Leave of Absence

07/30/08

With music and girls making increasing demands on my time during my college years (the 90s), my devotion to comic books began to wain. The impulse to meet new people, go dancing and see bands really put comic-time on the back-burner.

After a few years, I was down to picking up only a few titles: X-Men and other mutant-related books, and manga. Enter Closet of Comics - a portal to the younger Hal universe. COC was my favorite kind of comic store – mile-long, dust-covered, yellowing bins full of back issues, nerds playing D&D, and random friendly freaks. But social obligations, a girlfriend, the campus radio station, the school paper and, um, classes, kinda got in the way of staying committed to my old hobby. By 1995, I had stopped collecting completely.

Todd McFarlane ruled the 90s. His influence was everywhere in comics and toys, and by that time I had had enough of his overdrawn characters. Add to that the proliferation of gimmicks such as collector cards, hologram covers and rising prices, and it wasn’t long before comics and I had to part ways. It made me a little sad, but the change was necessary. It would be many years before I read or buy a comic book again.