So, I’m not exactly what you’d call a veteran comic book collector but that’s not to say that I haven’t always been a collector of sorts. My love for Marvel started at a young age with the 1994 Fleer Ultra X-Men cards. I was eleven years old and collecting basketball cards already. So, one day I walked into a store to get my fix and there in front of me was a different kind of collector card. There was nothing wrong with basketball cards, but for some reason I decided to try something else. In 1993, Michael Jordan was my universe. In 1994, I was introduced to a new kind of hero.
Twenty-three long days pass and finally the package arrives. The following week is the sort that I dreamt of in my youth. I scour the pages of these tomes and when I finish the last, I sink into my chair and sigh. The rich mythologies of these characters, Batman, The X-Men, they speak to me of the combined lives, combined histories of the various writers and artists that have toiled over their pages over the decades. Immediately, I want more.
That was September. Since then, I have bought more trades than I care to admit. My collection still pales in sheer insignificance next to the collections of some of my new friends. However, I have had some excellent guidance along the way on what is good, what is great and what is ‘holy ground’. I worked my way through Y: The Last Man and found a fundamental truth. In 2014, I discovered that the heroes I had loved all these years were not the men on the pages, but rather the men writing them. Men like Grant Morrison and Ed Brubaker, creating new characters and stories, bringing their vision to the page.
This is where I find ‘holy ground’, the creator-owned content that has been so outrageously successful, that it holds its ground firmly against (or within) the majors. With that in mind I will be bringing you, the reader, a monthly update on my pilgrimage through some of the most highly recommended creator-owned content out there. I hope it will be as entertaining for you as it is for me.
First cab off the ranks will be Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan. See you there!