Wow, Slag! I learned to read exactly the same way you did. Comics, in my opinion, are THE best tools for teaching a young child to read, because they combine print with visual action which makes the meaning of the dialogue quite clear. Like you, I taught myself to read prior to going to school. I was irritated by the moronic "Dick and Jane" stuff foisted on me in the early grades just like you were.

I also, of course, quickly got a reputation as a "brain" because of my precocious reading skills, and I was picked on unmercifully by the 'underachiever and proud of it' farm kids around me... ;-) Did you suffer from that problem in school as well?