It's fascinating to see how the US folks have grown up (and older) with their comics.

As I live in the UK I started off with the usual staples of Beano and The Dandy (plus the excellent Oor Wullie annuals my great Uncle gave me). I then became obsessed with Marvel comics and read Spiderman, Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk etc etc as well as Conan and the like.

At some point British comics changed, and some edgier titles came out that often centred around the second world war. Comics like Action!, Bullet and Warlord became very popular and I got these until . . .

. . . one day I picked up a new comic called 2000AD and everything changed. Along with the excellent Starlord (they merged not long after starting) 2000AD total re-wrote and re-drew British comics. Apart from Judge Dredd, there are whole rafts of characters that are brilliant and memorable. The writer's and artist's roster reads like a whose-who of British comic talent: Alan Moore, Brian Bolland, Carlos Ezquerra, Kevin O'Neill, Cam Kennedy etc etc.

I still read many of the strips now, although I have begun reading graphic novels. Watchmen was excellent, and i found a brilliant adaption of City of Glass, a Paul Auster story found in the New York Trilogy.