Hey, kids - Comics!

I grew up in rural New Brunswick and my Great Uncle Bob played an integral part in helping me develop a love of reading and, in particular, comic books.

Every week he and my Great Grandfather would run across the border to Calais, Maine and retrieve their necessities to make the trek to the "old camp" that was 10 miles away -- then would stop at our home which was along the way. Without fail, they would arrive with a bag of goodies from the States -- some grocery items, newspapers, books and a stack of comic books (they weren't 4 bucks a piece back then).

I have 3 brothers and we would all make our way down to our playroom and start passing them around: Superman, Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Captain America, Spider-man, The X-Men -- even comics about romance and TV cartoon characters. The real romance was the daydreams and the inspiration to write and draw my own stories.

I later began to learn the names of the creators and was compelled to follow the work they did, names like Frank Miller, Walt Simonson, George Perez, John Byrne, and the list went on and still does to this day.

If you have an interest in movies like Sin City, Road to Perdition, Ghost World, A History of Violence, 300, or Stardust I encourage you to look in on the comic work that they are forged from.

I know the films are out there and so are the video games, but I have always found a depth and intimacy in the source material. If you are more a fan of the traditional comic films like Batman, Spider-man, Hulk and Superman then I encourage you to check out Marvel Comics' newest offering -- digital comics. For a monthly subscription you have access to a large portion of their extensive catalog of titles and presently 250 of them are available for free!

The quality, options and interface are terrific and it is a great way to check out some great stories and artwork from their great history:

http://www.marvel.com/digitalcomics/