I grew up reading comics. I didnt call them "comics", i called them "tales" or "stories", because thats what they were to me, stories with pictures to read. I loved all the comics i had, They were so interesting, varied and inspiring, that i read each of them dozens, maybe hundreds of times.
Where i grew up, there were no comic shops, and i dont remember bookstores selling comic issues or anything like that, so i didnt read american comics in my early life. In fact, as of now, i havent read a complete series or series run of any american comics ever. All i knew of american comics characters was from some tv cartoons of batman, justice league, etc.
But i dont feel like i was missing much. I had a lot of comics that were great. I had Tintin, Asterix, Lucky Luke, Spirou, Capitan Trueno, Alix, Condorito, El Jabato, and more. Most of them are european comics, and if you dont know some of the ones i mentiones, its because Capitan Trueno and Jabato are from Spain, and Condorito is from Latinamerca. All others are from France and Belgium.
My uncle, Guy, he`s from Belgium, and he passed some of his comics culture to me when i was a kid. If i remember well, his cousin (i think) was Willy Maltaite, aka "Will", was the artist of "Tif and Tondu" (an european comic series), and he was one of the "Gang of 4" with Franquin, Morris and Jije.
You could say that my uncle is the only strong connection i had with the comics world, because besides him and my father, no one else in my family have ever read comics.
Not having Superman, Batman, Spiderman, etc, as a part of my childhood is probably the reason why im not really interested in the superhero genre, which sadly represents the vast mayority of american comics. The comics i had to read were so diverse and so entertaining, that they, as a whole, influenced my own stories. I have all kinds of stories, horror, adventure, "slice of life", scifi, medieval fantasy, etc, and they are more focused on the characters and their "adventures", than in the action and "impact" (that is, trying to impress or shock the reader with extreme displays of gore, sex, violence, or impossible/dumb plot twists)
Anyway, i guess the drawing that comes with the post says everything.
(btw, the drawing is not a way to say that Tintin is good and Superman is bad, or that Tintin hates Superman, or whatever, its just a comic interpretation of my preferences)
