small comics section. And something caught my eye. It was a new comic by Marv Wolfman and George Perez – two creators whose work I liked – but it was from DC. It was called New Teen Titans. The only character I recognized on the cover was Robin. I picked it up and flipped though it. George’s art looked as amazing as always. Maybe this would be a good book.
Swallowing every bit of Marvel Zombie pride in me, I decided to buy it. And I’m glad I did. It was a wonderfully fun book. As the series went on, the characters grew on me and when they reached the end of the classic Terra storyline, I had a lump in my throat. If you’ve never read these stories before, I urge you to seek them out. You can find links below to the collections that are available. They are fun, well-written, well-drawn, and full of superheroics.
What New Teen Titans did for me was open up a whole new world of comic adventure, and I’ll always be thankful to Marv and George for that. I didn’t stop liking Marvel, I simply expanded my horizons. Today, I buy comics based on what I like, not who the publisher is. That’s not strange as I don’t buy books by only one publisher, or only watch shows on one TV network, or only see films produced by one studio. I spend my entertainment dollars on what I like. And I hope you do too.
Do you have a comic that changed you in some way? Let me know about it. I’d love to hear the story.
Now, go read a comic!
Purchase
New Teen Titans Archives Vol. 1
New Teen Titans Archives Vol. 2
New Teen Titans Archives Vol. 3
New Teen Titans Archives Vol. 4
New Teen Titans: Terra Incognito
New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract
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