Random Bits of Gratitude 010813

Old Circular Coke Machine
Pittsboro, NC January 2013

Three bits of random gratitude: Comics Edition

1. Comic Strips
When I was a kid we had home delivery of The Washington Post (mornings) and The Washington Star (evenings) newspapers. One day I asked my father why we got both papers. "The comics," was his immediate answer.

I come by my love of comics honestly. As a kid my mother bought me collections of Peanuts comic strips. My brother got Dennis the Menace books. As a teenager I cut out Calvin & Hobbes and Bloom County strips and stashed them away in books as bookmarks and for later re-discovery. (They're still great surprises.)

Whenever I'm feeling a bit down, some time spent with Calvin and Hobbes always makes me feel better.


2. Comic Books/Graphic Novels
I collected comic books as a kid and then again in my twenties. If I had the money, I'd probably still be collecting them. I was a Marvel kid, preferring the edgier, more hip and current stories they presented. I still have boxes and boxes of comic books (including an impressive run of early Daredevil and Cerebus) but they mostly just collect dust these days.

3. Web Comics
I end up reading all of my comic strips online these days. (There's a great widget for the Macside that collates them for me. Brilliant!) And, thanks to the web, I have new comic strips that I love to read, including The Oatmeal and XKCD.


-- Tom