Introduction

Where to begin...

I can honestly say I have no clue.

I'm beginning this blog because, honestly, I need to practice my HTML and web design, as well as brush up on my rusty writing skills. I figure what better way to do that then create a blog to talk about my interests like every other jabroni, write reviews I am absolutely unqualified to write, and gain some sense of self-masturbatory pride based on an unearned sense of accomplishment?

As the name implies, I'm big into weightlifting and comic books. Interestingly enough, I probably pursued these interests in the opposite order of most guys my age (early 20s). I've been lifting weights since I was 17, but I've only been reading comics since last year.

It all began with my 2015 New Years Resolution.

Now, I should preface by clarifying that I don't skip on resolutions. When I make them, I go in. I set calendar deadlines, I make charts, I create checklists... (I love lists and treat everything in life like an Xbox achievement, you'll learn that soon enough, but I digress) and most importantly, I stick to them.

Since the past few years had been riddled with cliche after cliche resolutions, (gain x amount of muscle, lose x amount of fat, accomplish xyz in school/career), I decided to seek outside the obligatory NYE Resolutions box to find a real challenge.

Thanks to Reddit.com, I stumbled upon a subreddit called r/52book. The idea is that you read a book a week for an entire year, (precision not necessary as long as you finish all 52 by NYD the following year).

The challenge started off pretty solid. I had some lit-heavy courses for my final semester of college and a lot of extra time during the day during that awkward period when your friends are still in class, you've already done everything including gone to the gym twice, and it's still too early (even by college standards) to start systematically poisoning what's left of that liver God gave you after four and a half years of doing everything you can to assure your body will fail at 27. (Hey, it's not alcoholism if you're still in college.)

Well, probably around week 24 or so, I started to get a little bored of the combination of fiction, classic literature, and history books I was reading, and stumbled by the local comic shop downtown on my way to a daylong in early spring. Now, I've always liked superheroes, especially the Spider Man films, since I was a kid, albeit probably not as much as most people my age. But I had never read a full actual honest-to-god comic book issue in my life, (excluding that one graphic novel I had to read in high school). That being said, I realized that I was probably likely to start falling behind with my reading list for the 52 book challenge sometime mid-summer as I looked for a job, and, being just open-minded enough to give something a shot if it benefits me by allowing me to be "lazier", I figured, what the hell? graphic novels count as books, too, right?

I did some research on Goodreads and found out about a series called Y: The Last Man and it grabbed my attention. I took the leap of faith and... holy shit. I mean, really. Holy. Shit.

It was like I had spent the first 21 years of my life completely ignorant of an entire medium that was right before my eyes. Seriously, I liken it to introducing an amish man to television for the first time at 22, and I don't mean that bullshit "Big Bang Theory" show, but to, like, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, hell, even the first four seasons of Dexter, right off the bat!

I was hooked.

Now I want to make sure it's understood that while I DID pad my 52 book list with a couple graphic novels, I made some STRICT rules about their length so that they could keep up with the heftier books I was reading at the time such as Sanderson's The Way of Kings. In the end, I managed to meet my requirements and complete what I consider to be one of my proudest New Years Resolutions.

Since then, I have filled my bookshelf with tens of graphic novels, finally surrendered to the "geekier" superhero fair, become a full-fledged Batman junkie, and can probably tell you more about politics of my favorite comics writers than that kid you know who grew up reading comics since he was 5.

Anyway I could go on and on about my love for comics in particular, but I just wanted to get this first post out there and on paper (screen?).

I'm excited to see where things go!

Get ready for reviews, posts, diatribes, etc. on comics, movies, lifting, sports (sans baseball - I hate baseball), among whatever the hell pops into my mind at that time.