In my childhood, I had a ritual of accompanying my mother on shopping trips to the grocery store so I could catch up on the latest X-Men adventure. This was my idea of an education. The comic section was my library and when left to my own devices for 15 to 20 minutes, I wasted no time grabbing a stack of comics and sprawling out on the cold linoleum to study. While discovering these characters, I was overwhelmed by how much in their lives I had missed out on. Being born in the early 80’s put me at a disadvantage as most comics had reached issues numbering in the hundreds before I even learned to read. But slowly, through many grocery trips (and the help of Wizard Magazine), I became a comic mythology expert. I could have taught a class on the subject; in fact, I often fantasized about an occupation these credentials would fit. I mentally cataloged every superhero origin story, every famous crossover battle from all the leading universes. I even mastered random facts such as Iceman’s stamina rating, thanks to the convenient stats printed on the back of the collectible card sets. But those were the days when that’s all I had to do. Inevitably life intervened, and though I never lost my love of superheroes, I lost the time to read about them.

Now, almost 10 years later, I am sneaking time out of my “adult” life to indulge in comics again.  So I recently went to my local comic shop to survey the climate of the medium. I naively thought I’d pick up a few hot titles I’d missed out on. A little back story filler from one of my friendly comic vendors and --“BAMF!” – I’d be magically transported back to my youth. Unfortunately it was not that simple and the vendors still aren’t that friendly. “Uncanny” and “Amazing” are no longer the adjectives that describe the comic hero world. Now titular characters are “Ultimate” and “Alternate”, even “Zombified”!  I was way out of my league. I felt like I had just walked into a current events class after sleeping through almost a decade of curriculum.

How will I possibly sort thru “30 Days of Night”, “The Watchmen”, “Preacher”, “Hellboy” and the millions of other stories that transformed the industry in my absence? Where do I begin? For starters, taking out a student loan to finance all these ridiculously priced trade paperbacks. Then maybe I’ll find the guy who nabbed my job as comic mythology expert for a little clarification.

The comic medium has developed into quite a respectable form of storytelling over the past decade and a half. These aren’t comics anymore. They’re graphic novels. And they aren’t kids’ stuff. In fact, they seem much more advanced than when I left them. It seems the drawings have finally been recognized by the culture at large as masterful pieces of art. And the stories are lush with character development, plot twists and allusion to other works. They are no longer the recycled standalone adventures I occasionally winced through, even in my youth. And just like classic literature, you can’t skip the book for the movie or crib the cliff notes version because you would lose the magic only the finely inked pages can cast (Case in point: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). It’s all very exciting and I find myself in a familiar position. I have to consign to my childhood curiosity and dive in. I’m sure I once wondered to myself, “Who’s this guy with the claws?” Back to school I guess. Now, can anyone tell me Agent Graves’ power rating?

So as the resident born-again comic fan of The Panel, I will be voicing the plight of the neophyte in the coming issues. I will be chiming in from time to time (between catching up on volumes of “Y: The Last Man”) to discuss a newcomer’s perspectives on topics such as comics becoming movies and visa versa, gripes about douche bag comic store owners, and confusions like why dead characters can’t stay dead. I’ll also try tackling some general comic history review for those too ashamed to ask, like myself. So if you’re new in town or just been away for a while, I’ll be hitting the books to try and get us all up to speed.