posted
When I was seven years old, my parents let me stay up to watch the premiere of the black & white George Reeves Superman TV show on NBC. It featured state-of-the-art special effects, like a guy suspended by wires, break-away walls, and double-exposure x-ray vision. I loved it.
That weekend, I accompanied my mother on a shopping trip which included a visit to the pharmacy. There I found a comic book which I now realize was Superman #72: the first-ever team-up of Superman and Batman. I begged my mom to purchase it for me, at the exorbitant price of 10¢. (If I had bought 10¢ worth of gold in 1952, it would be worth $6.25 today.)
I hated it. I thought it was stupid. Basically, the story is that Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent fight over Lois Lane while on a cruise, and capture some pointless low-level crook along the way. I continued to watch the Superman TV show, and loved it. Superman even appeared on I Love Lucy, and got me watching that show as well. (and may I add, Lucille Ball was a true comic genius)
-------------------- "So different from the Original Superman of Krypton!"
Registered: May 2010
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So after I started going weekly with my Dad, I got to experience my first “Comic Book Store Sale” where back issues were like 30% off or something (in the 90’s you didn’t get that many bargains like now where you can get stuff like 60% off). So my Dad, my uncle and I geared up, rechecked our lists, and got ready to go. I was super-pumped at age 12 or so.
BTW, my Dad stopped collecting comics around 1970. He started back up again in 1981 around when I was born. By the time I was reading them, he had filled in the vast majority of Marvel and DC comics during those missing years, as well as the big holes in his DC collection in the 60’s. Some runs were totally complete like Spider-Man (his favorite), Fantastic Four (my Uncle’s) and Thor. Most of them though had very big holes and my entire teens were spent hunting them down.
Also BTW, my Uncle also loved comic book like my Dad and I. Anyone who said they didn’t like Jack Kirby was dead to him. Unfortunately, my Uncle has been in a bad way for many years now and I’d rather not get into it (he became a full blown alcoholic and in fact, has never recovered from an abusive childhood like my father did).
Anyway, most of the Marvel titles had gaps that seemed like they could easily be completed. Two of them, however, did not: X-Men and Daredevil. And with good reason as Byrne & Cockrum X-Men comics as well as Miller Daredevil comics were super-hard to find. And they weren’t cheap either.
So we went to the CBS for that big sale, probably with my Dad and Uncle having $150 between them, with the intent of filling in the 1970’s Marvels (DC always came second in back issue collecting). We found dozens of Captain America’s, Iron Man’s, Avengers, etc. And I found something really awesome:
(Uncanny) X-Men #121, the first full appearance of Alpha Flight and their first cover appearance. Looking at it just now, I can see why I was mesmerized by it! I wanted it so bad. The problem? It was something like $55.00 since it was in mint condition! Say whaaa—aaat? In order to get that, my Dad reasoned, we’d have to skip out on tons of other series that we could fill in for like $4.00 and $5.00 a pop. So the decision ultimately was, let’s skip it and get one day down the road and instead get more quantity of comics at this sale.
I was heartbroken. I thought we’d never find it again…
And just like I thought for 10 whole years, we didn’t find it. Over the next ten years, throughout my teens, we filled in the entire Marvel collection for all the main titles. (The ones that started in the Silver Age). The last series to be completed was the X-Men, as we were missing a few key issues, like the Dark Phoenix finale, the first Kitty Pryde and of course, #121. And then one day, our new CBS (which we came to in 1994 and are still with today) had a sale, and called us ahead of time to tell us. They even let us have “first dibs”, going in on Thursday since we’re their best customers.
And among them were all the X-Men comics we needed. Including that holy grail for me, X-Men #121! And the kicker, it was only like $40 and still in mint condition, so less than it was 10 years earlier. *And* we got it at 50% off!
And so that day we completed our run of the X-Men at long last! The lesson, I guess, was patience. But more than that, it was to enjoy the thrill of the hunt, since that is what the collecting aspect is all about.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Jerry: Warlord Annual #1 - 1982
One of my dear friends in college was a beautiful Madonna wanna be, lipstick lesbian named Linda. She liked to sketch and she and I shared a love of Mike Grell. Linda was, unfortunately, also a hopeless alcoholic. She spent some time in the county jail after being arrested on DUI charges. The county jail was on the same street as my favorite local comic shop, which was called Rock Bottom Comics. On my way to visit Linda in jail, I stopped by Rock Bottom and bought two copies of Warlord Annual #1. I took one to her and she spent her time in jail making beautiful drawings of Travis Morgan and the rest of the Skataris cast.
Sweet story. I wonder what became of Linda.
Linda didn't graduate with us. Her parents eventually pulled her out of school and sent her to rehab. Last I heard she was in Oklahoma and still partying.
-------------------- No regrets, Coyote.
From: Missouri | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
In the mid-80s I was filling in my New Mutants collection with the early issues. After one such purchase, I opened the comic to realize I already owned a copy. I took it right back to the CBS, but only got 1/2 the price I paid for it---like driving the car off the lot, it immediately lost half its value. I believe I immediately repaired to a soda machine with that fifty cents.
It was probably this one.
I know it wasn't this one. You don't forget Axe.
Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Thriftshop Debutante: Less of the Lash/Ester Emotional Problems Hour and more of the comic book stories please!
I for one would certainly enjoy hearing a tale of EDE's purchase of a comic-book.
What was his motive? What was he thinking? Was he thinking of me? Was it raining? Was a Tanya Tucker song playing on the radio as he drove from the seedy establishment where the purchase went down?
posted
Even as a kid I wasn’t stupid enough to feel the need to buy every tie-in comic to a major crossover. However, for I can recall clearly my first experience with a “mini-crossover”, where a storyline crosses between 2-3 titles, and when I was first faced with having to decide if I wanted to buy the issues in the series that I didn’t currently collect.
