There was once an endless forest, dark and mysterious like the night; evil dwells there. There were giant bats hiding there as well as well as dangerous pirate. he had a patch over his eyes, long dirty hair, tattered clothes, a sword, two pistols... and very teeth! He wasn't too bright but he was astute, he talked loudly and often but never said too much about things he cared about; like his treasure.

   But the pirate wasn't the only one living in that forest, two mean witches lived there as well. One of the witches had just one ear, the other had none; nobody knows why. Very few people go into the forest these days, the witches scare them away which makes the pirate very happy; less people go wondering in the forest... less chances of anyone finding his treasure! Oh, remember the giant bats hiding in the woods? Those were the witches' pets! Not surprising.

    So the witches hid alongside their giant pet bats and walked the forest looking for food and scaring people away, they didn't want anyone to know where they lived; or what they did. The witches were bad, the giant bats were bad, the pirate was bad; but the forest was good. That's another reason why the witches and the giant bats hid away, the forest would hurt them because it knew they were evil; and he wanted them gone!

   Just outside The Endless Forest lived a good man, someone kind to humans and animals alike, someone who even the plants recognized and protected; The Ancient Emperor! He was once a great sorcerer who protected travelers trying to get across The Endless Forest and who fell victims to the evil witches. The sorcerer had two loyal companions, a red monkey and a dragon! The dragon had saved the monkey from snake years ago, breathing fire and scaring the snake enough that it let go of the red monkey; after that day the two were inseparable. 

   Legend has it the red monkey only eats a special kind of apples that only grow in The Endless Forest, so even though it's very dangerous for anyone to go through the woods; the red monkey has to go or he'll starve. So the dragon found out about this and he gets apples for the red monkey every day and brings them to him. They're best of friends. On one occasion, while the dragon was picking apples for the red monkey, the witches trapped the dragon and if it wasn't for the sorcerer it would've been fatal for the dragon. Thankfully the sorcerer is very powerful so he could fight off the witches wh ran away into the woods not to be seen again for a long time.
​
   The sorcerer's power comes from a powerful warlock named Jayden The Great! Jayden The Great was slain in battle fighting the evil witches when one of them attacked him from behind, but before dying he transferred his power to the sorcerer and from that day forward; the sorcerer became the protector of the land. The End?

   Comic books have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I learned to read thanks to comic books and picture books before I even started going to school as a child thanks to my father.
​
   My father, who migrated from Mexico to New York, did not speak English too well, just well enough to get by. But he would buy picture books and kids comics and would read them to me as a kid because my parents of course wanted me to grow up knowing English. 
​
   My parents divorced by the time I was around five years old, and though I saw my father much less, I still kept that hunger of wanting to read more books and comics. My mother would occasionally buy me comics, which were mostly Archie Comics, Muppet Babies, and these digests that had a bunch of different titles all in one big comic, like Monster Balls, Alf, Heathcliff, and other kid friendly characters.
​
   One time while I was exploring in that small Williamsburg apartment where we lived, I ran into a big trash bag in the closet, and when I opened it, it was full of of comics in Spanish, translated versions of Archie Comics, Little Lulu, Memin, Casper, and some more adult comics that actually belonged to my mother when she was a kid and as she grew up.