Whenever someone asks me how I first got into comics, I lie.

I don’t do it on purpose, and until recently I didn’t even realize I was doing it at all. When I’m asked that question, I usually talk about my aunt and her bookstore, and how she would sit me down with a plate of cookies, a glass of Kool-Aid and a stack of Bronze Age comics. And while all that’s true, it’s not the real beginning. Like what I’m guessing is actually true for most fans, I got into comics by reading the strips in the daily paper.

This will sound quaint and archaic to younger readers, but the newspaper used to be a thing. It would come to your house everyday, rolled up tight and thrown somewhere on your yard, and was a reliable source for all kinds of information. And any paper worth its salt had at least a page’s worth of comic strips (more on Sundays—and in color!).

Growing up was when I read everything, from Blondie and Wizard of ID to the cursed Cathy and Love is … Strips like Mark Trail primed me for superhero comics, and of course, this was when Peanuts, still the gold standard, came into my life. Comic strips taught me, without my even knowing, the language of comics.

My job helped me get to this realization. Because of the work I do, I’m able to see the local paper’s Sunday comics page a few days before their published. One day I decided to read Prince Valiant, a strip I’ve avoided.

Why did I skirt around this certified classic? A lushly illustrated epic adventure originally by Hal Foster that has been around since 1937? Well, there’s your clue. Prince Valiant is one continuous story, a tale told for coming up on a hundred years. Where do you start with something like that?

As a kid, I never cared if a comic I had was the beginning, middle or end of a story. All I cared about was that it was a comic and I could figure out the rest through context (and if I couldn’t, I didn’t sweat it). I decided to apply the same attitude to Prince Valiant, and found myself at the tale end of a story about his sword being stolen, him teaming up with a bunch of barbarians, and fighting some other group of baddies.

And man, I was sucked in. Especially when, celebrating his victory, Val almost falls into a roaring bonfire but is saved by his son, Arn, who himself suffers a head injury and slips into a coma! Then, when no healers can help him Val takes Arn home, where Morgan Le Fey shows up at his granddaughter’s request, even though she’s banned from the castle!! But she may be the only one who can heal Arn and …

Sorry. Got carried away there.

This new excitement for an old format made me take another look at my shelves. I suddenly remembered collections that have been sitting there, waiting for me, bundles of comic strips that I’ve been meaning to get to for what feels like forever. Popeye. The Superman Dailies. Modesty Blaise. Jack Cole’s last work, Betsy and Me. Most recently I stumbled across the Star Wars dailies, in particular the amazing Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson run. The itch to get into all of these is like a mental poison oak begging to be scratched.

As I get older, I worry sometimes that my interests are just misplaced nostalgia. But in this case, I don’t think that’s true for the simple reason that I’ve never read any of these strips. These are all new to me, and that in turn makes it feel like comics are new for me again. I’m not going to get into the state of modern comics right now (honestly, not as dire as it has been and actually pretty good), but I feel like I needed this.

Hey, maybe it’s time to read that Wednesday Comics collection again.

*****

New Releases of Interest This Week

• Aquaman #2 (DC Comics)
• Black Lightning #4 (DC Comics)
• Absolute Batman #5
• One World Under Doom #1 (Marvel)
• The Immortal Thor #20 (Marvel)
• Creepshow in Love #1 (Image)
• Bug Wars #1 (Image)
• Geiger #11 (Image)
• Archaic #3 (Ahoy Comics)
• Camgirl #1 (Awa Studios)
• Cursed Pirate Girl: Malodious Mutiny (Boom Studios)
• Jim Henson’s Labyrinth Original Motion Picture adaptation (Boom Studios)
• Dick Tracy: Valentine’s Day Special #1 (Mad Cave)
• Mine is a Long, Lonesome Grave #1 (Oni Press)

*Quick note: I’ve been getting a lot of pleasure from small press comics lately, with Ahoy, Mad Cave and DSTLRY especially being worth a look.