Return of the Fanboy

Posted at 8:20 a.m. - Tuesday, May 12

Recently, I discovered the book "Deus Ex Comica," a chronicle of a man getting back in touch with his inner fanboy.  As this is a very celebrated phenonmenom in the comic-reading community, I reached out to the author of Deus Ex Comica, Adam Besenyodi, to get the low-down on why he decided to write a book about rediscovering his love for comics and the challenges that followed.  Adam was kind enough to take time out of his busy promotional schedule to answer some questions for Geek To Me:

Geek To Me: In a nutshell, what is the book about?

Adam Besenyodi: Deus ex Comica: The Rebirth of a Comic Book Fan is equal parts nostalgia and exploration of today's comic culture on a personal level, chronicling the geek version of a lapsed Catholic returned to the faith.  It's about remembering all those things you loved about being a kid.  It's about the importance of connecting with even just one other person through a shared pastime.  It's about passing on the things you love to the next generation.  The book traces my journey and explores the influence of Marvel Comics on my youth, what it was like to rediscover the medium as an adult, and the pleasure of sharing this larger world with my young son. I made up the title as a play on the Latin theatrical phrase "deus ex machina," meaning "God is in the machine."  To me, "deus ex comica" means "God is in the comics."

G2M: Where did you get the inspiration to write a book about re-discovering your inner fanboy?

AB: I had long forgotten about my childhood comic book collection until my parents somewhat ceremoniously dropped them off at our house a few years ago.  Flipping through the contents of those boxes reawakened the long-dormant comic book fan inside me, and I happen to be wired for the kind of examination of personal history and the larger pop culture argument that this turned into.

After immersing myself in the current comic book culture, I realized my experience of drifting away and returning is both unique and universal.  I was encouraged by both old and new friends to pursue this line of thinking and it somehow led me to this point.

G2M: What were some of the challenges of putting the book together?

AB: Outside of the struggles that come with self-publishing a book, most of the challenges I experienced were self-inflicted.  Because I was writing about comics, a monthly medium that is constantly changing, there were always new chapter ideas popping up (still are, actually).  Drawing a line in the sand and not crossing it was difficult.  I'm also a bit of a perfectionist, so just the effort to stop tweaking the book and letting it go was difficult for me.  My views and opinions are always changing, so I had to really step back and say "this is a snapshot in time of who I was when it was written" and let it go.

The other big challenge has been the awkwardness of self-promotion.  It's not my nature to get out there and sell myself and my talents, so the whole post-publishing experience has been an exercise in stepping outside my comfort zone.

G2M: How long did it take to write?

AB: It took about a year from original idea to finished book.  I started out writing about the experience of rediscovering the comic book culture in a series of columns on the Field's Edge website in February 2008.  Four or five months into that, I realized what I was writing about had the potential to be turned into a book.  I stopped writing them as web installments and started crafting my thoughts as chapters.  Then I went back and reworked and rewrote the web columns into chapters as well.  The first draft of the book was finished around the end of last year, then my editor and I went through seven rounds of editing and revisions before finally completing the book in mid-March.

G2M: What did you discover about the medium of comics along the way?

AB: I am discovering new things at every turn, but I think the best personal discovery I have made is just how much larger the world of comics are beyond the Marvel Universe.  I was definitely a Marvel zombie back in the day, and their books provided a great reentry point into the culture for me, but there is so much more out there that I have discovered through friends’ and local comic shop owner recommendations, comic book podcasts, and the like.  I still love my Marvel, but I am having a great time broadening my comic book reading horizons.

G2M: Did you make any discoveries about yourself?

AB: "The Original Collection" chapter was pretty eye-opening.  I didn't necessarily realize just how deep the collector's completist mentality I have as an adult runs until I started writing that chapter.  Pulling out that file card box and flipping through the handwritten tracking of my comic books I did as a kid was surprising.

Also, in becoming a part of the online community of comic book fans, I have realized just how small my collection is.  I always thought my 400 or so comic books from the '80s constituted a big collection.  Growing up, I didn't know any other comic book fans beyond my friend Mark (who I mention in the book), so compared to all my other friends who didn't read or collect comics at all, I guess my collection was big.  It's all relative I suppose.

The other discovery I made is how little I really know about comics, particularly the art.  I listen to the 11 O'Clock Comics podcast or the Around Comics podcast and I'm stunned by how informed the hosts are.  It's highly unlikely I could recognize a specific penciler's work, and I don't understand the impact of an inker on the work of a penciler.  Stuff like that.  I appreciate the art, but I'm sure I see it much differently than those guys do, and it's much more of a gut-reaction type response for me of what I like or don't like.

