This is the most valuable comic in my collection.
Not monetarily. At best, a graded, gem mint copy of Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #403 would get you $200. This – ahem – “well loved” copy might be worth about a nickel.
The pages are falling out, it’s covered in spilled chocolate milk, and the crinkles are from using a hair dryer to dry the spilled chocolate milk. So why do I waste a perfectly good bag and board on this random Spidey comic from the mid-nineties? (A Clone Saga chapter, no less!)
This is the comic that taught me how to draw.
I’d get off the bus after a hard day of sixth grade, and I would spend hours, every night, re-drawing every panel. Every pose, every expression, every movement. This eventually led to me creating my own comics, with my own stories and my own characters, all posed like the ones in this comic.
Now granted, my stories and characters weren’t particularly complex. All my heroes and villains were rip-offs of established characters (Arachnid-Man, for example) and the stories rarely got more intricate than “we’re fighting because me good and you bad.” But the point is I was learning.
And now, twenty-ish years later, I’m doing the same thing.
Somewhere around high school, I stopped drawing. I gave up on art. My brother was (is) very good at it, and I had a stubborn need to carve my own path. I focused more on writing, eventually getting into film and marketing.
But I have stories to tell. Voices in my head. And I don’t want to have to rely on someone else’s skills or someone else’s money in order to see them come to life.
At age 34, I’m back to where I was when I was in the sixth grade. Studying the work of artists I admire, teaching myself how to be better. I don’t have delusions of grandeur. I don’t expect to create the next Spider-Man. But if another twelve-year-old kid looks at my work and is inspired to tell their own story, I’ll call that a success.
My name is Beau Batterson. I am teaching myself to draw comics. Thank you for coming with me. I have a long way to go.
Unrelated, when revisiting this comic to write this blog, I discovered it was drawn by one of my favorite artists, Mark Bagley. Had I known that about six years ago, I would have asked him to sign it when I stood in line to get his autograph at a convention in Toronto. Instead I had him sign an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man.
Then again, maybe he wouldn’t have cared for how poorly I treated his work.