1991 How I Love Comic Books

In elementary school, we used to create these books made of construction paper (such a good name), that were laminated and bound using that plastic comb binding. I loved making them, though I hadn't developed a sense of layout/design yet. This book was called "How I Love Comic Books". The "typography" on the cover is interesting because I chose to draw in the holes on the B.

My poor mum used to have to stand there for endless amounts of time while I went through every book in the store, and if I came out empty handed... that's when she'd flip her lid. Rightly so, sorry! I don't actually recall her ever saying that I am a comic book, I think that was me using my creative license. Ah, youth!

I find the text in this book hilarious. I remember getting yelled at for using ballpoint pen to draw on that green paper, I understand now tho. It doesn't read well.

I'm glad I appreciated weirdness. The weirdest part about this page was that I didn't even like the Fantastic Four! I never even bought an issue my entire life. I think I was writing this book as more of an introduction to comics. I wish I was more bold with my imagery here, maybe I should recreate this book? haha

I get a kick out of this page, especially in the google adwords time we live in today. I drew most of the book in crayon. My handwriting is pretty neat. I remember coloring this all in at my classmate Eric's house, he was the fastest runner in our grade. He lived in a very ritzy part of town. I remember 2 girls from our class skated by us and he yelled, "Posers!" at them. I'm not sure why he did that, at the time I didn't know what the word meant and I just thought he was complimenting them on how they were able to pose why skating. I remember weird things.

I wonder if any parents that read this were inspired to begin reading comics? There was a parent's night where everyone came and read all of our laminated books, there was a sheet on the back of each book for them to write comments. I lost the sheet, unfortunately, but I remember people wrote about how much they loved the artwork. My Mum wrote something nice in there too.

This is probably my favorite part of the book, I can't believe I wrote this! haha

I'm happy to say I still love comics, and I'm re-reading Dragon Ball (still good after all these years!). I love Frank Miller's early work, everything by Alan Moore especially Miracle Man, Jaime Hernandez' Locas, Alejandro Jodorowsky's many masterpieces, The Maxx, and a new book I love is the Invader Zim comic. If you are in NY I highly recommend my friend Menachem Luchin's shop Escape Pod Comics. His ability to recommend books is more spot on than any silly algorithm, and he has a true passion for comics. Here in SF, I go to Comix Experience. Enjoy!