I was in college and quickly fell in with a rather large, fluctuating group of friends who hung out in the University Center lounge. One of those friends shopped at the same CBS I did, and I saw him reading this issue:
Now I was leaning towards the gay even then, but even today I have never outgrown my appreciation for cheesecake, and back then I was thoroughly fascinated by the cover, which was unlike anything you ever saw on a DC or Marvel cover to say the least.
He let me read it when he was done; I thoroughly enjoyed it and went directly to the CBS-- probably skipped a class to do it-- and bought this issue as well as the previous 4 and the 3-issue miniseries that preceded it.
I stayed with HERO ALLIANCE through the remainder of its run (17 issues, an annual, a special, a 3-issue mini costarring Justice Machine and an oversize quarterly series that ran 4 issues).
I saw it launch the careers of Jason Pearson and Stuart Immonen.
To this day, I have never seen ANYone do "heroes in the real world" better than HERO ALLIANCE. Plus it had a mythology that stretched back to the 'golden age'.
And I quickly learned the cheesecake factor in Hero Alliance was equally used for the ladies AND the guys.
I think it was last year, I finally got to tell my college friend through Facebook about him getting me hooked on this book back in the day after he commented on a HA cover I posted on my page.
It is to this day my fave independent series (not counting The Walking Dead/IMAGE as independent). I'd love to see it return someday, somewhere.
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1982: As I had discovered the Comic Book Shop in the absolute-latest 70s, I did buy a bulk of them there.
However, at this time, comics were still widely available at 7-11s and drug stores.
A post made on LW's facebook page today reminded me of one such drug-store purchase. I can remember about 6 or so drug-store/7-11 type places I got my comics as a wee kid, most of them are not there anymore or are there in an altered form.
But I very much remember being with my grandmother and great Aunt when I bought this unforgettable gem off a spinner-rack in Southaven, MS:
And it very much occurs to me that without my grandmother I would be NOWHERE NEAR the comics fan I am today, and certainly wouldn't have had anywhere near the collection I had.
I wonder if this particular drug store is still there... I haven't been down that end of Stateline Road in awhile...
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Gasp!! I promise no more posts here, but I had another memory-jog I must archive! Another place I remember buying certain comics was at a store called THE TREASURY which now no longer exists!
You can read all about it on its wiki page (it won't let me link!! Something about parentheses) which features THIS IMAGE of the unique design of the store (which I always remembered) taken in Memphis no less, which I thought was pretty cool:
Anyhoo, one issue I distinctly remember buying off the spinner-rack at The Treasury:
This was my very first exposure to a heroine some fo you may have heard of-- Infectious Lass! It was her 2nd appearance but I didn't know that until later.
Dream Girl being miscolored on the cover still annoys me to this day, as she rarely had a cover appearance back then!!
BTW, my pre-1976 comics ended up on the receiving end of scissors-- I liked to cut out the best images of the characters therein, like a little spaz. Fortunately by this time, I had figured out I couldn't re-read them if they were cut all up Now I'd like to go back and determine with exactly what S/LSH I stopped cutting them up...
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Okay after a bit of detective work, I am now ready to discuss when I stopped making paper-dolls with my comics. I am sure my parents were probably also glad to see an end to this!
This will involve discussing multiple issues, but I'll have comments for every single issue so it still kinda fits in this thread. Anyway-- this is where I'm putting it.
Read on, and let's end this mystery together-- or scroll past and save yourself now!!
Now. We can definitely rule out these issues:
(S/LSH 205 and 202) ...because I very distinctly remember paper-dolling the Dave Cockrum LORE OF THE LEGION from these... which means I have owned S/LSH 205 (my favorite-ever single issue of a comics magazine) no less than 3 times-- 2 of which I still own.
I am about 75-80% sure I had 202 as a wee one, but can't say 100%. That was a lOOOOng time ago. I can say for a fact that if I had it, it was cut on!
Now next, I remember this issue...
...probably for the scene of Superboy in his pajamas, which I no-doubt cut out!
My memory gets really solid around the time of this issue, which I remember very distinctly:
That Luck Lords tale was an early fave and Grell's Legionnaires and LSV were SO hot!! Plus there's a Chemical King cameo appearance with dialogue and I always liked him-- this was probably my first exposure to that young dark-haired lad in green that I felt some weird connection to (or 2nd, after the LORE entry that would have been in S/LSh 202-- the more I think on it, the more I am getting sure I *did* own 202). I bet I cut that image of him yawning against the door out, for sure.
I'm certain I had this issue as well, because I remember liking Duo Damsel's yellow outfit (I knew her from previous reprints of Adventure-era stories):
I bet I cut ALL those images of Lu out!
The Legion's first encounter with the living dead came in this issue:
--which I very much remember buying at 'stop-N-go' type store not far from my grandparents that is still there as a big gas station now. It no-doubt felt the scissors' sharp edge. I think I remember a Lightning Lad butt-shot worthy of Cockrum himself in this issue, but I digress.
