My name is Dion Herbert and I sell comic books.
I'm from Diego Martin originally but I'm going to be Down South in Corinth with my girlfriend, Khadija Peters, soon. From January, I'll be a "Sando" boy.
As a boy in Diego, I used to walk through the river to go from school to home and back. Nobody jostling you, you could keep your lunch money. But I wouldn't send my son through the river today, Hell, no! They have shootings and robbings. Right there by KFC, they shoot a man in the river.
I used to read a lot as a boy. We had a library at home, must be seven foot high, five foot wide, just books. And I used to read that every day. Text books, story books, the Bible and all, I just read.
I don't have a favourite writer: I have favourite writers. Stephen King, Dean Koontz. Frank Herbert – I like that surname – I feel Frank Herbert supposed to be good! I like James Herbert even more, which is a British writer. I like British authors more than the Americans. They're much more wittier.
I didn't start reading comics until I went to Fatima, where a pardner introduced me to the X-Men. From then to now, I was hooked.
School was good. I wasn't bullied. I was never robbed. Well, they tried to bully me once, but I put an end to that. I'm not a karateka, I just could kick really good. They decided I was too much trouble and left me alone.
I loved English because I loved to write. It's another reason I ended up getting into the comics thing: I loved the storylines, the dialogue between a character and a next one.
I think the movies from comic books aren't true to form. In a Spider-Man movie, e.g., they must have a female love interest in it to get the young girls to go watch it, but in the comic book, they wouldn't necessarily have a female interest.
I must watch the SyFy but the Ghost Hunters is not my cup of tea. I watch SyFy for sci-fi.
If not for the original Star Trek, we would not have had a lot of things. The cellphone, the automatic-opening sliding doors. Some guy watched that and ask, "Why can't we have that in real life?" And there you go!
I used to borrow X-Men comics from my pardner, Curtis James, in Fatima College, and then I started buying them on my own. From various drug stores. But, out of a 13-issue arc, I might miss four. That's how I ended up selling comics: I couldn't get any back issues, so I bought them on my own and, when I told some friends, they said they would buy from me, too. So I turned my hobby into a business.
If it wasn't for the Big Bang Theory, comics wouldn't be popular in Trinidad.
Some of the stuff we buy in Trinidad is so overpriced, you could order it off EBay, have Customs charge you their ridiculous duty, and they'd still be cheaper than in stores!
Comics are for adults and not just to pass the time. A superhero flying 'bout the place is dealing with problems you and me are dealing with! The way Batman does move, so suspicious and cynical, I could believe he could have a cocaine problem!
The best movie-adaptations of comics I ever saw was the Batman Dark Knight series. Heath Ledger's Joker was spot-on! They have plenty bad movie versions: Daredevil; Thor; Iron Man 3; the Eric Bana Hulk. Plenty!
The best thing about selling comics is when a little boy or girl holds one in their hands for the first time, and their eyes light up! Hopefully, he might graduate on to books and might stop and think, "Maybe there is more to life than just working a maxi." No offence to the maxi-drivers but you want people's imagination fired up!
The bad thing about comics is people don't respect it like they ought to. I tell them, "What is the last good movie you watched?" Nine times out of ten, they say, Iron Man, Batman or Spider-Man.
Trini is somebody who would publicly dismiss a comic book– but read it in private.
Trinidad & Tobago is home, plain and simple. I wouldn't leave here for all the tea in China or comic books in New York.
Read a longer version of this feature at www.BCRaw.com