Redartz: Hello, Bronze age aficionados! Tuesday has rolled around once again, bringing with it another "Follow the Leader" post! And as always, the idea therein is for our first commenter to name the topic of discussion. The podium is open, and the day awaits!
But first, I've another extra topic (just can't shut up, can I?). Over the weekend I indulged in a favorite pastime: flea market hunting. And this hunt was pretty fruitful; many comics vendors at the show; including one who had a whole table (about 20 long boxes) for a dollar each. And the contents of those boxes ranged from Silver Age to Modern! Using some self-restraint, I kept it to about 25 books, mostly bronze age goodies. But one book I picked up at another table leads to my question today.
For many years I've looked to find a particular comic, one I'd purchased new and later parted with. A book that featured several indie stories of interest, including an early appearance of Stan Sakai's "Usagi Yojimbo". A book I've found extremely difficult to locate, even on ebay. This book:
So, my question: are there any unusual or rare books you spent years pursuing, finally achieving your goal with the accompanying air of satisfaction? Share your story, share an answer to our submitted subject, and let's have another 'twofer'!
25 comments:
I'm going to make it a "threefer" because I've got a two-part question:
1) What is your favourite Supremes song?
2) What is your favourite solo Diana Ross song?
Great questions...
Though I've never hunted for one book, I do recall after reading Steranko's History of Comics when I was 16 developing an insatiable desire to get a Golden Age comic though not anyone in particular. A year later I bought Human Torch 15 at Chicago Comic Con (Pick-COngress Hotel!) around 1978. It cost me a cool $20!
My father would bring home Diana Ross and Motown records from the library, in the 1960s, for us kids to listen to on the mono (!) record player. Over and over it would be "Baby Love" for my brother and I. The rest of the album did not exist! So let's chalk up "Baby Love" as Charlie's fav!
And I do not know DR's solo career. Just that she was good friends with Michael Jackson who lived a few miles down the road from us in Gary, IN and Mike's old man, worked in the same place as my dad: Inland Steel fwiw lol!
Great subject, Colin; love that Motown magic. I really didn't become familiar with the Supremes, or much of Motown, until the 70's (with the exception of the Jackson 5, courtesy of their tv cartoon). In college, a girlfriend gifted me with a 10-lp collection, "The Motown Story"- it was more than phenomenal. And through that collection, I quickly was drawn to what would be my favorite Supremes song: "The Happening".
As for Diana's solo work, "Love Hangover" would rank pretty highly.
Truth be told, my favorite Motown 'girl group' is Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. "Dancing in the Street" will fire me up every time, no matter how sluggish I feel...
Charlie, I'm stunned that you don't know anything about Diana Ross' solo career - where have you been???
Red, Love Hangover is my favourite Diana Ross song too - I always listen out for the bit when she starts giggling.
My favourite Supremes song is Stop! In The Name of Love but I like Charlie's choice, Baby Love, too (Baby Love was the Supremes only UK #1 hit).
Diana Ross had two British No.1 hits - I'm Still Waiting in 1971 and Chain Reaction in 1986 but neither of those singles made the Top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100.
Colin - are you saying Charlie is stunning! Aw shucks... LOL!
Actually, I do know some of those songs you and Red mentioned, but at the time of writing I could not think of any. And then I thought "If I can't remember any, it must not have made an impression. So, how could it be a fav?"
I would say my favourite Supremes single is Love Child, although, in all honesty, their singles all tend to blur into one for me. They were definitely a band with a sound.
When it comes to Diana Ross's solo career, it's mostly not my cup of tea. All the stuff I know by her is in the Olivia Newton-John ballpark, which is pleasant enough but possibly a bit too pleasant. I have, though, always had a liking for Chain Reaction, mostly, I suspect, because it's a Bee Gees record in everything except name. Famously, it was at Number One in Britain when Chernobyl went up, which suggests that Fate has a dark sense of humour.
I'm not a huge Supremes fan, so I'll just go with Baby Love since it's the first one that popped into my head.
As for a comic I always wanted and finally found ... I had the Death of Gwen Stacy/Death of Green Goblin issues as a kid and lost them, so I was pretty happy when I replaced them a decade or so later. (Both sets were reprints, but that's good enough for me.)
