My uncle loves comic books.

Batman, Superman, Hulk, Iron Man and Spiderman – you name it, he knows it.

Every visit to our home, he would have in possession various older movies of Superman and old-school sleuth shows to show me. He was so excited to tell me and my brothers about all of the new movies in production based from the comic.

I had never realized how much of a passion comics and collectibles were for my uncle until my family visited him in Arizona for one of my high school spring breaks.

Remember Steve Carell’s character in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin?” Remember the boxes of collectibles he had and how neatly the figurines were arranged around his home?

That is my uncle.

One of the four rooms in his house you will find boxes stacked to the ceiling of collectibles. His garage walls are lined with the boxes, all labeled neatly as to what is contained within.

And then there is his collectable room – shelves of movies (older and newer), framed posters of old comic book heroes and figurines you would never see in a store today.

If you were a comic book fan, you would be in a sort of comic nirvana.

My uncle could probably retire today at the young age of 43 if by chance he did sell all of his collectibles like Steve Carell’s character.

But like any comic book and collectable enthusiast, he will not be ridding himself of his prized possessions anytime soon.

He only flies up to visit from Arizona twice a year, almost six months apart in time; once at Christmas and then in mid-May for the Motor City Comic Con convention in Novi. If he does visit this year, he should be arriving in the next couple of weeks.

When I was a kid, on his visits he used to take us with him on his “adventures” to various comic book shops around Michigan. We frequented a small comic book shop by my childhood home in Livonia where I used to purchase my “X-Files” playing cards.

If I couldn’t buy anything, I would walk to their counter and flip through the hundreds of scene and portfolio photos of various movies and actors. Sometimes I would just wander the shop and gaze at the older and newer movie posters.

Helping put together this week’s Lifeline section, I realized how much even I had loved comics growing up, reading my brother’s Batman and Spiderman comics and watching “Batman Beyond” and “The Justice League” on television.

I never truly appreciated the culture my uncle had emerged me in indirectly.

I used to think it was dorky. How could a grown man love comics so very much?

This is the coolest thing about comic book fans is, although they dress funny and can tell you how many issues Spiderman had fought Dr. Octopus, they don’t care.

They don’t care what anyone thinks about their vast knowledge of comics.

They do it for their love of comics. It is their passion.

And I think we could all learn something from that.

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