Wes Phillips

When I was eight, I had a series of accidents that kept me indoors for most of a winter. My parents, thinking I needed diversion, gave me a lab-grade microscope, which completely captivated me. I quickly learned to cut, mount, and stain specimen slides. One day, however, the med student father of one of my friends dropped a bombshell on me—he brought home a box of commercially prepared slides from the university's book store. For the next year, the only comic books I read were the ones at my friends' houses, my allowance went to buying slides, which, if I recall, cost 25–75¢ each.