Why Comics?

I had an interesting question asked me today by a non-comic reading friend who'd recently learned about my blog and postings to comic related forums. "Why comics?" or more specifically "Why do I spend so much of my online time talking about comics?"

I must admit that I didn't have an answer off the top of my head. I love comics, but then I love movies, music, TV shows and novels as well. Yet I don't have blogs discussing them or go to forums or news sites for them like I do with comics.

One answer I came up with is because this is the only place I have to discuss my interest in comics. Even with the most obscure TV show or CD, I can generally find a common reference point to discuss them with someone else. Yet in comics, despite a great deal of growth in acceptance in recent years, that just isn't so.

Also, when taking into account my fairly weird tastes in comics, at least in comparison to what popularly sells on the industry's top 300 sellers every month. Discussing what I like online, on this blog and other forums, can at times be my only hope to know about other projects I might like.

Whether it is an obscure band or little known author, there are magazines and other outlets that will offer me the coverage I need to have an idea what to try. With comics I really must work to find things that will be of interest to me which means spending more time online concentrating on comics than the other things require.

So thanks Brandi, if you're reading this, for giving me a reason to look at why I do this for. It was certainly something I hadn't thought about before.