Do we even want to ask about Bamm Bamm and Pebbles? Accepting drastic changes hasn’t been easy for comic book fans, said Michael, 23, who also produces her own YouTube show called “Sammie Reads.” “People make their own personal connection with characters, and if anything changes they can take it super personally,” said Michael, a junior at Florida State University. “It’s hard to balance keeping those longtime fans happy while bringing in new readers.” On her YouTube show, which she said now attracts about 20,000 viewers, Michael offers entertaining reviews of new comic releases or just talks about related topics, like what it was like working in a comic book store. Michael worked at Secret Headquarters before her boss, Brian Jacoby, a beloved figure in Tallahassee’s comic book community, died in 2014.
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November–December 2016
TALLAHASSEEMAGA ZINE.COM
The most recent Flintstones movie joined DC Comics and Hanna-Barbera in a makeover of some of its famed characters. There are many examples like this of reinvented comics taking the screen.
Jacoby “took me under his wing, and I started loving the (comic book) community,” she said. At an interview in a coffee shop, Michael was wearing Aqua-Man sneakers, a tribute to the first superhero she discovered when she started working at Secret Headquarters. “I think there’s something really special about the medium of comics because it can combine images with words in a way that no other medium can,” Michael said. “I think some people are very quick to write off that as childish. There are some extremely talented artists and writers who can communicate a really unique message. They’re good stories.” One comic getting a lot of attention is “Black Panther,” written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a national correspondent at The Atlantic. The Black Panther was the first black superhero in mainstream American comics in 1966.
COURTESY DC ENTERTAINMENT (FLINSTONES)
Mark Wilkens, owner of Fallout Comics and his wife Jennifer Hughes, have created a treasure trove of comic books and memorabilia where locals can converge and conversate about comics past and present.