for the first time - sort of

When I was young, I read comic books: Justice League, Avengers, Green Lantern, ASM, GI Combat, Weird War Tales. Since money was tight and my income/allowance was erratic at best I rarely was able to purchase runs of consecutive issues and I found myself more interested in books written in episodes with limited or no knowledge needed of what went before needed to understand the story. Weird War became a real favorite.

When I wasn't reading comics, I read books - typically cheap paperbacks of science fiction from the 60s that were available cheap at the used book store or from my friends' family bookshelves.

Lately I have found myself attacted to that again - simple 'what if?' science fiction stories; Buck Rogers, John Carter, aliens and spaceships...

What I didn't know when I was a wee little lad, was that there was a huge volume of science fiction available in my favorite medium - 50s and 60s sci-fi comics were something that flew under my radar as a child (I started buying in the early 70s). Later, when I became aware that they existed, my tastes had changed and I was reading sword & sorcery - plenty of which was available by reading Conan: comics, books, whatever, and then reading all the Conan clones.

Now that my tastes have matured again I am finding myself attracted once again to stories of space, of aliens, of the strange and the unknown.

Slowly I have started buying 50s & 60s science fiction books, DC only (no pre-hero Marvels), with looser grade ranges than I do my go-go checks: say 7.0 and up - although I still want the books to present nice. Mostly I am looking at Strange Adventures and Tales of the Unexpected (Capt Comet & Space Ranger), as well as earlier war books: Star Spangled War Stories is easily my favorite of them (love Dinosaur Stories) - and I have to say I am happy - I'm enjoying the raw ones and digging the images of the slabbed ones.

Just thought I'd share, because I think there is something special in these stories.

I leave you with a clip from the front of Strange Adventures 118...The Turtle Men of Space!

Happy Hunting

Lee