Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs on comic books and the destruction of Soldier Field
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Often, when a kid develops a lifelong interest in comic books at a young age, he's doomed to a life of obsessively jabbering with dudes who still wear trenchcoats about nerdy minutiae, the early onset of male-pattern baldness, and being picked last in every team sport. While science may never understand the reason that a predilection for comics seems to often pop up in more physically awkward kids, it's rare that a child with these interests grows up to be, say, a Pro Bowl-caliber football player. Bears weakside linebacker Lance Briggs has defied the odds and maintained his interest in comics and superheroes even as he's gone on to serve as an anchor for the vaunted Bears defense, creating a comic-book social networking site where he can be as geeky as he pleases. When The A.V. Club had a chance to talk with Briggs, we eschewed football talk—who wants to spend much time discussing the 2009 Bears season, after all?—and instead focused on a topic that made everybody happy: comics.
The A.V. Club: When did you start reading comics?
Lance Briggs: I started reading comics when I was about 6 or 7 years old, and I've stuck with it. Obviously there were breaks here or there—probably the longest break was during college, when I had to focus on different things, school, things like that. But it's good to get back to it after a break. When you take a break from comics and then pick one up, catching up with your favorite characters and their stories, instead of having to wait with your mouth watering for the next issue to come out, you can get it right away.
AVC: How often do you visit a comic book store?
LB: Typically, I'd say once or twice a month. I had kind of a layover because the comic book store that I was going to closed down, and I was focused on football, so I took a couple of months off. When I went back, I cleared the shelves off so I could catch up.
AVC: What titles do you read right now?
LB: My favorite comic right now is The Darkness. To me, it's just a great story. He's got great powers, and his interactions are just pretty cool. He's got issues where he fights Superman, and Lara Croft, Witchblade, things like that — it's just pretty cool.
AVC: Are you more of an Image guy than a Marvel or DC guy?
LB: Yeah, more into the Image and Top Cow stuff now. I got into that when I was in high school, when Image was fairly new, and Spawn, Shadowhawk, Wildcats, Stormwatch, all of these storylines were very appealing to me. Of course, I'm still a Marvel fan—I still pick up X-Men and Spider-Man. I pick up DC, as well—I get Justice League, Green Lantern, stuff like that. But by far, Top Cow and Image stuff is my favorite.
