Longbox* Legends: My Secret Identity Revealed!

Instead of my traditional running post (it's way too cold out!), I figured I'd play a little "To Tell the Truth." Not so much a secret, as something I do not find much opportunity to talk with about outside of a small circle of friends, peers and students, I have a passion I often keep hidden.


You see I have a hobby for which many have been ridiculed, one that society (and my wife) finds silly. One of my hobbies (and on-again-off-again passions) is comic book collecting, especially those from the superhero genre. Over my thirty-seven years, I have spent probably about thirty(!) of them reading comics to one level or another. At certain points in my life I have collected as many as twelve different books at once, and as a few as two or three.

While my friends have gone through the obvious Spider-man and X-Men phases, the only book I have consistently collected, mostly out of loyalty, during this entire period is the self-proclaimed “World’s Greatest Comic Magazine,” the Fantastic Four. Just why this book? Perhaps I'll share more about that in a later post... but, pictured directly above is my current set of longboxes with the very first comic book I can remember buying with my own money, Fantastic Four (Volume 1) #202 guest-starring Iron Man as they battled together against the evil Quasimodo!

Fear not, True Believer, this is not morphing into a comic book blog (though the picture of me in a homemade Mr. Fantastic costume is from a road race), but as I reflect about what I am blogging about (running, family, school) this seems to be another important part of my life and one that I have yet to explore here.

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

*Editor's Note: A longbox refers to the large, usually cardboard storage boxes in which collector's store their books, generally in plastic bags with backing boards.