Who is this guy? And what's this Blog about, anyways?

A couple of words about myself: 26 years old, German, studying electrical engineering (automatic control), currently working on my diploma (kind of like a master thesis).

I've been reading comics in one form or another for most of my life. Got started on Micky Mouse magazine (which is still bigger over here than it's been in the US for decades) and Disney's Lustige Taschenbuecher. Then converted to German translated franco-belgian BDs and a narrow selection of German translated floppy-format super-hero fare. About 8 years ago the first German translated mangas started cropping up, like Appleseed, Dominion - Tank Police and other Shirow works. But it took another 2 years till the first right-to-left pocket books started the real boom. About that time I also found my first import shop for English language comics and discovered that there were US comics besides the super-hero genre.

At the moment most of the comics I buy are either manga (in German, English, French or Japanese language edition) or US small press books (indie, yes, but almost no art or underground comics). Germany's indigenous comics industry doesn't have much to offer me (with a few notable exceptions like Der Hartmut or Zuckerfisch), and French BDs (translated or in the original language) are just too expensive to follow more than a hand full of series.

The thought of starting a Blog didn't appeal to me very much, at first, but in the recent months I've been reading more and more Blogs by interesting personalities, while I myself just scattered my opinions over an ever-increasing number of webboards with disparate audiences. I think I'll try this for a change, as a way to concentrate my thoughts on subjects I care about in a single place. Nothing big, but my own. We'll see what comes of it.