Saturday, April 22, 2006

Nerdom: Superheroes


PING, my character
I've loved super-heroes since before I could read, pawing furtively through my brothers' comic books when they weren't looking and marveling at the cool pictures. I was a DC kid, which means I liked the bright and god-like heroes -- Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, shining icons of pure purpose and inhuman dedication. I never quite "got" the Marvel characters, with all of their human foibles and real-world problems. So Peter Parker couldn't make rent. Well guess what, neither could I! The way I saw it, comics were to escape your problems; why would I want to run to fiction to find the exact same problems -- and worse! -- confronting someone else?

This genre and those characters are responsible for most of the happy childhood memories I had. They hold out hope for a better today and a more glorious tomorrow. They get me writing, drawing, and creating, and for that I am truly thankful.

That love of the four-color world has never left me, and recently I've found a group online that lets me exercise my fascination. I get to write, draw, and play a game all at the same time, which is pretty cool. I'll probably be using this group to explore the "Nerd Side" a bit more and hopefully show those who have never been what a great place it can be. After all, this blog is supposed to be about the two sides of my world, both the country and the nerd.

3 comments:

Rob Rogers said...

PING is awesome. What a great picture!

I'm glad you're enjoying Uberworld.

Anonymous said...

Wow -- I learned of your blog on a Shiloh list and loved that when I got here I found a link to one of my favorite blogs -- The Comics Curmudgeon! And then to see that your most recent post here is comics-related. A small world indeed.

Are you comfortable saying what name (if any) you use on Josh's site?

Jeff Hebert said...

Hi, thanks for stopping by Satchefan! I don't comment much at Josh's site, I usually find that everyone else has been much cleverer, much faster than I can get something up there. Plus Josh himself is so funny I can't really improve on anything he does, so I just enjoy reading and watching.

If I were a super-hero I'd probably end up as "The Lurker" or something :-)