We all have our vices, mine is the funny books. I’m a total comic book geek – which I hope didn’t come as a shock to any of you. Some people like sports, some like NASCAR, some like music, but not me. I love reading superhero comics. It’s my passion. And not only do I love reading them, but my dream job is to someday write superhero comics. I wear comic book T-shirts, I collect comic book action figures, I write a blog about comics and every week I take a trip to my local comic book shop to pick up a big stack of new books to read.

You could say I’m cuckoo for comic books!

But I would take it as a kindness if you didn't

But why do I love comic books? Of all the millions of things I could love, especially all the ones that are more socially acceptable, why do I continue to be a huge geek who reads comic books? Why spend the money? What do I get out of them? Hopefully today I can answer those burning questions! Here are 6 reasons why I love reading comic books!

6. I Was Raised to Like Comics

My dad used to be a big comic book geek back in the day, and he has a pretty extensive collection back at home. He was such a collector that he has most of them bagged and boarded and in storage, and never let the Wee Baby Sean get his grubby little hands on the comics. He also kept detailed notebooks of all his issues. But there were several issues that weren’t in such good quality that he let me read them. He also had a few collected editions, big and small, for me to check out. He was also buying more comics at the toy shows and conventions we used to go to. And every time we went to the barbershop when I was a kid, we’d pick up some comics from the drug store down the street to read while we waited our turn for the snips.

Some of the books were superhero comics, but my dad also had this big pile of ancient MAD magazines and hundreds of small paperback comic strip books for the likes of Beetle Bailey, the Wizard of Id, and other newspaper strips. I devoured these books when I was younger.

The only soldier not overseas these days

Despite his big collection, however, my dad wasn’t much of a comic book geek when I was young. I think he outgrew it. He knew the names of all the superheroes and stuff, but he never seemed to share in my growing interest. My brother did, though. He followed me into comic book geekdom. And sure we read the comics, but we loved the extra stuff too. We used to collect superhero trading cards, which were chock full of information on characters we’d never even heard about yet. We had tons of action figures, and we watched all the superhero cartoons on TV. We were immersed in superheroes!

Conversely, I hated watching sports on TV. I played soccer growing up, and was in little league baseball for a few years, but whenever my dad insisted on watching the New York Yankees game, I just wanted him to change the channel back to whatever I was watching. I just never got interested in sports. I had too many fun books to read at my house.

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5. The Creativity

Remember in The Matrix: Reloaded, when Neo fought that army of Agent Smiths? Pretty cool, right? But then remember how it was so obviously computer animated, with a wobbly looking Neo, that it just pulled you right out of the movie? That doesn’t happen in comic books. They are not bound by the budget of a TV show or a big screen movie, or the quality of CGI special effects. A comic book is limited only by the imaginations and skill of the writer and artist. And that’s awesome. The same could be said for books and novels, but those are not a visual medium. You’re only reading words. Comic books combine the depth and imagination of books with the visuals of movies, and don’t have to worry about making something look realistic. When reading a comic book, the art creates the world. It may look cartoony compared to reality, but it’s ‘real’ in terms of that one comic. So you are never (or at least rarely) pulled out of a comic book because something doesn’t look real.

Comics: A fireaxe-wielding police officer uses a portal gun to get exploding baseballs so that his army of vikings can defeat an army of evil baseball players

And writers and artists take full advantage of this creativity. Like the time Spider-Man and the Human Torch went into outer space and fought a million octopus robot zombies! Or when the Nextwave team had a spirited argument with a sentient, red-skinned Tyrannosaurus Rex in a suit before blowing up his flying city. Or what about the time Superman and his army of Superman Robots teamed up to battle Solaris the Living Sun? If all of those sentences sound absolutely insane to you, then good! They’re supposed to! But in the world of comic books, those are par for the course.

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4. The Community

I’m talking about you guys! My blog readers, who I assume have found my site while searching for Batman, X-Men or other superhero related content on the Interwebs. There is no greater group of people in the world than geeks. We are just more fun than preppies, far cooler than jocks, and a cut above dweebs. We are united in our passionate love for all manner of geekery, especially comic books. I have been to three comic book conventions in the past few years, and each trip was more amazing than the last. Collectors, cosplayers, casual fans, and more packed those halls, all hoping to rub elbows with the geek elite and maybe see a preview of an upcoming comic book movie. And it’s you geeks I will join for the midnight showing of The Avengers film in less than two weeks, sitting down with a theater full of people who are just as giddy as I am to see that film. I can still remember the whole theater cheering when Wolverine tore into those soldiers at the midnight showing of X2: X-Men United.

