Thoughts and reflections on reading a personal grail for the first time.

This morning was the day. Ever since my All-Star 8 arrived in the mail on Thursday I had reserved Saturday morning to sit and read through it. I had read the DC Archive column that had the reprint of the issue before but I just had to sit down and read the story from the actual comic itself. What I wasn't prepared for was the actual experience that would take place. Reading the reprint was good but somehow reading the actual comic was better. The feel of the comic in my hand combined with the actual inks on the page and the wonderful smell of the newsprint combined to create a sensory experience that no reprint can ever hope to imbue. I found myself imagining what it must have been like for the person who picked the book off the newsstand back in 1941 when this book came out. What impact did this book have on them? What were their thoughts seeing Wonder Woman for the first time. Was it a little girl who read it and thought "Wow! I wanna be like her!" or a little boy who stumbled upon the Wonder Woman after he had read through the book rooting for the Justice Society of America as they searched to capture Professor Elba. Then I found myself wondering what it must have been like for William Marston to see his hopes and dreams for a role model for young girls in print, available for the first time, for the masses. Did he even dream that she would become the most iconic heroine of all time? Could he have fathomed the impact she would have to the generations to come? As I turned through the pages hearing the sound as the pages moved, took each image, word, feel, and smell in I couldn't help but be reminded of how important comic books really are as a means of recording history, creating change and disseminating thoughts and ideas to society. I also understood why it was important for me to actually read a true copy and not a reprint. The reprint is one dimensional. It shows the frame of what's there but doesn't create the totality of the experience. People have said to me "Why spend so much time and money to buy something when you can just spend $20 and buy a book with a bunch of the stories in it?" I never really understood the drive I had or had an answer until now.