Celebrities whom you were surprised to learn were comic book geeks

[chamber-music]

I'm not surprised about rappers liking comics. A lot of rappers are comic fans.

Wu Tang Clan, Jay-Z, Eazy E, Eminem, MF Doom, Public Enemy, Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Lupe Fiasco and so on.

Back in the day comics were cheap and easily available entertainment. A lot of kids casually picked up comics at corner stores or supermarket spinner racks.

Rosario Dawson I didn't expect to be such a big comic fan. She has appeared in the Marvel Netflix shows and voiced characters in the DC animated movies. She has written her own comic and attended cons. Dawson has done it all out of her genuine love of comics.

[Joker]

Many proudly proclaim themselves to be geeks.

Buying Funko Pops and seeing the big summer blockbuster doesn't make you a part of some outsider culture. It's a lame co-op.

But 30s point was that comics were ubiquitous. So people over a certain age having read comics isn't at all surprising. Or, it shouldn't be, anyway.

[seismic-2]

In 1960 (the first year in which publishers were required to report circulation information to the US Post Office), there were 48 different comic titles that sold over 100,000 copies monthly. The total sales of those 48 titles alone were over 14.7 million copies each month (in just the USA). I can only imagine that the total sales of all comics being published must have been a few million higher than that. Clearly, just about every kid in 1960 was reading comic books, so all AARP-eligible adults used to be a comics reader when they were kids. For some of then, longer than that. Here's Paul McCartney reading Jimmy Olsen #75:



and years later, here he is meeting Jack Kirby backstage at a Wings concert:

[BaneBreaker]

Corey Taylor of Slipknot. He mentions his collection in his book Seven Deadly Sins.

[AnthonyO'Brien]

There's a cool pic in an Eminem coffee table book. He's in his office and has some long boxes of comics with mags like Xmen 2099 falling out of them...

[SJNeal]

The gorgeous, talented, and funny star of Krypton - Cameron Cuffe

[ed2962]

One that might be surprising to some people is Jada Pinkett. She actually wrote a comic that was published by Rob Leifeld's Awesome Comics studio titled The Menace. Supposedly, there was some deal with her and Rob to do a comic called The Mark that they were going to try to spin of into a movie starring Will Smith but Rob lost his financial backers, so that ended things quickly.

[ed2962]

In 1960 (the first year in which publishers were required to report circulation information to the US Post Office), there were 48 different comic titles that sold over 100,000 copies monthly. The total sales of those 48 titles alone were over 14.7 million copies each month (in just the USA). I can only imagine that the total sales of all comics being published must have been a few million higher than that. Clearly, just about every kid in 1960 was reading comic books, so all AARP-eligible adults used to be a comics reader when they were kids. For some of then, longer than that. Here's Paul McCartney reading Jimmy Olsen #75:



and years later, here he is meeting Jack Kirby backstage at a Wings concert:

Don't forget Paul wrote a song called "Magneto and Titanium Man!"

[Iron Maiden]

Probably not too surprising but Miguel Ferrer, Billy Mumy and Mark Hamill were also comic book fans. They got to meet some comic book legends at the very early version of the San Diego comic con. I believe they were invited to Kirby's home a few times.

Here's a photo with Jack Kirby, Bob Kane and Jerry Siegel

[chamber-music]

There's a cool pic in an Eminem coffee table book. He's in his office and has some long boxes of comics with mags like Xmen 2099 falling out of them...

British Talk Show host and comic writer Jonathan Ross invited Eminem over to his house and gave him some comics from his personal collection.

[babyblob]

Logan Ryan cornerback for the Titans was on the Jim Rome Show. He talked about his dog Leonardo who he named after the Ninja Turtle saying he is a fan of the comic and series.

[Hybrid]

I was actually surprised to learn that Margot Robbie is a major comic book fan herself, not just the actress who plays Harley Quinn. She even encourages viewers to read the source.

https://www.cbr.com/birds-of-prey-ma...ing-dc-comics/

[numberthirty]

Buying Funko Pops and seeing the big summer blockbuster doesn't make you a part of some outsider culture. It's a lame co-op.

But 30s point was that comics were ubiquitous. So people over a certain age having read comics isn't at all surprising. Or, it shouldn't be, anyway.

One other thing about this...

Think about just something like the "GI Joe" IP. While the eighties cartoon was on the air, Marvel had a series that ran North of a hundred issues.

While there were certainly more "Geek" corners of the whole thing, there was also a totally "Mass Market" end walking along hand in hand with it.

That said, even stuff that was a more on the "Geek" end was out there doing reasonably well. A "Micronauts" title ran for probably three or four years in the late seventies/early eighties.

[babyblob]

Not really a celebrity but still kind of cool I was watching my local morning news show and they anchors were talking about weekend plans. One of the reporters said that he has a huge stack of New Warriors comics from the 90s to read through. The others said arnt you a little old for comics. He said you ae never too old to feel like a kid again. He went on about how he haas a comic collection numbering in the thousands. I really like that.

[Iron Maiden]

Good for him! I'm glad to hear he didn't let his co-workers shame him out of his interest in comics.