[bchat]

I've been a member for a while but hadn't been overly active with the site lately.  I've been posting to the boards recently, so why not finally introduce myself and see who cares?

I've been reading comics pretty much all of my life, since the mid-70s, back when I was younger, and hence smaller than I am now.  I got into collecting comics in the early 80s with The Avengers, which was a nice time to get involved, since Crisis, Secret Wars (the first series, not that awful sequel), Squadron Supreme, the Marvel Handbooks and DC's Who's Who were just about to get started.

Overall, I'ld go a few years being really into comics and then go several years where I simply don't care about them.  I've always given the Independent books a fair shake, unlike some fans who thumb their noses at anything not published by "The Big Two".  The downside to the Indy books is that they never seem to last long enough for me to get tired of them.

For the last 10-15 years, I've been extremely interested in Golden Age heroes and the companies that produced them.  I chalk that up to books like Malibu's "Protectors" and AC Comics' "Men of Mystery".  My interest lies mostly in the defunct companies, such as Centaur (most of the books I downloaded from here on the old pc were Centaur books, so I was more than a little annoyed when the pc crashed), Nedor, Holyoke and the like.  DC's GA heroes are handled well enough through their JSA series and books like All-Star Squadron, so seeing them in the original stories is not a big deal to me.  The Timely heroes?  I have some of the reprint comics, wish Marvel made more of them, and don't want to spend the money for the hardcover books, but overall I find them to be rather bland.  The other GA companies are the true "Mystery Men" for me, because I see very little of them (besides here of course).  It's why I'm enjoying seeing them used in Dynamite Ent's "Superpowers" series right now, since it's fun to watch what somebody does with them (besides reprinting old stories).

I've enjoyed the few sites online that have original Golden Age stories available for the world to see (Pure Excitement and The Golden Years, plus a blog here and there that showcase select stories), but when I found this site, it was like walking into the biggest, greatest comic shop in the world.  "Men of Mystery" is a great comic, but nothing beats reading the stories in full-color, plus it was nice to see what "The Blue Lady" actually looks like.  So "Thanks" to everyone who contributes to this site, and I hope that someday I'll have something to contribute, too, because it's nice to share.