Redartz: Good day, everyone! In recent weeks, in the course of several different discussions, one issue has been noted repeatedly: the tendency to recall the specific circumstances surrounding the purchase / reading of a particular comic. It seems many of us have these memories, each of which only add to the enjoyment and value of said comic to it's possessor. So today, we will release the 600-pound gorilla in the room, and discuss those special books. The ones that, literally decades later, still evoke the time, date and surroundings of the original experience.
In my case, as I've owned and read thousands of comics over the years, there are numerous books which have that characteristic memory attached (although there are countless more whose origins are lost in the mists of time). I've told the story before of Amazing Spider-Man 132, and it's hospital purchase that started my collecting habit. So for today's tale, here's a couple other examples:
Amazing Spider-Man 157: an issue presenting the return of Dr. Octopus, and with a sharp John Romita cover. My family was on a spring break vacation trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee in early 1976. On one morning, my parents decided to sleep in a bit, so my brother and I had the chance to walk down the main street of town and look at all the shops and attractions. At one big souvenir/gift shop, visible through the big front window, was a spinner rack of comics. And behold, on that spinner was the brand new issue of ASM, my favorite title! Great as the cover was, I'd have grabbed it anyway. So that comic went back to the hotel room with us, and entertained me for a bit until the folks woke up.
Captain America and the Falcon 173: an issue early in Steve Englehart's "Secret Empire" arc, with guest stars the X-Men and Nick Fury (all conveniently plastered on the cover). At that age, I often relied on the good will of my parents to drive me by the local comic shop to pick up a few books. On this day, they took me prior to my music lesson (for about a year, they ferried me to organ lessons at a music store in town; most of our family is musically gifted, it turned out that I emphatically wasn't).
My father was a talented piano player, and the owners of the store were friends of my parents. So after my lesson that day, I sat out in the parking lot of that music store, in the back seat, in the sunshine, warm through the car window, reading that new Captain America comic while the adults visited. And probably discussed how to mercifully curtail my music lessons...
But enough about me. Let's hear from all of you! What comics evoke specific memories of their purchase and /or perusal? I know you're all itching to tell your tales!
20 comments:
Several events came to mind, but to point to particular comic let me mention E-Man. I was a young man on the verge of graduating from high school and wanted to make a few changes in my life, and the comics of the Big Two were getting a bit stale for my tastes. I was spending an evening with my aunt who lived in the small town I went to school in. My folks actually lived nearly twenty miles out of town, so sometimes to make things convenient for after-school events we stayed there for the night. I bought some comics to pass the time and I was casting about for different styles and was just experimenting with new things when I chanced upon a copy of E-Man #6 with beautiful Joe Staton artwork illustrating a clever Nick Cuti script. I was entranced, and I've never stopped reading or collecting Charlton comics since. E-Man became my favorite superhero and still is. Perhaps we'll get new adventures soon, I hear good things.
Rip Off
Oh I almost forgot to add that in that sixth issue of E-man was the debut of a great little strip called Rog-2000 drawn by a guy who I think went on to have a small career in comics by the name of John Byrne. Perhaps you've heard of him?
Rip Off
I bought X-Men #10 while on vacation in Virginia in 1979. That's the one with Ka-Zar leaping across the cover. We had bought a crate of peaches, and I left the book on the top of the crate when we went to dinner. It was late august and it was hot as hell. When we got back to the car, it absolutely reeked of peaches.
To this day, almost forty years later, the comic still has a hint of that peach smell.