Every once and a while I'll get into the "Mowtown mood" and listen to those artists for a couple of days.
Favorite Supremes song? tough, I'll go with WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO, with RUN RUN RUN a close second.
Diana's solo career wasn't my style.
I like your style Red! It's all about the hunt, anybody can take the easy way out and press the button on ebay. I don't really have a "Holy Grail" comic but there's a whole bunch out there that would get the heart racing if I pulled out of a box at a flea market or garage sale.
I've always liked the Supremes okay as a radio presence-- but Motown never grabbed me as strongly as it did many of my friends and peers. THE HAPPENING is probably the tune that I enjoy the most-- and I think it's easily the most "Pop" hit of their big ones. Man, what a lot of hits they had--! DEDICATED TO THE ONE I LOVE is also a fave. . . although I kinda like the Mamas & the Papas cover better. (Sadly, cannot listen to M's&P's anymore, though--)
My own comics "Holy Grails" really only existed in the pre-internet years of my collecting-- when it could be tough to track any issue down. Man, ESPECIALLY in the days before there were even Local Comic Shops-- ! For a brief time, my "favorite" runs had a gap here or there that took some time and effort to fill. Hulk #115 and #172; Avengers #64 (changed hands a couple of times, and went gone by the time it came into my full possession. . . ); X-Men #100; WWBN #1. I loved the fact that ebay and Amazon made the hunt so much easier, although I have to confess that demise of that "thrill" is partly why I am a completely-retired hunter at this point. The last Grail would have been the Marvel Treasury Edition Christmas Special that I miraculously got my Mom to give me a few years ago. It just about darned killed her to do so. . . ha--! But it does remain as a happy Final Trophy, y'know?
HB
Okay, Supremes question: either Stop In The Name Of Love or You Can't Hurry Love.
Diana Ross' solo stuff, the best of the bunch, to me, is either Endless Love or Upside Down.
Holy Grails... I have found that when pursuing Holy Grails, it is best to sometimes have a large wooden rabbit...
Now back to comics. As I've mentioned before, the first two comics I ever bought were Amazing Spider-Man 121 & 123. There wasn't a 122 on the rack. I finally got the chance to read it when Marvel Tales reprinted both issues in a double size issue later on but having that 122 would be nice. A few "nice to haves" would Justice League Europe 25 & 64. Those are the only two I'm missing to have a complete run. On my back burner "to do" list would be to complete my run of Marvel Triple Action/Marvel Super Action that reprinted the Avengers. I have those issues in the Marvel Essentials but having that run completed would be nice...
(Money, who needs it
Let me live a life free and easy
Put a toothbrush in my hand
Let me be a travelling man
I'm a roadrunner, baby
Roadrunner
Roadrunner
I'm a road runner baby,
Can't stay in one place too long
I'm a road runner,
You might look at me
And I'll be gone
Well you can love me if you wanna
But I do declare
When I get restless
I got to move somewhere
Yes, I'm a road runner baby,
Anywhere is my home
And I love the life I live
And I'm gonna live the life I love
Roadrunner baby
Roadrunner Roadrunner
Don't want no woman to tie me down
Gotta be free baby to roam around
All my life I've been like this
You can love me at your own risk
When the dust hits my shoes
I got the urge to move
'Cause I'm a road runner baby,
Gotta keep on, keepin' on
And I live the life I love
And I'm gonna love the life I live
Roadrunner baby
Roadrunner Roadrunner).
PS: And with that, I'm off on the road once again to marry my youngest off to some man!!!
As far as being on any kind of "hunt" for comics, I'm pretty much out of the game. When I get a comics-Jones, I go to used book stores, fleamarkets, and the blow-out/budget bins sections for just something interesting to read.
The Supremes were a large part of my life growing up. They were the only artists that we got brand new albums in our household in the 60's. My father was a hillbilly, but was a big fan of Dianna Ross. I agree with everyone's favorite Supremes song.
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, as well as the Temptations have a boatload of great songs also.
Killdumpster, what is a "comics-Jones"?
I've been watching a lot of Supremes/Diana Ross songs on YouTube and only "I Hear A Symphony" is unfamiliar.
