Hi, Comic Substack!

Here's my little introduction I suppose..

My name is Maggie, known by most in the comic book corners of the internet as “vegansuperkick”. I’m actually pretty excited to join Substack and tell a little bit of my story because.. I don’t think I ever have actually.

I made my love for comic books known online in 2022 with a TikTok video that spread pretty quickly. I had only been reading and collecting for maybe two years at the time. I had just left a decade long career that I loved but was no longer in love with after Covid dismantled my industry entirely. My husband’s baby, a little collectibles store called toyvomit, had taken off thanks to a viral YouTube video made by Matt Cardona and Bryan Myers, of WWE and podcasting fame. Shameless plug - our shop is called Toy Headquarters (toyvomit is our online name), look it up. Since the pandemic had left me uninspired and in need of a change, I started working with my husband at the toy store to help keep up with this viral success, and that’s when I started asking questions.

“So, who’s this guy?” I would ask, holding up a six inch action figure of some purple or pink alien creature with nine different heads in a bag attached to him.

“Oh, that’s so-and so, the villain from this particular comic book. He’s in a movie from 1997, you should watch it.” My husband would say. He grew up with everything, every movie, every comic, every game. He gently pointed me in the direction of nerd culture without ever forcing it.

I was always a window shopper of most pop culture fandoms. Like some people, I never really knew how to get into nerd spaces. I remember when the Iron Man movie came out, watching it and wanting to know more, but never knew where to start. I was in high school at the time, and there weren’t many comic shops in Kentucky that wanted a blue haired teenage girl in their space!

Fast forward to the 2020’s. My love for this definitely began backwards with the exposure starting with toys and collectibles, watching the media that these comic characters were represented in, and then collecting and reading their comic appearances.

I love collecting key issue comics. First appearances, births, deaths, big events, everything. I love holding those issues in my hands, especially those early silver age books. I imagine feeling as excited as the first kid who ever held the book that’s in my hands now, laying eyes on some scary swamp creature or some big headed alien that’s vowed to take over an entire town.

Anyway, that’s how I got started being loudly obsessed with comics online. After a year or two’s worth of collecting videos, some smaller publishers started reaching out to get me to promote their new books, which I also love doing. I’m trying to find the balance, though, between being a small business owner myself and helping promote other folk’s small businesses, which more often than not is not a paid gig. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not why I do this and never has been. I never started the ComicTok thing and said to myself “I’m gonna make so much fucking money promoting independent comic books!” - be so serious.

The TikTok ban, then the immediate reinstatement, as well as the buckling of Instagram and Threads to do away with what we call free speech, has left me wondering if I even have anything worth saying. I found myself getting mad, “If I lose twenty thousand followers over night, what is even the point?” Eeyore type of attitude. Losing a chunk of followers equals losing your reach, and the audacity to even ask to be paid for your time.

I guess that’s why I’m here. Maybe to blog these big existential thoughts, and share regular comic recommendations with you on this platform, while still maintaining my commitments as a business owner. It really is a fun life.

I love comic books. I believe truly that they are for everyone. I hope I always get to share them and build a community around them, no matter where we end up.

If you read all of this, thank you. I appreciate you. Maybe I’ll see you soon.

-vegansuperkick