Hello

Those who follow me know I love comic books.

It was my brother who introduced me to the wonderful world of comics. He did so not out of a geek necessity but for more selfish reasons.

Here’s how it would go;

Dad : I’m going out, look after your sister

Bro: But Dad I’m meant to be seeing -(Insert name of random girl of the week)-.

Dad: Don’t care. Take care of your sister.

After spending ten minutes telling me how much he hated me, my brother would hatch a plan for said girl to come round. His dilemma was that his younger sister,who equally hated him, would have no hesitation in telling their Dad of his persistent rule breaking.

His solution was to stick me in my room with a stack of comic books (and if he required complete privacy I’d get his Game Boy as well)

Bro: Read these. Stay in here. Don’t move

Me: Okay. But I don’t really read comics.

Bro: Look this character has the same name as you. It’s cool. Just don’t disturb me.

Me: Okay!

Ten minutes later I would walk into his room to see him with some girl in just her bra.

Me: Can you explain the Infinite Crisis Storyline to me

Bro: SELINA!! GET OUT!

Me: Sorry. I’ll leave you and Emma alone

Girl: I’m Amanda

Me: You were Emma yesterday

Bro: GET OUT!

Bro (to girl): Ignore her she’s just some troubled kid we adopted……Why are you hitting me?!

This arrangement continued and soon I had amassed a large collection of comic books.

Every night I would ignore the strange noises coming from my Brother’s room and enter the world of Gotham or go on adventures with the X-Men.

I loved the art, the stories, everything about a comic book appealed to my overactive imagination.

I wanted to be Catwoman. I wanted to be Rogue.

At school I would do book reviews about comics (get detention), my geography project was on Wakanda (got detention) and all my art lessons revolved around comics (Selina,Picasso never drew for Marvel).

On Twitter I often tweet about comics and it was inevitable that eventually my love of this medium would make its way to this website.

Although, really all the stuff on here is in some way influenced by comic books – it’s in my DNA. When I visualise a story it’s normally in the form of a comic book unfolding in my mind.

So, look, I’m going to occasionally post something about comic books.

I have even given the page that will host the posts a name – Needy Mule: The Alternative Comic Book Blog.

Don’t expect any exclusive insight into the industry nor some geeked out, well researched history of some story arc.

It’s probably for the best that we all keep our expectations low here.

It may be fun or it may get to the point that you are begging me to go back to writing about Killer Mutant Squirrels.

Who knows.

The intention is to post, on occasions, comic based anecdotes, hot picks for that particular week and any other random thought I may have relating to the comic book industry.

For normal blog readers do not worry this is just a side project and my stories and other musings will certainly continue.

If you have happened on this just for comics then this is your safe space. Familiarise yourself with your surroundings!

You are welcome to leave the confines of the Needy Mule page but be warned you’re on your own. I accept no responsibility for what may happen to you out there in the chaos of the rest of my site.