This issue traumatized me, because it looked like mean ol' Superboy was gonna beat up Chemical King for a second there:
he didn't, of course, but I was left with the impression that Condo and Clark were never tight after that, and in fact didn't buy their scene much later together in S/LSH 228 because of it. I *know* I cut out all those Chem pics!
This is dragging on, so I'll close it out quickly in the following post.
My best friend in elementary school was frickin awesome. I use the word frickin because I remember he used to cuss a lot. And wear hightop converse with shorts. And he had a shaved head and a duck tail. (and he got the George Michael tape with 'I want your sex' on it) Keep in mind that we were about 8ish to 10ish when we were friends. so ... 9 or 10 punk haircut .. cussing.
So, I've been into comics since I was 4 or so. And JH <-- my best friend in elementary school. was also into comics. He even had the Marvel Role Playing Game. Which was far too advanced for us. I don't think I've had a real life friend into comics since then.
Now, JH was awesome ... he would tell off people that were snotty to me. One of his favorite words was 'B.S.' ... and as I get older, I realize a lot of things are B.S..
The funny thing is, his parents were really mellow hippy type people, really quiet people. I liked them also, they were down to earth.
So back to the comic books:
we were on a field trip one day to, I think, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and we stopped at this place called 'the Grapevine' which is a spot with tourist shops, all in wood or log architecture. It's right before you go over the 'mountains' from the valley where we lived to the coast to see the Aquarium.
The gift shop had a very small collection of comic books. Now that I think about it, I don't think it had comics, just a few randoms.
BUT !! I see THIS:
Funny but not so funny, it's the first cover to come up when doing a google image search of justice league of america detroit covers.
I see it and I have to have it. I know this is an especially good comic book. I get in the super long line at this tourist shop. George Perez goodness! Who's art I already was a fan of because his New Teen Titans and Crisis OIE. The best things my child eyes had seen!
This was 86 ish so my brain freaked out :
The satellite league is back !??! At the time, this was I think in the middle of the Detroit League, which sadly lost my 8 year old butt. So I was excited the 'real' JLA was back !
(When researching this issue it says '83 ... so I'm not sure if this was a reprint or this had been on the shelf at the shop for years, untouched because it seemed like new)
.. I jumped on to the JLA when the satellite era was pretty much ending. I maybe caught the last 5 or so issues of the satellite era originally. Which I still love to this day. Martian war, demons taking of Zatanna .. it was fun.
JH waits in the long line with me. We get to the register. And I place my comic on the counter. And the stern lady rings it up and ............. CHARGES TAX! .....
My child face went blank. I had like 66 cents. And ... the lady charged an incredible amount of tax because I was 30 cents short!! I was aghast. I would never have waited in line for something I couldn't afford. I counted my money before getting to the counter. So I waited there confused ... hoping the clerk would be kind but ... she wasn't .... the line was getting longer ....
I didn't understand why it said 60 cents and it wasn't priced at 60 cents. I must have known somewhere in my little head that comics weren't taxed.
JH offered to pay the difference, obviously pissed at this lady!!! I said no. Trying to think of an alternative solution. JH offered again, I said OK since the line was getting longer and longer. I think JH put something back actually to help me pay for my comic. And did a fairly good job of acting disgusted like "he didn't want what he was going to get anyway!" I actually think he really didn't.
Problem solved. I got me issue 217. Thanks JH!
I didn't get to read it on the bus to the Aquarium but I enjoyed it later, I think I was kinda traumatized by the whole experience at the time.
After that, JH used to ask about the comic he partially bought. But I was always weird about the whole thing. Like he would take it or was mad to have paid part of it. I think he was just giving me a hard time because I'm sure I tried to pay him back.
Unfortunately, We moved away when I was 11. There was no JH or JH like kid at my new school. We tried to stay in touch and hang out on the weekends but that only lasted a year. I was kind of weirded out by my new living situation, we moved to a much less nice town.
I'm not sure I've had a friend like JH since, It's hard to say though because life gets more complicated as you grow up. It WAS nice to have someone tell off people that were snotty to me. I've tried to look up JH on FB but, no success. Besides, It's been like 24 years.
I still have the comic book though. it's a good one.
[ August 30, 2011, 03:45 PM: Message edited by: Power Boy ]
From: Ninja Land | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
My friend K and I stop by a convenience store. I had no money. Out of the blue, she tells me she's going to buy me a comic, and to pick one off the spinner rack. I got:
I don't recall if I had read or heard about MM before then. I liked the issue, though, and caught up with the series a little later.
K wasn't into comics, but she also picked one out for herself. I think she might have bought us snacks, too. Thanks, K!
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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Now I'd like to go back and determine with exactly what S/LSH I stopped cutting them up...
