My buddy at the shop said I was reading comics wrong for 20 years

He told me to stop flipping through panels like they're a movie and actually look at the background details, and now I keep finding hidden jokes I missed in old X-Men issues from the 90s, has anyone else had someone change how they read comics?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessa_rivera14d ago

Oh man, this reminds me of something that happened to my buddy Mark. He lent me his old copy of Spider-Man #50 and told me to slow down and really look at the backgrounds on every page. I thought he was kidding until I found this tiny gag where a guy in the background is holding a pizza box that says "JJJ's House of Scoops" and it took me like ten minutes to stop laughing. He said he learned it from some old pro comic letterer who told him that artists hide half the story in the scenery if you bother to look. Now I can't read a single issue without scanning every corner like a detective or something.

seth_allen14d ago

Man, that's exactly what happened to me with old Daredevil books. My friend kept telling me to look at the mailbox in the background of one panel and I thought he was messing with me, but there's this running gag where Bullseye's mail keeps getting returned to sender because he used a fake name. Once you start paying attention to those little background details, it's like unlocking a whole new layer of the book. Now I spend half my reading time just scanning alleyways and storefronts for hidden stuff.