He/She is a symbol of all that is still good in the world. Children in today's society are often shown the harsh reality of the world they live in before they have even begun their childhood. Nothing is so pure as the innocence of a child.

Personally, I don't consider all comic books to be within the realm of children. In fact, many of the publications on the shelves today recommend a mature audience in light of their subject matter. This aside, I realize that many people are blissfully unaware of any comics beyond Peanuts and Archie. However, what I have to say is not dependent on an unbiased audience (thank goodness).

As you may have gathered from my introduction, I am violently opposed to the belief that holding on to your inner child, cherishing him/her, is wrong. I try to promote a better attitude towards enjoyment in general whenever I can. Too many people deprive themselves of enjoyment (or live in a state of denial) for fear of the stigma that will be associated with them. Not me. Many of my hobbies have a very small adult following. That's fine by me. I just want to have fun :)

Meet Wolverine, one of my favourite comic book heroes. He has taken many a lickin', but somehow, he keeps on tickin' (it probably has something to do with his superhero status). Although the comic is not nearly as dark as some of the other publications I'm interested in, it is very primal. That has a great deal of appeal for me. Particularly, the issues around #77 were fantastic. To sink that low . . . it's fascinating and terrifying at the same time. But, as long as I'm talking about being down and out, I'll move on to the next introduction.

Meet Spawn. He's been to hell and back. Literally. But before I get ahead of myself, that has nothing to do with why I originally picked up an issue of Spawn. In the early issues, the comic was basically Todd McFarlane's project. He did the story and the pencils. I followed Todd, like the faithful fan I am, from Marvel, where he did the pencils for Amazing Spiderman and later, Spiderman, to Image, the home of Spawn. I started with issue #8 of Spawn and worked my way back to #1. Even though Al Simmons (the man, and I use that term very loosely, behind the costume) has lost some of his initial appeal to me, I'm still a subscriber. My recent lack of enthusiasm for the comic is no doubt directly related to the shift away from Todd's pencils. He works on the story almost exclusively these days. I could relate the background of the comic to you here, but, to be perfectly honest, my recollection of the story is pretty poor. Check out SPAWN: WWW Headquarters for all the details.

Last modified: April 4, 1998

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Many thanks to my contributors.