Colossus

When I was in High School, I wanted to be Colossus from the Uncanny X-Men.

I discovered comic books in May 1986 when my younger brother and I walked about a mile and a half up to the closest 7-11 on Gayton Road and found one of those revolving racks filled with them.

Gathering all of my loose change, I bought Uncanny X-Men 206 and Captain America 318 for 75 cents each.

That single moment profoundly changed my life.

I not only met my best High School friend, Patrick, through them (he now owns a successful comic book shop in Richmond), but they also gave me role models upon which to base my life.

My older brother used to beat me up and about the age of 13. After one last beating (which I distinctly remember to this day – he pinned me on the family couch in our home on Poplar Forest Drive and gave me an Indian Rug Burn), I decided I was sick of his shit and was going to start lifting weights in order to be able to defend myself.

That Christmas, I requested and received a set of concrete and plastic DP weights that I used religiously in my bedroom.

I did bench press and curls until my arms nearly fell off, and went from probably 130 to 160 relatively quickly.

I distinctly remember an afternoon when I was up at Ruby F. Carver Elementary School off Lauderdale Road circa 1988.

I was 17 and I had been reading the X-Men for about two years and this amazing issue came out illustrated by the fabulous Rick Leonardi.

Colossus was on the front cover and inside even the hot and sexy Rogue was enamored of poor lovelorn Piotr.

I had never really had a girlfriend and desperately wanted one. I also felt that Colossus’ blend of strength, toughness, and sensitivity really spoke to who I was at the time.

So, that day on the jungle gym and playground equipment of my local Elementary School, I began to work out harder and harder, doing pull-ups and chin-ups, pushing myself as desperately as I could in order to somehow transform myself into the comic book character whom I wanted to be.

After a while, I realized it was futile and I was chasing the impossible.

So, after a few moments of disappointment, I recalibrated and decided to simply dig as hard as I could and push myself as far as possible to become the best 17 year old Jay Bobb I could be.

It didn’t all come together at once, but eventually it worked.

Spotsylvania National Battlefield, Virginia (2005)

This was one of my earliest Civil War Esoterica tours.

My wife let me take the day off to drive down South in our forest green Nissan X-Terra to scope out some battlefields. Got a flat tire on the way down that I changed myself.

I’m wearing my old American Eagle flannel that I bought at the mall for about $10. It lasted close to 20 years. I finally had to throw it away when the elbows wore out.

I’m standing at the marker of the Bloody Angle where Union troops attacked entrenched Confederates over a 20 hour period in some of the most brutal and savage hand-to-hand combat this continent has ever witnessed.

“The Wild Shall Wild Remain”

I was obsessed with The Flaming Carrot in High School.

Thought he was hilarious.

Still do.