Fans love Wolverine

And, of course, it’s not just in-person geeks I’m talking about. The Internet was made for people like us to share and connect across the world. I know how hard it can be to make friends who share your interests, let alone finding a boyfriend or girlfriend. But with the Internet, I have met tons of fellow geeks who I never would have met in the real world otherwise. They are some of my best friends in the world! I’ve even met some of them in real life. And in writing this blog, I’ve met even more fellow geeks who care enough to comment on my articles and share their loves of Doctor Who, Batman, video games and more. It’s so much fun meeting someone new who shares my love of comics. We geeks are good people.

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3. The Continuity

Nowhere else in the world of fiction will you find a story that has been ongoing for 50+ years except in comic books. The story of Peter Parker, Spider-Man, kicked off in August 1962, and that same Peter Parker is still starring in Amazing Spider-Man to this very day. There have been changes to his supporting cast, his villains, his job, his clothing style and more. But fans have been tuning in to the continuing adventures of Peter Parker all these years. And I love that. Granted, you have to suspend your disbelief to allow for ‘comic book time’ in that Peter’s life hasn’t progressed in real time. But I’m totally cool with that. Spider-Man has simply had 50 years worth of comic book adventures crammed into his 10 years of fictional life. That’s just how comics work.

Like remember when he wore a paper bag on his head? Good times

I love that comic book characters will learn and grow from past experiences. When Batman fights the Joker, he can remember that the last time they fought, Joker beat Robin black and blue. So now when they fight again, Batman will have that extra edge of anger and vengeance in him. When Peter Parker gets a new girlfriend, he can think back to the girlfriend who was killed by a super-villain years ago, and will know to be more cautious with this new love. These are living, breathing characters who are shaped by their past, just like us. You won’t find that anywhere else, at least not to this caliber.

For you non-comic fans, think of the Die Hard movie franchise, or perhaps the TV show Friends. When they made the first Die Hard movie, or the pilot episode of Friends, nobody knew that either one would last as long as it did. But the character of John McClane has been through each of those wild action movies, and he’s grown and learned from them. So that when he appears in Live Free or Die Hard, his character is the sum of all those previous movies. The characters on Friends, likewise, changed over the course of 10 seasons. The writers didn’t know at the beginning that Monica and Chandler would fall in love and get married, but it happened and the show ran with it. Yet in both instances, the actors get old and the show can’t be made anymore. TV and movie audiences are too fickle, and it costs too damn much money to produce either in the long term.

Not so when it comes to comic books! Fans love the classic characters and want to see them continue on and on and on!

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2. The Characters

Spider-Man, Batman, Captain America, Multiple Man, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman; I could go on and on. These characters are larger than life. They are our modern day gods and myths, the heroes we can aspire to be, love to hate; or cheer when they kick ass. Fiction is the foundation of entertainment, and there is no greater group of fictional characters than the world of superheroes. Look no further than the past decade and more of superhero Hollywood domination. Superhero movies started the trend of breaking $100 million at the box office, and are still going strong. The Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises are all expected to absolutely dominate the entertainment industry this year. Because these are amazing characters with even more amazing stories to tell.

One story idea: Avengers Babies!

But we don’t have to wait for their big budget movies to come out. All of these characters are available on a weekly basis in comic books. There are whole libraries worth of Batman and Spider-Man stories just waiting to be read. And comics aren’t restricted to a two hour running length. A good Spider-Man story can take a whole year to tell, with more depth, characterization and action than a big budget movie could hope to achieve. And in the comics, there are characters for everyone to love, regardless of their marquee status. Regular readers of my blog will know that my most favorite comic book characters are usually the obscure B, C and D-list characters who don’t appear all that often and aren’t about to get a major motion picture. I can treasure their comic book appearances even more that way.

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1. The Heroics

Plain and simple, the #1 reason why I love comic books is because I love good guys doing the right thing and being heroes. I’m a sucker for a white knight. I have always been a law-abiding citizen, it’s just who I am. I don’t do drugs, I don’t speed, I don’t get in fights and I never threw eggs at houses on Halloween. Some might say I’ve never lived, but to hell with them. I’m very happy with the way I’ve lived my life and continue to live it. I know I’m not perfect, but I absolutely believe in doing the right thing, in helping others and giving of yourself. So I definitely gravitate towards these larger than life heroes who use their great powers for the betterment of truth, justice and the American way. Being the good guy is just that much more rewarding.

The only white knight I'll ever need

Whenever I play modern video games that have morality meters, I hate being a bad guy. I rarely even play in a gray middle ground. I always pick the good guy options in Mass Effect, Fable, Knights of the Old Republic, etc. I don’t even go back and replay the game for the sheer curiosity of seeing what happens when you’re a jerk. I just don’t want to do it. Even when I create my own character in those WWE wrestling games, I always played a super duper good guy. Wrestling is notorious for its villains and heel-turns and all of that, but I would always pick the babyface over the heel. Some people say the bad guys have more fun or are more entertaining, well I respectfully disagree.