By Alex Ness
August 14, 2026
I began reading comics when I was very young. My brother was reading books and comics all the time. He was 2 years older than me. He was my role model, my first friend, and my defender. Life was often less than fun. Over time we shared those summer days when chores were done, reading through all of our comics.
We had more DC comics than Marvel, with about a dozen Turok, Son of Stone from Gold Key. We didn't keep our comics separated by ownership, we did separate them in terms of publisher. I worked from 12 years old on, I had a total of 3 jobs, and had two temporary jobs where I cleaned offices, shoveled walks, or mowed lawns. As such, I saved money and would weekly buy many more comics. I didn't let my father or mother know about my nest egg, since I deposited most of my earnings into a college fund. And college certainly drained it.
My kind of comics included, post apocalyptic, WWII, Prehistoric, Super heroes.
As I grew older my preference of comics began to skew towards the creative talents who created the comics. Jack Kirby, Dave Cockrum, Paul Gulacy & Doug Moench, Roy Thomas and more, all became part of why I would buy the comic. With my growing ability to buy comics, I developed regular books to buy.
Oh, and one more, artist/writer I followed Mike Grell. Due to my loving the Legion of Super Heroes, the art became a central feature, as most of the stories were shorter than a Superboy lead story. While I loved Dave Cockrum's LSH, Grell was a very good replacement, and was eventually much better on that book. The Cockrum X-Men and LSH were among my favorites.
I love Japan, and have since I read a number of books about WWII, Japan, Samurai, over a summer. I read well above my grade level, and whether my parents approved of my reading choices or not, they couldn't question my choices. I rarely shared that information. As an adult I continue to read comics, but mostly as TPBs after they ran long enough as single chapters/issues to establish a story to follow. I love manga, or Japanese comics, different than American or European comics, but still, stories told sequentially, with more conventions of the art form.
MY POETRY: AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com
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