In 1988 or 1989 I walked into a comic book shop for the first time with my parttime friend and parttime nemesis Mike Shupe. Mindbridge was a tight and narrow LCS, with a counter on the right as you walked inside. On the left were racks of new issues, and there I picked up my first comic book, Detective Comics #587 August 1998. Norm Breyfogle's art caught my eye and wouldn't give it back. Batman, standing in the rain in the middle of an alley, cape billowing with lightning streaking through the sky, became my favorite superhero in the instant I picked the issue up. Also on the wall also sat back issues of The Dark Knight Returns , Batman Year One , and Batman Arkham Asylum, A Serious House on Serious Earth . I could tell immediately all of these books were above my pay grade. I hated Frank Miller's art on the Dark Knight. It would take decades for me to fall in love with that book. At this point in my 10 or 11 years on Earth I preferred the comic book-y style of art of Norm...