The Secret Origin of ComicBookMarks

(Or Not Your Average About Us Page)

I can’t escape them. Comics I mean. And to be honest, I don’t think I ever really want to. Superheroes have been a regular mainstay in my life for as long as I can remember. Heck, I even had a Captain America ice sculpture at my wedding’s cocktail hour. How many geeks, er, guys can admit to that one?

Now, I’m not sure exactly when my full-on collecting obsession began, but I’m fairly certain that by the 3rd grade I was officially collecting them and proudly showing off my 100 or so issue collection to friends and family. It was somewhere around 1984 because the very first Secret Wars mini-series was out.

Yeah, I started off as a Marvel fan. Actually, the very first comic book I ever collected was a Marvel book, but not a superhero one. Yep, it was Star Wars #34. My mom got me a subscription and I was quickly hooked. Didn’t take long to latch on to Captain America for some reason, and then the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man of course. Sure I knew Superman, Batman and the rest (”Challenge of the Super-Friends” is still one of my favorite cartoons), but I was much more interested in the exciting Marvel Universe than the dull as doorknobs DC ones. Despite my friend Ethan’s insistence that crazy-sounding books like Animal Man and Swamp Thing were any good. I finally caved in to his mad spouts and, wow, was unbelievably shocked at how amazing these characters and stories could be. That really opened my eyes and I soon started devouring books based on writers (Thank you, Alan Moore and Grant Morrison), rather than just characters or companies. And that thinking has followed me to this day, where I’ll give anything a shot if it’s a good read, whether it’s a Marvel book, a black-and-white small press book starring a stick-figured Cynical Man or even one of those “crazy backwards” manga things. (One Piece is easily in my Top 5 favorite comic series of all time).

That’s really all the back story you need on my love of comics, though I’ll add that I was a serious collector/speculator back in the day, buying up dozens of copies of Ghost Rider #1 (with the kick-ass art by Javier Saltares) for a buck or so a pop and unloading them for $15 or $20 apiece mere months later. This was back before there was really an ebay, so I’d hit a few local comic shows to sell books with my buddy Ethan. At its largest, I believe my collection hit about 31 long white boxes. (Don’t cry, but at this moment, it’s down to a mere 2 boxes.) I don’t really collect so much anymore as just read. I’m converting my single issue collection to trade paperbacks, as I just want to read the stories, not hide them away.

Which brings me to the other part of my life, my professional one. Besides being a huge comic fan for roughly 30 years, I’ve also had the insane pleasure of working in the industry itself. With a background in journalism, my wife (college sweetheart at the time), pushed me into applying as an intern for Wizard Entertainment (well, it was just Wizard Press at the time, with only the monthly Wizard magazine to its name). I applied, and quickly got the job, interning there for a year or so when not at college. They offered me a job before I even graduated, so I really enjoyed my senior year. Got my foot in the door and worked my way up and around the editorial staff for roughly 8 years (with a short break in the middle to explore other crazy opportunities). The bulk of my time was on Wizard magazine itself, which I really did love, but I also spent some time overseeing mags like ToyFare, Anime Insider and something called Toy Wishes (a twice-yearly magazine for parents really, about toys for kids).

There were some great perks (free comics, toys and assorted junk, not to mention access to a huge comic library), and I made a lot of great friends, and certainly learned a lot about writing/editing and stretching your creative muscles. But the best part of it all, honestly, was talking to the creators. Sure, some artists were cocky bastards or egotistical jerkwads. (Sorry, I’m not naming any names.) But a lot of them were just average regular guys. They were obviously pleased to pump their latest project when I’d call for a quote, but they also didn’t rush me off the phone at all. Instead we just talked. Comic fan to comic fan. Person to person. And that was what made attending conventions so great; finally getting some face-to-face time. A chance to hang out, buy them dinner, kick back a few beers, etc.

Somewhere along the lines I even co-wrote a book with Tom Root, another former Wizard guy and one of the head writers these days on Adult Swim’s “Robot Chicken.” Through some contacts I had made, we landed the job of writing “Writers on Comics Scriptwriting 2,” which is basically a How-to-Write book as told through a series of Q&A style interviews with the industry’s top writers at the time. So again, I got to do my favorite thing: talk to the guys who write the stories I love. Bill Willingham. Brian K. Vaughan. Ed Brubaker. Brian Michael Bendis. Geoff Johns. They all were great to talk to and didn’t seem to mind chatting away for hours on end.

These days, I’m no longer officially in the industry and manage a number of websites to help pay the bills. But as I said, I can’t escape the allure of the comic. And that’s why I needed to create some sort of website with a comic theme. I didn’t want to do a basic fan site spouting every costume change Captain America’s gone through, nor did I want to do yet another comic news and reviews site. So instead, I thought it’d be neat to basically create a directory of all the official comic sites out there. Creators were more and more starting to put themselves out there in an official capacity, whether it’s through blogs, columns or their own sites. And rather then get bogged down with 17 Neil Gaiman fan sites, I’d rather just click on the official Neil Gaiman link. So in essence, this site is just my “comic books” subfolder of bookmarks.

But that doesn’t mean I won’t be posting regular updates. If there’s a cool site I really like, I’ll blog about it. If there’s an upcoming CBLDF charity auction, I’ll promote it. If I just read a really cool new series, I may just write a short or detailed review of it. I’m giving myself no rules at all, except that I want to try to stay on top of posting regularly. So please feel free to look around, post your comments, ask your questions and click away. And maybe if I’m lucky, a few of my old “regulars” from the industry will stop on by and say howdy.

Be Seeing You,

Andrew