Dusting off an Old Read

I find that stories I write and illustrate have their origins in the books I was exposed to as a child. I have many good memories of reading comics with my brothers when I was very young. It's interesting to re-read old stories to see how they have influenced the kind of stories I enjoy telling today.

Sometimes, I stumble upon an old book I have not read in a long time and it's wonderful how turning its pages blows the dust from memories that have been patiently waiting for me to recall. It's terrific to be humbled when one's imagination soars high - realizing that no matter how old we get we still secretly crave that child-like sense of wonder, without which our lives would be all the more impoverished.

This book is "Our Fighting Forces #164". One of my brothers had a National Bookstore reprint of this issue back in the 70's. It was one of my earliest introductions to war comics. As a child who could not yet read I would open this book and take in the appearance of the format -the heavy textured inks, and the word balloons containing words which I did not know the meaning of. Yet in my own limited way I did know some of the words. Stringing those few words, placing them in context with the pictures, I managed to come away with the sense of a story - whether it was the intended story or not. But for a boy of four or five, it was more than enough to feed a hungry imagination.