Interviews with Indy
Comics and comic-related media have had a widespread impact on culture and individuals for nearly a century in America — and likely much, much longer according to Scott McCloud. Their influence continues today.
I was introduced to comics at a young age by my father, who had a humble collection. I wasn’t particularly keen on the short stories, but in my teens fell madly in love with comic-related media: movies. The Toby Maguire Spider-Man movies must have been watched a hundred times in my house. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight series was all the buzz in my Film classes in high school. And, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe began to take shape, I remember planning the premiere ritualistically. Today, my employment at the Varsity Movie Theatre is directly connected to this love of comic media.
So too is it for my manager, Indy.
He started reading comics when he was about ten years old, on the long road trips from San Jose, California to Applegate, Oregon.
“I loved Dragon Ball Z as a kid. I always pretended that I was fighting my bullies when I would watch that show,” said Indy. His father had an impressive comic book collection and was keen to encourage the young boy’s interest. Unable to watch movies in the car every time they would visit family in Oregon, Indy turned to his father’s collection of DC issues.
The Flash was always his favorite to read on those long hours on the road.
“Barry only ever needed to be faster. Every time he wasn’t fast enough, he just hadn’t figured out the limits of his speed. Moving that fast made the time fly, too.”
He told me that he wasn’t especially popular as a kid. He pretended to be the Flash and Goku and could fight or run from the bullies.
As he grew into a teenager and young adult, he built his own comic identity and switched to Marvel. Captain America became the main character which he tracked, but he didn’t need to pretend to beat up bullies anymore because he had formed a friend group of people who were just as nerdy as he was.
“When the MCU movies began, we went absolutely ape-shit crazy for every premiere.”
Indy claims to have seen all nineteen MCU movies several times over. He owns posters, figures, and (since managing at the movie theatre) limited edition popcorn tubs for most of the recent films.
“I also own the complete Civil War comic series that a few of the movies draw from.”
He, of course, is team Cap.
“I just love the escapism sometimes, but more than that, I love when the comics and the movies tackle real world problems. The character is flawed, the politics are heavy, or minority storylines dominant the narrative — these are the things that I open a comic or sit down in the theater for.”
Indy added that he has returned back to his Japanese comic roots. On his long bus rides to school, he reads Parasyte and Trigun Inuyasha to pass the time.
Trying to think about whether comics’ influence is expressed in Indy’s personality, I guess I’d say that he is a great leader at work, like Captain America, but I’m not sure he’d fall on a grenade for me.