In the '80s there was a series of albums called "Motown Chartbusters" and I bought several of them. They featured all the Motown singles in chronological order. One song I discovered thanks to those albums was "It Should Have Been Me" by Yvonne Fair. She's at the wedding of her former boyfriend to another woman and as the song is fading she cries:
Somebody call the po-leece,
That woman down there is a doggone thief...
Those words are comical and poignant at the same time :D
Heh, Colin.
In the 70's, here in the states, if you had a "Jones" for something it meant you wanted it really bad. Having a "Jones" was basically a hard-on for just about anything. "Jones" was a urban nickname for a stiffy.
Oh, wacky slang terms. Lol.
We used the term alot. Say if my friends and I were driving around getting high/and/or/drinking someone would shout that they had a burger or pizza "Jones". We would usually all agree, and go to a restaurant.
Cheech n Chong have an entertaining cartoon video called Basketball Jones.
It maybe available on utube. It was a radio hit for them here in the States.
KD- oh man, Cheech and Chong are fodder for a whole 'nother discussion! My parents were blissfully unaware that I had their "Los Cochinos" lp lurking in my collection...
Prowl- large wooden rabbit, indeed! And major congrats to your family!
Colin J- Intriguing; the "Motown Chartbusters" series you mention are new to me. And so is Yvonne Fair. Despite having the "Motown Story" set mentioned above, and numerous other Motown collections of more current vintage...
Wait, wait--- THAT'S what "Basketball Jones" meant-??!!??
And Prowl-- Married off to "some man"--?? Oh boy-- sounds like YER gonna be an endearing presence at the reception. . . ! (Heh-- I kid---) (Just don't make a scene, fer corn's sake--!)
HB
American culture has been huge overseas with one exception - sports.
Nobody outside the U.S. could care less about basketball, baseball and American football.
Colin-- That would be the '76 Holiday Grab-Bag, re-printing (among others) Avengers #58. The back cover was particularly lovely. . . a Greeting Card shot of that specific, un-repeated moment in the Avengers line-up. . . and the one I always thought of as "my" team, since that's who I originally came on board with.
I imagine Cheech & Chong would have trouble catching on in other countries/cultures. While brilliantly funny, much of their humor is very specifically rooted in the LA/California/West Coast stoner/ageing hippie scene. . . with a HUGE dose of Chicano-shtick material. Hmmm-- which they probably could not pull off anymore, as I think of it. And while most Americans do get those archetypes--- I imagine they are a LOT less familiar anywhere else.
(Just my own quick sociological take on it, at least---)
HB
HB, I believe you're correct that Cheech Marin's portrayal would cause a stir in the current PC culture if presented today. That would be like introducing Speedy Gonzales or the Frito Bandito in today's world. Oh, how sparks would fly!
Cheech Marin actually released a children's album awhile ago! Called "Cheech the School bus Driver".
The only Marvel Holiday Treasury I ever got was the first one. I think on the cover it had the heroes bursting out of a wreath, some maybe pulling a sleigh? I'm a little vague on that.
I do remember it was on the rack at a bookstore for awhile, slightly dog-eared from being thumbed through.
Colin, I gotta beg to differ. Baseball is very popular in many Hispanic and Asian countries.
Adding on to what Killdumpster said about American sports, I also beg to differ on basketball. It is very popular in much of Europe, with some very strong leagues in, e.g., Italy, Spain, Russia and really, throughout southern, east central and eastern Europe (in fact, a lot of American players who don't make the cut for the NBA often find work in some of these leagues). Also, speaking of the country with which I'm most familiar, Croatia, the NBA is followed by basketball fans and sports reporters here, and not just because there's always a few Croatian players in the league. I suspect it's similar in other European countries.
I apologise for my ignorance about baseball and basketball :D
Colin, oh my brother.
No worries or embarrasment was implied.
In your defense, it seems my country is trying to force the NFL (American Football) down a lot of countries' throats. I can see your point of view if that's what you may have noticed by almost relentless exhibition.
The NFL is now our true "American Pastime", and I'm sure they'd love to export it.
My home team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, do enjoy a presence in most civilized countries in the world, though.
Any country where English is spoken, you'll probably find a Steelers' bar. Lol.
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