Once I began reading all of the then “off the rack” comics we were collecting, Spider-Man was immediately a top draw for me since he was my favorite hero. Web of Spider-Man was kicking off a mini-crossover with ‘Spirits of Vengeance’, a series that starred both Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze, as they were two separate characters then. It was called Spirits of Venom.
The mini-crossover is actually a good reflection of comics in the early 90’s. It featured Venom, who was basically everywhere in comics at that time and dominated Spider-Man’s comics. At the time, I actually hated the Venom character because in my pre-teen mind, I thought Venom hogged all the limelight and ‘young fans’ like myself didn’t give the Silver Age Spider-Man villains enough credit. The crossover was an excuse to pit Venom against Ghost Rider, who was also all the rage in the early 90’s. His popularity reached its peak then, though I’ve never really figured out why he became so popular right then and why it didn’t last.
It also featured the Inferno-created Demogoblin (who split from Hobgoblin) and the Spider-Man Doppleganger, a leftover from the Infinity Crusade crossovers. Hobgoblin was my favorite of all Spider-Man villains because of the Stern / Defalco issues almost 10 years earlier (literally only months earlier in my reading chronology) so I actually kind of liked Demo & Doppy. It also featured Hag & Troll, two Ghost Rider villains and the Guardsman.
We already collected Web of Spider-Man, so I got Web #95 and #96:
Now, my Dad never collected any Ghost Rider comics, and so I never collected any either, nor had any interest in the character. I totally understood he had an awesome visual, and I had recently seen his appearance in Jim Lee’s X-Men comic, but that’s about it.
Decision time: the story was entertaining enough but was it that good, or that essential, to pick up Spirits of Vengeance #5 and #6?
…I decided, yes, I should buy these issues.
I bought them (these with my own money), read them and was able to get the complete story.
The end result? Well, even then I felt it was all a bit ‘meh’. I learned that when you buy a crossover issue of another comic, you’re still just buying a comic book about other characters. Your favorites are really just guests that with a limited presence, and the title’s stars and subplots are paramount to the issue, regardless of it being a crossover. In terms of plot importance, well, the plot wasn’t all that complex to begin with, so I wasn’t missing anything vital. All I ended up getting was some extra fight scenes where instead of Spider-Man shining, it was Ghost Rider shining.
The issues weren’t bad by any means, but they just weren’t what I was expecting. I thought by completing the crossover, the story would be much more fulfilling and some sort of ‘ah ha!’ moment would occur. It didn’t. All I got was two more issues of a bit of a standard, albeit fun, Spider-Man / Venom / Ghost Rider story.
And all these years later, this has been my experience 98.5% of the time. Its easy to give an example with Venom and Ghost Rider because most early 90’s popular stars are scoffed at these days, but the same rule applies to Superman or any other comic book star.
I reread the issues years later and they actually are pretty entertaining and fun. I’m glad I have them, even though they’re not Shakespeare. But by having the complete set, the story by no means is “enhanced” as the company’s would like to have you believe.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Mom gave my little 12 year old self my allowance and set me free in a grocery store. I grabbed up my very first DC Dollar Comic - Superman Family #183. It was perched on the top of the spinner rack. Gorgeous Neal Adams cover. All those pages of brand new stories. Nightwing and Flamebird! It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.
I rushed to the check out stand. The girl at the register wrinkled up her nose and said, "Oh my God. Who would pay a dollar for a comic book?" My feelings were hurt. I was too shy and embarrassed to say anything. I felt like I had done something wrong. I awkwardly payed for it, picked it up, and rushed out of the store, taking with me a lifelong pet peeve. If I'm buying something, sales clerks need to keep their opinions to themselves.
-------------------- No regrets, Coyote.
From: Missouri | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Heaven knows what that clerk thinks of the price of comics now.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Cobie's Ghost Rider crossover story reminded me of my own similar experience, although mine turned out differently.
When the first Ghost Rider series began, circa 1973, I avoided it. Motorcycles and flaming skulls were the things young boys were *supposed* to like and, even at that age, I hated being pandered to. But when GR # 7 hit the stands, pitting GR against a "One-Man Zodiac," I had to check it out.
The Zodiac story line had run in Avengers # 120-122 a few months earlier, with one member of the crime cartel (Libra - my sign!) continuing to appear for a few months after as Mantis's father. I liked Zodiac as villains. In Avengers # 120, they literally burst onto the scene by ambushing the heroes in their own mansion and defeating them in a blitzkrieg assault. They seemed incredibly powerful and ruthless, and (like the Legion) there were a lot of them (12 to be exact), each easily identifiable via costume and powers.
When the cartel was defeated in Avengers # 122, I thought that was the end of them, so I was pleasantly surprised to see their story continued in Ghost Rider # 6-7. (Fortunately, # 6 was still on the stands, and I was able to pick it up, too.)
As it turned out, the cover blurb lived up to its promise: Only one member of Zodiac appears -- Aquarius. Dying from cancer, he's made a deal with the devil (never a smart thing to do) in exchange for possessing all of the powers and identities of his former teammates. In the end, Satan tricks him, of course, and claims his soul.
However, the story stood out because it made me care about Aquarius, a very minor character in the Avengers issues. I truly felt sorry for him, caught between a deadly illness and the devil with no way out. The story made me realize that people who are desperate will do desperate (and sometimes foolish) things.
It also made me realize that there was no such thing as a minor character in the Marvel Universe. Even obscure villains had their own stories to tell.
More, I liked Ghost Rider as a character (which I attribute to the writing of Tony Isabella) and continued to follow his first series until it was canceled after 81 issues.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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