Yoyo
I remember the day I discovered Marvel comics - it was the morning of Saturday, 16th November 1974 and I was with my mother on a trip to the local town (we lived in a village about 5 miles away). In the town's bus station we stopped at a kiosk selling newspapers/magazines etc and my eyes fell on a comic called...Planet Of The Apes. OMG !!! The Planet Of The Apes TV show had begun just 5 weeks earlier on October 13th and I was a mega, mega fan so I begged my mother to buy me that comic which she did. My mother then went to the hairdressers and I read my new POTA comic while waiting for her. But I was very confused because this comic was called Planet Of The Apes but it was nothing like the TV show - a bearded man was being chased by the apes and when they caught him in a net he started shouting at them and they were all shocked that he could speak. I didn't have a clue what was going on but I wanted to get the next issue to find out and so I told my dad that I wanted to drop my weekly comics, The Topper and The Beezer and start getting POTA instead beginning with the next issue, #6. The POTA comic also included Ka-Zar and Gullivar Jones, Warrior of Mars and there were ads for other Marvel weeklies featuring characters called Spider-Man, the Hulk and the Avengers...who were these exotic creatures ?? And that's how I got my first ever Marvel comic and discoverd the wonderful world of Marvel !!
Rip- E-Man is great. Nice issue to start reading with! And new stories would be most welcome.
Charlton had some fine books and some real talent; unfortunately their printing seemed iffy at times...
Yoyo- you may be on to something: peach-scented comics. It opens up a world of possibilities; cigar scented for Ben Grimm? Banana scented for Angel and the Ape? The mind reels...
Colin J- great story; and quite impressive that you know the exact date!
I bought all my comics at the local drugstore, so everything kinda blurs together. I do remember buying Marvel Tales #98 (reprinting the Death of Gwen Stacy) and Dr. Strange #32; I wasn't a Doc Strange fan, but I thought the cover was cool, so I got it. The only reason I remember those is because I have a photo of a six year old me holding them up!
I also have vague memories of reading a comic on our first trip to England in 1978; I think it was a World's Finest, with a wraparound cover, and I ended up forgetting it on the plane. I've tried to figure out what issue it was, but nothing seems to jump out at me. Maybe I imagined it :)
I think my memory retains almost too much of this sort of thing-- just all a-clutter with such trivia. . .
Starting with Hulk #176 & WWBN #18, most of my spinner-rack purchasing took place at one particular grocery store (of the two) calle Buy-Low in my small Michigan town. But they did tend to move that rack around a lot as the store expanded and upgraded, so a lot of the time I can remember where in that store I was when I picked up a particular issue. Still the other market, Harding's, was managed by my pal Bryan's dad, so that rack got a reasonable fraction of my/our business as well. Champions #1 I remember distinctly, as well as most of the Giant-Size Defenders and Avengers issues that came along, 'cause the other store tended to not carry those.
A hefty chunk of our town's "business district" (four or five buildings, I believe?) on the main drag burned down one year, and one (of the two) drugstores re-built and expanded into a pretty darned nice little variety-store enterprise-- really, an early version of what CVS & Walgreen's have become. They didn't have spinner racks,but rather kept comics and magazines on those wall-shelf racks, like most comic shops use. That's where I picked up Giant-Size X-Men #1 on a whim during lunch break my freshman year of high-school. That eventually became my preferred store for comics, as they tended to go with a variety of titles rather than stocking up 20 copies of an issue of Ritchie Rich Millions, say.
HB
I can remember getting Marvel Premiere 22, Iron Fist fighting Batroc. My uncle was going to pick up something for a picnic and I went to the Keys Drugs next door. He had to stop fior gas and "smokes" too. I took out that comic and was transported. The window was open a bit and I could smell the gas. When he got back in he tossed me a milky way and we were off. Its one of my favorite kid memories. I finished the comic while eating a burger in my Grandparents back yard under the trees. I see that cover from time to time and it always takes me back.
My mom bought Spider-Man #157 for me in a supermarket, back in the Age of the Spinner Rack. It was years before I got my hands on the subsequent issue and found out how Spidey survived that fall from a helicopter.
I was probably around nine.
M.P.
This may sound surprising but in the 80s American limited-series and annuals were not distributed to newsagents in the UK, but rather, comic specialty stores only.
I was fortunate to live in London but at the time (early 80s) comic shops could only be found in the city centre. This of course only added to the desirability of non-distributed comics. So these West End trips to Comic Showcase and Forbidden Planet were ridiculously exciting. I would plan for and dream about the forthcoming adventures for weeks ahead.
