Way back in the 1970s, when I was a kid, I began my youthful writing apprenticeship by creating comic books. I would take ruled paper and use colored markers to create my little drawings and stories on the pages, then I staple the pages together.
I started with the basic Marvel universe of super heroes, then I added my own good guys and bad guys. Eventually I had a three-ring binder full of drawings and notes about all my creations.
My main creation was a guy I called Destroyer X. He was human, but from another planet. His planet was in the middle of a civil war against a despotic wizard when a godlike being came to the man who would become Destroyer X and offered him super powers to defeat the wizard. But there's a catch. After the wizard is defeated, Destroyer X must leave his planet and go to a little place on the other side of the galaxy known as Earth. Earth needed a new protector, and this godlike being (whose name I can't remember) was in charge of finding that protector. Of course, Destroyer X agreed, defeated the wizard and went on to become Earth's new champion super hero.
I even created a super group called the Destroyers, which was made up of Destroyer X, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Rom the Spaceknight, Dr. Strange and a shifting band of others.
Man, I wish I still had those comic books and all those notes. I bet I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours putting all that stuff together, and I'm sure it's been long destroyed.
I would have been about 7 and 8 when I did all that work. We had a couple of very bad winters in a row, I missed months of school, and playing in the snow gets a little dull after a week or so. Thus I had had plenty of time to write.
Wish I had that much time to write now!
THAT, my friend, is an awesome memory and story! I, too, wish you could get your hands on that collection. I was doing similar things in that era, but I guess the one that marches closest to that tale (besides the poetry and short story writing - "March of the Vegetables," anyone?), would be the football games my friend and I played. On ruled paper folded in half, we'd draw our plays, offense and defense, without looking at the other guy's, with arrows and notes telling what each player was doing. Then we'd flip the sheet open and see what happened. Sometimes there were some pretty wild shenanigans, let me tell ya!
ReplyDeleteThen we'd compromise on what each felt happened that play and carry on.
I used to keep a binder of those . . . in fact, I know I have a few sheets in a box somewhere, though the majority have fled.
Thanks for the memory, Ty, and I loved sharing yours. :)
"March of the Vegetables?"
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a very early short story of mine called "Night of the Toys." A mall was built upon an ancient Indian burial site and one night evil undead spirits awaken and take over the toys in the mall, sending the three late-night security guards on the fight of their lives. I think I was maybe 12 when I wrote that. I thought I'd be the next Stephen King.