Holy comic books, Batman! You’re 68 years old! And still going strong. In fact, comic books, which have been around since the early 1930s, are just as popular as ever, with such world-famous heroes as Superman and Spider-Man.

“My interest in comics started with drawings of Batman and Superman,” said Orpheus Collar, a sophomore and illustration major at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. When he was 7, Collar’s hobby turned serious as he began to develop his own comic book characters.

“My continued interest in comics has been driven by the desire to get my stories and the images in my head into a form where other people can understand them,” said Collar, seen above painting in his bedroom. For this artist, inspiration comes from life experiences.

“Comic books have had a massive impact on the world,” said Arnold Blumburg, curator at the Geppi Entertainment Museum in Baltimore, which displays comics and other relics from American pop culture.

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“Comic characters have gone from magazines to mainstream media,” he said. “Just look at [the success of] the latest ‘Superman’ and ‘Spider-Man’ movies. Comic books can speak about the hopes people have for themselves. And through darker characters, our fears can be revealed.”

Malcolm Favor is a senior at Reginald F. Lewis High School in Baltimore City. He is an intern with The Baltimore Examiner.