The Alternate Universe with Stan The Man and Jack King Kirby

I spent a lot of my childhood living in an Alternate Universe. Whenever I was sad, had a fight with my sisters or could not get my own way or just wanted to be alone, I would escape into my Alternate Universe. Much of who I am today, my sense of right and wrong of justice, I developed while living in my Alternate Universe where the lines between good and evil was almost always defined.

My Alternate Universe, was the comic and cartoon world and the men who help shaped that world was 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧 𝐋𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐊𝐢𝐫𝐛𝐲. The heroes fighting the villains to protect simple people and the world. It was not only the heroes who helped shaped my outlook of life, but also the villains. The hero was only as good as the villain he or she defeats. The more powerful the villain the more powerful and resourceful must be the hero.

My love for cartoons went hand in hand with my love for comics and I spent most of my lunch money buying comics. I had a very large collection and swapped, loaned and borrowed comics from others, win some playing marbles and lost some as well. I stopped actively collecting comics when they changed the format, comics now continued and being in Jamaica meant that there was no guarantee you would get the next one in the series. I lost most of my collection of comic when I was spending too much time in my Alternate Universe and it started to affect my grades. My father warned me that if my grades did not improve then he would take my comics and give them away. I thought it was just idle chatter until my next report card came in the mail. I got home from school and thinking of nothing but escaping into my Alternate Universe but my boxes of comics was gone, never to be seen again. I spent an entire week crying and not talking to my father, who kept saying I warned you. Today, I watch more cartoons and still read more comics and with modern technology these comics are coming to life.

My attempt to escape into the cartoon world also met similar faith, my father cut the cord to the TV for an entire term I was without TV and got all A’s and B’s by next report card. It was then that I realize that I cannot live entirely in my Alternate Universe, that I had other responsibilities.

I wish I still had my collection of Commando Comics, my DC and Marvel super hero comics, Batman, Superman, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Captain America, Hulk, Spiderman, Sub-Mariner, Black Panther, Hawkeye, Thor, Green Arrow, Archie, Sad Sack, Andy Capp, Rawhide, Kid Colt, Apache Kid, Jonah Hex, Richie Rich you name it, I had it and I read it. I still Escape into my Alternate Universe today, my best friend and my cousin are also Comic crazy and we are known to spend hours debating in the Comicverse.