Hey all. Just wondering what was it like for you when you tried comics outside of your "main" comic book company. What I mean by main comic book company is the company where you read the most books, who you consider yourself a fan of.

For example, I'm a huge Marvel comics fan. Started off that way too. As a kid, I read Spider-Man and Iron Man comics, traded Marvel cards, and learned my Marvel history on school playgrounds. Every so often though, I'd read a DC book and THAT was an experience. Indeed, reading Superman, Batman, or Justice League felt odd and I think it had to do with setting. Marvel titles had New York City and I, having grown up nearby the city, was familiar with that setting. Metropolis? Gotham City? Central City? What? Pretty strange. Surprisingly, I felt that DC was darker, more violent, and somewhat more old-fashioned than Marvel. Maybe it had to do with the fact that what I read was reading the Batman titles and watching Batman: The Animated series at the time. Finally, there were differences on an aesthetic level. The logos, the titles, the ads, hell even the paper were different! All of it was foreign to me.

Since then, DC has definitely become a welcome addition of my comics reading experience. But still, there are those sentiments, that feeling of different that I get whenever I read a DC comic. By contrast, reading a Marvel comic feels familiar and I'm at home.

So what was it like when you tried DC? Or Marvel? Or Image? Or Darkhorse? Or the British comics? Or so on and so forth? Did it feel odd? Strange? Are those sentiments still there or are you completely at home with the company?