Short Cuts: School Yearbooks- The Past Preserved, For Better or Worse...

 

 

Redartz:  As Summer begins, schools are closing; just has they have since we attended those crowded halls of learning. One of the most anticipated parts of the end of the school year was the distribution of yearbooks. Usually accompanied by a vigorous round of mutual book signing, reminiscing and sharing of summer plans. 

 

 

Shift to the present: looking at these bound volume time capsules now can be an exercise in both nostalgia and cringing embarrassment. As a youth I used to look through my parents' yearbooks and was amused at the photos, certain that my memories would never be so...quaint. Time got the last laugh, though. My yearbooks now contain ample evidence of the cultural and fashionistic excesses of the Bronze age. Along with quite a few handwritten messages from friends, acquaintances, old girlfriends and teachers, with all the accompanying emotional detritus. For the most part, these volumes sit collecting dust on my shelves, forgotten. But every once in a while, I'll pull one out for a laugh and bit of remembrance. 

 

Thus, for our discussions this week, what are your thoughts about yearbooks, the process of reminiscence, and the end of school in general?  Do you have any amusing tales of pranks, parties, or partings? Did you keep your yearbooks ( and in the case of your parents, did they keep all your school pictures- mine presented me with a whole manila envelope some years ago, containing twelve years' worth of uncomfortable portraits)? And just to show you that I'm devoted to journalistic integrity and full disclosure (not to mention possessing no sense of personal dignity), I leave you with one of those school photos of early Bronze age Redartz, I'll probably regret this...

 

Adventures in Comics: School Days...

Redartz:  Good day, all! Today we find ourselves in the heady mellow days of June (Northern Hemisphere, anyway). However, for our topic, we will think back to our school days and remember when we had to 'beat the bell', get to our seat, and (hopefully) have our homework ready. 

More specifically,  do we have any memories of comics at school? Perhaps you sneaked a few comics in between the pages of a textbook. Maybe you had a few friends with whom you would trade at lunch. Could be you have experiences I'd never think of! So while we wait to hear about yours, here's a couple of mine.

 
One of my early school tales concerned a friend who learned I'd just started collecting comics. It was middle school, 1974, and I had very few comics at that point (and even fewer back issues, like maybe one or two). This friend brought to school a couple of old comics he had around, and just gave them to me. They were pretty worn, but incredibly cool: Fantastic Four #63, and Spider-Man Annual #2. I instantly fell in love with that FF cover, and of course Spidey was my favorite anyway. Needless to say, the remainder of that schoolday was spent sneaking peeks at those books between lessons and amidst bookreading. 







Within a year, comics had grown to an obsession with me (yes, "My name is redartz, and I'm a comic book addict"). Conveniently for school, that fall Mead came out with a series of Marvel Comics folders and notebooks. Well, you just know what happened. Every class had to have a different hero folder, and the big notebook featured the Fabulous FF from issue 159.  This notebook replaced a comic notebook I created myself: 
I took the opportunity to buy an extra copy of a few comics at that time, especially since I was cutting out the Value Stamps. I took an old, plain notebook, glued comic panels all over it, and covered the whole thing with clear contact paper. The result was a cool comic-themed notebook that held up to punishment (that contact paper was pretty thick). Among the comics cut up for that notebook were Marvel Two-in-One #2 and Amazing Spider-Man #130. Sadly, somewhere over the years, that notebook disappeared. But I'd still take an FF Mead notebook off ebay, any day.

 

Finally, a geek admission. My comics friend and I would frequently be found discussing anything comics oriented, during breaks, before and after school. We found the old monster reprints in the back of some of the Giant-Size books particularly amusing. So our fellow students would witness us walking down the hallway, advising them to "Beware the Terror of Tim Boo Ba", or to Look Out for "Goom, the Thing from Planet X". Yes, we got looks. In retrospect, deservedly so. But we were having a blast...

Okay, now's your chance to 'tell tales out of school'. Fire away...