Problem reading binary chunks from file

[ColdStart]

I just want to..lets say read byte by byte (7 downto 0) chunks from binary file.

Once i read them, i want to put them in big array of bytes. Here is how i do it:

    -- Reading image data from the file and putting it into array
    read_to_memory: process (startread)

    subtype word is std_logic_vector(7 downto 0);
    type storage_array is
    array (natural range 0 to 9) of word;

    variable storage : storage_array;
    variable index : natural;

    type load_file_type is file of word;
    file load_file : load_file_type open read_mode is "mem.dat";
    begin



    index := 0;



if  startread = '0' then

    for i in 0 to 9 loop

    read(load_file, storage(i)); 

    index := index + 1;

    end loop;

else

    pixelcolor <= storage(0);


end if;





    end process read_to_memory;

so as u see from the code, what i do is just read 10 chunks from binary file, when startread is LOW, and once it changes to HIGH, i just display the first chunk out of the array.

Now, functionally it seems to work...however i get weird thing in a waveform of modelsim.

Check the attached picture.

You see ?(103) there? so it is the correct byte which is in the file... BUT, i supposed to see it normally not in such a weird way in the waveform... so it seems like it does the job, but for some reason not displayed correctly there..

it shows weird symbols.. and when i change display Radix to Hex, or Dec it displays X'es...

any ideas?

thanks!