F.A.Q. #2

In my capacity as a columnist who writes about comic books, I was asked by a college student to participate in a survey for a project of his a while back. He emailed me some questions (which were also posed to other pros) and asked for my responses. I thought I'd share some of them with you (edited for this blog, natch). Here goes . . .

Q: First, please describe yourself. (The usual stuff: name, age, occupation, interests aside from comics, etc.)

A: My name is Mark Voger. I'm 48. I'm a writer/designer for the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey, where I have written about comics since the '80s. Aside from comics, I enjoy "Leave it to Beaver," "Exile on Main Street" by the Rolling Stones, "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," playing in a band and the ocean.

Q: Describe your introduction to comics. Where did you first encounter comic art, and in what form?

A: I was born in 1958 and have loved comics for as long as I can remember. Before I could even spell, I was drawing comics on shirt cardboards -- those sheets of cardboard that dry cleaners used to keep men's shirts wrinkle-free. Before long, my dad was asking everyone at his office to give him THEIR shirt cardboards. He would bring three or four home every night and I would draw, draw, draw. I was 8 when the TV series "Batman" starring Adam West debuted in 1966. Adam West was my hero. That's when my interest in comics went into overdrive. I read "Batman," "Detective Comics," "Superman," "Action Comics," "Adventure," "Superboy," "Lois Lane," "Jimmy Olsen," "The Flash," "Metal Men," "Green Lantern," "The Atom," "The Brave and the Bold," "Justice League of America," "Sugar and Spike," "Fox and Crow," "Bob Hope," "Jerry Lewis," "The Inferior Five," "Plastic Man" (the '60s revival), "The Amazing Spider-Man," "Daredevil," Marvel giants, "Sad Sack," "Sarge," "Little Dot," "Little Lotta," "Hot Stuff," "Archie," "Jughead," "Mad," "Cracked," "Sick," "Famous Monsters of Filmland," "Creepy," "Eerie," "Vampirella," you name it.

Q: Describe some of the changes you have experienced as a comic fan over the years, as well as some consistencies.

A: The consistencies are easier to name, because I still LOVE and read all of the above titles to this day. I'm a "Silver Age" geek (the Silver Age being the period of comics from 1956 until, roughly, the early to mid '70s). To this day, that's what I still buy and read. One of the clerks at the comic shop I go to always asks me, "Don't you get tired of reading the same stuff over and over?" I try to explain to him that it's NOT the same stuff. I don't own every book from the '60s. I still buy issues from back then that I've never owned, so those issues are new to ME. As far as the changes -- I went through a period as a college kid in the '70s when I read a lot of underground stuff. I read Robert Crumb, Justin Green, Gilbert Shelton, Bill Griffith, Spain, S. Clay Wilson and all of those guys. In the mid '80s, I became fanatical about comics again after reading "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns." And, yes, I bought most of the "gimmick" comics -- the death of Superman and the holograms and the Image books, etc. Do I read them still? Nope. At this moment, I'm reading "Mystery in Space" #89.