Hey there kiddies! Welcome to the very last Into the Fancave of 2010. Up to bat for the fan team today is Carlos Padilla, a long time fan living in DC with strong opinions on digital comics and man-children. Click below and venture into his Fancave!
Josh Mocle: Tell us a little (or a lot) about yourself
Carlos Padilla: Well, I come from the small town of Springfield, Virginia, just a hop from Washington DC. I was raised on 80’s TV, old school video games and of course comics. I got heavy into comics around the Age of Apocalypse crossover and been collecting comics ever since.
JM: What books are you currently digging?
CP: I got my teeth firmly on Chew right now, just got the third paperback today. Huge Green Lantern fan and loving everything Geoff Johns, even the origin stuff. Scott Pilgrim has been the back of my life the last 5 years. The new Amazing Spiderman run looks very promising. Though I will declare that Daytripper being the best series of the year.
JM: You’ll get no argument there. Thats a pretty diverse selection of books. What goes into your thought process when deciding to pick up a new title?
CP: I usually look to see if there’s any artists or writer I know about, like Geoff or Becky Cloonan. I will pick a no name if the art really grabs me (I’m a sucker for awesome cover art). I will take a risk at a comic if I see the creator or artist at a convention. With prices peaking at $4-5, I’m very selective on a picking a series. For example, I picked up Chew after hearing good word of mouth and started with the first trade. Since I hate having a collection of both trade and floppies, I stick with just buying the trades.
JM: How important is Wednesday (AKA New Comic Day) to your week, overall?
CP: It’s pretty much Christmas, Valentines Day and Easter all wrapped into one minus the holiday mascots. I get my comics, maybe find a new series and shoot the panels with other fans. I feel off when the shipment gets delayed due to a holiday, Thursdays never feel right by me.
JM: Interesting, so I’m guessing you’re pretty “public” about your comic dependency?
CP: Yeah, I’ll rock a GL or Scott Pilgrim shirt where ever I go. Most people know where I am on Wednesdays. I’ve tend to be the go to guy about comics around my non-fanboy friends.
JM: How do you feel the public perception of adult comic fans has changed over the last few years? Or has it not?
CP: I think the label “Man-Child” seems to be the perception on fanboys. The public still sees them as the “Comic Book Guy” from the Simpsons or as skinny nerds with lightsabers. They see the childish/immature nature of their fandom but not the joy they have. I think the fact more and more people are growing up on “geek” culture, that perception will start to change.
JM: Do you think the recent rise of comic book adaptations in Hollywood will have anything to do with that perception? Or do you think most fans of Iron Man movies assume the character only ever existed on the silver screen?
CP: We just had a push of big comic book movies, with the Marvel properties, and I really didn’t notice a rise in readership. The only example of that change I can think of is Scott Pilgrim. Ever since the first trailer popped up, more people were asking about the movie (which got people reading the book). The upcoming adaptations need to make amazing movies to make the fans interested in the source materials. Also the comic book companies need to work on making better comics so the fans can jump right in.
JM: Switching gears a bit….do you buy (or have you ever bought) any books you actively disliked, and if so, why?
Continued belowCP: Oh yeah, I’ve bought a lot of X-Men comics (mid-90s – 2008) that were pretty bad. I was just a sucker for X-Men and later realized I didn’t have to buy every issue. Also the internet wasn’t there to tell you if a storyline sucked. You’d buy the comic or maybe even skim it before buying and you were stuck with the story. It was like the old day of Nintendo, you were stuck with the crappy game. I still buy a bad comic series (current Ultimate Comics titles) because it was usually good until the third issue, when it goes south. We all still remember One More Day, neither Mephisto nor Dr. Strange can make us forget.
JM: If you woke up tomorrow and it was announced that the entire comic industry would shift to only distributing comics digitally, how would you feel?
CP: I would feel pretty bummed, I don’t own an iPad and my iPhone is too small a screen. I like the idea of portability but nothing can beat the feel of something physical and even the quest of finding a new series or comic. I get a feeling of accomplishment of going to a convention of even a new comic shop and finding a rare comic. Digitial comics will never replace the analog.
JM: Wrapping up, if you could recommend a comic to someone who had never in their life read a comic that would GUARANTEE they’d go on to read more themselves, what would it be?
CP: Unwritten seems to be the merger of both graphic and novel with the plot revolving around literature. The fact that it’s recently new, the reader won’t have to be bogged down on decades of continuity (and no tights to be seen.)
If YOU would like to enter the fancave and let YOUR voice be heard, drop me a line at the address below!