There was also the time I visited family in Southend (where the Thames meets the sea) and was desperate for something to read. The shock of finding a local comic shop was only matched by the shock of finding Secret Wars #1 and my first Marvel Age comic on the shelves. I had such a marvellously happy afternoon reading comics and listening to David Bowie's 'Aladdin Sane' continuously on cassette.
Kind of mundane memories on one level. But important nonetheless. I am convinced that we are built to remember happiness at least as vividly as sadness (hence the power of nostalgia) and comics have provided as much joy as anything this side of my first stage dive.
i was around 10 years old when Luke Cage Hero for Hire started. I just loved it. Against all odds, I had a complete run going to issue 10.
Against all odds, given I was buying off the spinner at a small grocery store. And then I missed issue 11!
Fast forward, 3 to 4 months, and I am exiting a department store with my dad and pass the comic book book machine with Luke 11 on display! I managed to get $.20 out of my dad, inserted the coins, pushed in the handle and the comic above, not below, the handle falls. Archie, not Luke Cage, fell down to the opening! My blood turned to ice! I felt literally feint! My dad continued walking out the door as I called after him, "Dad! Dad, stop! This is the wrong comic! Wait..."
"Let's go son, you got a comic... Read that one."
My dad really didn't get it, LOL!
It was actually #20. Maybe I sniffed too much of that gas!
red and marti... i am hopeful you run this subject many more times as i am sure we all have more than one memory involving comics!!!
I'm an American, but I visited the U.K. as a soldier on leave from Germany back in the late '80's. I stumbled upon a comic store in London and, man, they had EVERYTHING. It was like finding El Dorado. I don't recall the name of the place.
I only had a couple days left on my leave at that point, so I didn't have to lug all the treasure I got there for very long. Those comics consoled me in my grief at having to leave England and go back to the army.
M.P.
Does anyone else remember how the first issues of many comics never hit the stands at all? For example, I missed out on Howard the Duck #1, Spectacular Spider-Man #1, Nova #1, and many more. I later heard rumours that certain dealers were buying all the first issues under the table from the distributors.
One memory I had was being a new Avengers fan, fresh from the summer of '73 and 'that team clash'..., my Dad coming to see me one Saturday a month (post-divorce visitation..), and he took me to my favorite local store, picked up Avengers ish 120 with the new storyline (Zodiac..!!!), hearing the Carpenters on the radio singing 'Top of the World', sitting on his nice leather car seat in his big Oldsmobile, after taking me to McDonalds..?
It was one of those 'mountaintop memories'.., indeed.
M.P. - that was almost certainly Forbidden Planet. By the late 80s it had grown to be a large store. So great that comics had that ability to console.
Thanks for all the memories everyone!
HB- You were fortunate to find an outlet that carried the giant size issues; they seemed to have a more limited distribution than the regular size books.
Colin Bray- nice comment regarding the evocative power of comics, and nostalgia in general. Music, food, comics, many things can trigger a memory. And when those elements combine, the recalled experience is even more enveloping.
Dr. Mike- Intriguing comment about those first issues. Some of them definitely had scarce availability; Howard the Duck comes to mind. And your'e right, I recall reading that some dealers had started hoarding that book early on. On the other hand, at least in the area I lived growing up, many first issues were plentiful. I still can see a spinner rack loaded with copies of Spectacular Spider-Man number 1. I saw so many, I figured it would never be worth anything...
david_b- love your story. You were definitely "On top of the World"...
When those Secret Empire stories were running in Captain America & the Falcon in 1974, my family was in West Jordan, a suburb of Salt Lake City, and I mostly got my comics at a mom & pop store about a half mile from our house and across the street from the Elementary School I attended until I started at the Junior High School in August 1974 which was just a few blocks away from our house but in the opposite direction. But just a few months later, in October, we moved to Treasure Island Naval Station in San Francisco, where we lived until July 1976 when we moved to Lemoore, in central California (dad was in the Navy). While living on Treasure Island and in Lemoore, I bought most of my comics at the Navy Exchange.
Hi Fred, good to hear from you! Sounds like you moved around a bit. Did the Navy Exchange have a pretty good selection of comics?
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