G2M: In your opinion, how have comics changed or evolved - if at all - over the years?

AB: Comics appear more sophisticated to my eye today than they did in the '80s.  I recognize the complexity of something like Chris Claremont's "Dark Phoenix Saga", but I never felt the stories being told in my youth were inappropriate for me to be reading.

Everything from storylines to graphic content to price point seems to say comics are made for adults today.  As the father of a young son who is falling hard for this four-color world and developing hopefully what is the beginning of a lifelong love of reading as a result, it's frustrating.  He gets one or two monthly books, but it just makes more sense to hook him up with the digest-sized trade paperback collections after the fact from a value and durability perspective.

G2M: Do you think they've gotten better?  Worse?

AB: Comics haven't gotten better or worse since I enjoyed them in the mid-'80s, they're just different.  And more expensive.

G2M: Who were some of your favorite creators growing up?

AB: John Byrne is at the top of that list, but not necessarily for the typical reasons.  His X-Men run with Chris Claremont predates my mutant love, and his take on Marvel's First Family, the Fantastic Four, didn't stick for me back in the day.  It was his writing on Alpha Flight and The Thing solo title that were huge for me.  I was able to jump on at the beginning of both of those books and loved them.

Larry Hama is another icon of my comic reading youth.  While I was never a fan of the animated cartoon, Hama's G.I. Joe meant the world to me.  There was something about that book that really struck a chord with me.  Chris Claremont on X-Men and Frank Miller on Daredevil are also quintessential to me.  There isn't anything surprising on my list, but there's a reason their legacy has endured.

G2M: Who are the creators you admire most today?

AB: My tastes are pretty mainstream so, again, no surprises here.  Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Brian K. Vaughan, Matt Fraction.  Their collective body of work is accessible and connected with Marvel, so it has served as my gateway.  The whole reason I'm back in the throes of the comic book culture is because of Ed Brubaker.  If I hadn't caught wind of the second wave of publicity around the death of Captain America (when the Director's Cut of issue #25 came out) and been so taken by the story, I might not have fallen back into the world of comics as hard or in quite the same way.

G2M: Are you a Marvel or DC guy?

AB: As a kid I was most definitely a Marvel guy.  It's only been in the few years since I've returned to comics that I have really started to acknowledge everything else out there.  I seem to be most attracted to DC's Vertigo imprint, but I'm also exploring IDW, Dark Horse, Image, the Distinguished Competition, and really anything that strikes my fancy.

G2M: What would you change - if anything - about comics today?

AB: I'd scale back the scope of events like Secret Invasion.  While I don't mind events that affect an entire universe, I don't know that they need to sprawl across a dozen titles for the sake of appearance.  If the story is compelling, it will have a strong impact regardless of how many or how few issues or tie-in titles it takes place in.  The way Marvel handled the Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest events are good examples of less being more.

G2M: What does your comic collection look like today?

AB: The Original Collection is bagged and boarded.  The current runs are still primarily Marvel, but with some IDW and Vertigo numbers creeping.  I read New Avengers, Uncanny X-Men, Black Panther, and G.I. Joe monthly among others.  And a lot of collected editions.  I always have at least one trade paperback or hardcover collection in play, and I trade-wait for stuff like Transformers: All Hail Megatron, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, Air, Walking Dead, Umbrella Academy, Runaways, RASL, and others.

G2M: What would you say to up-and-coming comic readers?

AB: Read what you like. Because I was away from the culture for two decades and was always cocooned in the Marvel Universe, I still feel like an up-and-coming comic reader myself.  The only facet of the culture I'm an expert on is my own likes and dislikes, and those are prone to change at will!  I just count on my instincts, rely on trusted recommendations, and follow creators who've made a positive impression on me.  And I'm not afraid to try something new.

G2M: Any ambitions to write comics yourself?

AB: Not at this point really.  Ironically, script reprints are some of my least favorite extras found in collected editions today.  But that's not to say my ambition won't change.  If you'd asked me a year ago if I wanted to write a book about comics, that question would have been met with a skeptical response.  Given my druthers of industry jobs, I'd probably choose to be an editor.

G2M: Would it be for one of the Big Two (Marvel, DC)?

AB: If with the Big Two, working for Marvel would be the dream.

G2M: What would the Adam of today say to the Adam of yesterday?

AB: The same things I'm saying to my son now: Enjoy this.

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You can find Deus Ex Comica on Amazon.com!