How did you get hooked?

[JohnnyPanic]

My introduction to SIP was one of those clear cases of comic book karma. When my nephew was about 5 years old. I wanted badly to bond with him because I did not intend to have children of my own and my role was to be the eccentric, artistic uncle. But how do you bond with a 5 year old? My own interest in comics had diminished greatly, down to select titles like Frank Miller's Daredevil and weird amusing stuff like Tank Girl. I had sold most of my collection but I had a box of about 1,000 that were not sellable -- folded comics to fit in my back pocket or unsellable stuff. I gave the whole box to my sister knowing she would just leave it for Alex to discover.

Flashforward 10 years and my now 15 year-old nephew is heavily into Neil Gaman and Cerebus and the X-Men stuff and arty stuff like Paul Pope and Dave McKean. He was becoming a fantastic comic artist in his own right. He grew into a good friend with whom I exchanged opinions and now he was recommending all this stuff I could never find time to read. After numerous exhortations to try SIP I finally did, borrowing all of his issues (Vol. 2 which was ending it's run.)

Man, I love this comic book so much. Some other stuff gets me excited, especially radical political ideas. But I never laughed out loud on a crowded New York City train until SIP. I never cried while reading a comic until SIP. I never felt so much for fictional comic characters and wanted to be friends with them.

It's my mission now to share this LITERARY joy and heartache with my friends. They are mostly female and all but one never read comics. I pay homage to them now because they are wise and artistic enough to recognize a good read. They've caught up through my lending them the collections and now I've weaned them into the six-week wait between issues. We are better friends because we now share a love of these characters and discuss each issue.

Sorry for ranting. Thank you Alex for the payback. Thanks to Terry Moore for enriching my life. And here's to my friends Ronda, Ruth, Yajaira, Beth, Teri, and my cousin Nora. I have made each of them vow to give me an introduction to Katchoo if they come across her!! And thanks to all of you on the list for knowing what I'm talking about.

Josh
hormonal, in Brooklyn

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Josh
from Brooklyn

[kazhool]

I was in Minnesota, in '96, on a contracting job (computer consultant). As I knew no-one in town (St. Paul/Minneapolis), the local comic shop was my steady hangout spot.

After a few weeks of purchases and loitering (in conversation with the salesfolk), one of the clerks recommended SiP, having seen and heard the things I tended to like. Good call... and I've been hooked ever since.... AND I have since inflicted this SiP obsessions upon others. I especially love being a guy and hearing women talk about how they don't read comics 'cause it's just "guys in tights" -- then I lend 'em one of my TPBs.... another addict is born!!!

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[kazhool]

I was in Minnesota, in '96, on a contracting job (computer consultant). As I knew no-one in town (St. Paul/Minneapolis), the local comic shop was my steady hangout spot.

After a few weeks of purchases and loitering (in conversation with the salesfolk), one of the clerks recommended SiP, having seen and heard the things I tended to like. Good call... and I've been hooked ever since.... AND I have since inflicted this SiP obsessions upon others. I especially love being a guy and hearing women talk about how they don't read comics 'cause it's just "guys in tights" -- then I lend 'em one of my TPBs.... another addict is born!!!

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[kazhool]

I was in Minnesota, in '96, on a contracting job (computer consultant). As I knew no-one in town (St. Paul/Minneapolis), the local comic shop was my steady hangout spot.

After a few weeks of purchases and loitering (in conversation with the salesfolk), one of the clerks recommended SiP, having seen and heard the things I tended to like. Good call... and I've been hooked ever since.... AND I have since inflicted this SiP obsessions upon others. I especially love being a guy and hearing women talk about how they don't read comics 'cause it's just "guys in tights" -- then I lend 'em one of my TPBs.... another addict is born!!!

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[Yazimariel]

Hmmm.
I had gotten connected to the internet at the end of '98. At the beginning of '99 I was seriously addicted to Xena Fanfic (still am if the right thing comes along) As many others, I visited Lunatic Fanfic recommendations, and when the SiP/Xena parody came out it got mentioned in the Lunatic Reviews, so I started doing searches about the comic.
Finally, I started looking around for comic book shops (I was newer to NY and didn't walk around much back then) walked into Midtown comics, where I bought the first TPB. I quickly bought the rest until I was caught up and stopped by this here board less than a month later. And well, here I still am. Reading SiP has gotten me into comics, funnily enough. In the recommendation pages, I found something about Kingdom Come, which of course, as the masterpiece that it is, made me believe that there was quality out there, so I checked the other titles out, and then recommendations from what peeps in the board read, and boy, I sure didn't think i was gonna be getting into all this when I was searching the net for some new Xena Fanfiction...

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"I'm telling you stories. Trust me." Jeanette Winterson

[AsIs]

A guy I knew bought the comic shop I got my books from. He had worked there the first time I went in and inquired about Silver Sable. We later met at a few parties and talked comics and he knew I liked strong women characters. So when he bought the shop, he gave me the first SIP trade to read and I was hooked.

Mike is a cool guy. I loved buying my books there, he took care of me. One month for the clean box contest he had SIP prizes and I won a signed sheet of the SIP cards uncut. It is very cool.

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Selah

The bridge between life and death is love.