[The Poet]

Back about the time Gutenberg invented The Fantastic Four I read a lot of comics, mainly your standard DC superheroes but also war comics like Capt. Storm and The Haunted Tank. Then, in drug-addled college daze, me and my afro'ed bro Luke Cage tripped into Marvel with the likes of Thor, Hulk, and Dr. whoa Strange. Following a long hiatus, Superman's untimely passing brought me back into the fold as a celebrant in comic's version of the cigar boom . . . a sad and frightful time indeed, Spawn-ing many new players and stirring up much foolishness. (Anybody remember pogs? No? I didn't think so, and that's good.) Thus, as delight mutated into disgust, I again followed Stan Lee's footsteps into the sunset, save for an annual raid on Free Comic Book Day.

A few years back, hearing of the ire and anger from the faithful vented towards DC for daring to publish a Before Watchman series . . . hey, Moore-heads are as loyal as any Gaimanite or Whovian, and meaner too, like Alan . . . my contrarian nature sucked, or suckered, me back in. Yes, I did the DC and Marvel thing, and still dip my toe into a smattering of their titles, but as both rely too much now upon multi-issue multi-title multi-month events now, forcing a reader to mortgage the house in order to get the whole story, I now find my geek mainly with the bit-players of pulp fiction, your non-standard valiant dark horse images of the genre. Not only are their offerings more focused and constrained, making them more affordable, they are also more literary and mature, two things (well, at least ONE thing) I myself am today. And Wednesdays, without fail, remain New Comic Book Day.

Or, short answer: Yes.