The comic book community is a very large, very obsessive one. It is comprised of millions of readers who buy their personal favorite books every week and pour over each panel as if it were a priceless paint hanging in the Louvre, or an original manuscript of the Iliad. These readers then take their opinions of the books and share them with as many fellow readers as they can. There are countless message boards and websites online where these fans can gather together and discuss thei favorite and least favorite characters, arcs, artists, writers, pencilers, colorists, editors, marketing directors, interns, or whatever else they feel like picking apart in a given issue. Many comic fans have now also turned to podcasting to get their opinions out there. Some of the bigger podcasts getting many thousands of downloads per episode. The Mecca of the comic book community is the many conventions that are hosted throughout the year in different parts of the country which give fans access to their favorite creators, special panels with privleged information about upcoming storylines, and the ability to see work from smaller press companies that may not be availible in the comic specialty shops.
The common thread between the fans of comic books is the appreciation for the different elements of each book; the story, the characters, and the art. These things are also what causes the most tension between memebers of the community. With anything, people have their own preferences about what they like in a comic. Some like art to be very realistic, called photo-reference, others like a very cartoon-like type of drawing. There is a camp of fans that like painted art, and those who prefer digital coloring. There are the same divides with writing styles, page layouts, even types of paper that the comics are written on.
Like all the other comic fans, I have my own preferences as to each aspect of the books as well, but ultimately I just love reading them. I have been collecting for almost thirteen years, and have well over five hundred issues. I enjoy being part of a community where the common bond is one that offers such a variety. There is a comic out there for almost any genre that can be thought of, and the people that read them respresent such a wide range of age, ethnicity, status, and belief that it really is a way of crossing many social barriers, and in just twenty-two pages per issue.
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