The renewed interest in this hobby is partially responsible for both the increased interest in comic books/graphic novels after the temporary slump experienced during the 1980s as well as today's multi billion dollar Hollywood Super Hero movie genre

Among comics fandom, the study of comics as a medium and an art form are sometimes referred to (individually or collectively) as Panelology and people who collect comic books are known as Panna-picta-graphists a more common term used is a "Completist" someone who is committed to having the complete set or volume(s) of a particular character or group You cannot be a coin or stamp collector with just pictures of the coins and stamps

Nor can you be a comic book collector with just scans of the comics You must have the REAL THING!

Origins of DONALD "SPIDERMAN" THOMAS

When I was 5 years of age, my parents moved from the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn to purchase a home on Amboy Street, Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York. It was there on that street that I first learned to run, jump and play a variety of games, which for the most part would all be considered aerobic activities today. Most of the games that the boys back in those days played were in the streets, and my mother forbade me to play in the street. At the age of 3, I ran away from her and was nearly injured by an oncoming automobile.

Needless to say, I got punished very often for disobeying my mother's wishes. Her concern for my safety, however, was no match for my desire to fit in with the rest of my peers. I roller skated, ice skated, bicycled, played punch ball, handball, softball (The Amboy St. Tigers), Crack Top, Skelly, Two-Hand Touch, street tackle football, Hot Peas and Butter, Hide (anywhere on the block) and Seek, Ace-King-Queen (Chinese Handball). I swam at the then Betsy Head Pool, now Marcus Garvey Pool, which is what made Amboy St. a dead-end street) and was known as Spider-Man!

Excerpted from the book: "New Jump Swing Record Breaking Jump Rope Program for Fun, Fitness and Cross Training," Copyright © 1992 PDN .

AT TWELVE YEARS OF AGE, MY LIFE TOOK A GREAT TURN

One day while playing in the street, I squatted down to rest . . .

Suddenly a sharp pain went through my left knee. I shook it off after a while and continued to play. Being young, I just figured it to be something minor.

As the weeks went by, I noticed pain in my right knee as well. At no time was this pain so great that it caused me to stop doing all of my running and jumping; I would just have constant pain in my knees the day after. Can you imagine being thirteen years old and taking children's aspirin for pain? Can you imagine rubbing down with liniment throughout your teenage years?

I would tell people that I had "bad knees," but due to all of the running and jumping that I was still doing, no one really believed my problem was that serious.

At the age of 18, I consulted an orthopedic surgeon by the name of Dr. Joel Teicher. Upon examination, he diagnosed my problem as Osgood-Schlatter disease with boney patellar fragments. In layperson's terms, I had a knee disease that required the removal of more than twelve bone chips from each knee!

While convalescing, I read a runners magazine article that highlighted the benefits of rope jumping. It seemed to have everything that I was looking for. It was low impact, low cost, taught you how to be light on your feet and didn't hurt your knees when done properly.