School Yard Memories..........

[action1kid]

Putting seaver and Ryan rookie cards in my Bicycle spokes to make that rat-tat-tat motorcycle sound on my schwinn bike.My teacher hitting me on the head in catholic school with my Superman comic for reading it in class..[they could do that than].Flippin for baseball cards and the corner school candy store where I bought my Action and superman comics.[using my lunch money many a time]

 

Love to hear your schoolyard memories related to comics and cards or anything really.

[VintageComics]

I would get beat up for being a comic geek.

 

[buttock]

I remember my friend Chris bringing the centerfold he had ripped out of his brother's Playboy.

[VintageComics]

I love a lot of great memories.

 

I grew up in a dead end street with a huge undeveloped field next to it. We had developed a dirt "track" around the perimeter of the field where we would race our bikes (with cards in the rear cards of course).

 

There was a fantastic Maple that must have been 100's of years old that was great for climibing.

 

At the back of the field was a big tree with a club house that someone built. I found my first stack of dirty mags in there and spent hours reading, learning and ahem exploring.

 

I remember playing Marbles (late 70's to early 80's) in the school yard when they were the craze and I was really lucky since my dad was a mechanic I had an endless supply of steely marbles and steely boulders (steel ball bearings).

 

I remember in grade 2 (8 years old folks) odering a massive box of Fireside Marvel reprint books. I'll put that story in my next post.

 

I remember thinking Vicky Sunohara was a boy (Canadian Women's Olympic Gold Medal Team).

 

[VintageComics]

OK Gang, long read but it's funny.

 

Sit back and enjoy the read.

 

 

When I was 7 or 8 years old (grade 2 I remember specifically which would have been 1977 or 1978) I decided I wanted to order a bunch of Marvel Fireside books.

 

Problem was I didn't have any money.

 

No problem. I just clipped a coupon from a Marvel Comic, checked off EVERY BOX on the coupon and mailed it in with one of my parent's checks.

 

If you can remember that far back you'll remember that checks in those days did not have their account numbers printed out on them...you had to fill them in yourself. So I proceeded to fill in some bogus account number (in Canadian funds mind you), total up the books I ordered, add the shipping charge and write in the $$ amount.

 

I dropped the envelope containing the bum check and the coupon in the mail and completely forgot about it as 7 year old boys are wont to do.

 

Well several weeks go by and we are coming back from a vacation and I am none the wiser when my parents realize that there is a large, heavy box in the front porch.

 

We're all wondering what is inside. I'm as clueless as greggy in a Marvel long box.

 

 

We pull the box inside and I remember vividly opening the box and to my amazement being confronted with multiple copies of every Fireside book imaginable. Hard covers, soft covers...The Mighty Marvel Cookbook, How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way, Bring On The Bad Guys....you name it...almost everything in duplicate...I even had the Calender from what I believe was 1978!

 

 

 

Can you imagine what went through my mind as I poured over cover after glossy cover of each of these books? I barely slept that night!

 

 

What was even funnier was that the publisher had written me a check back because I had overpaid.

 

 

So at the age of 7 I spent (from what I remember) about $400, paid for it with a bum check, got a refund and then proceeded to take the books to school for show and tell and give many of the away.

 

 

I still have the refund check as a reality check to remind me that I was not dreaming.

 

 

I'll post it up here some day.

 

 

[ciorac]

My 6th grade math teacher caught me reading a comic tucked inside my textbook one day in class. She took the comic, a Thor if I remember correctly, and asked me to stay after class.

 

I just knew I was in trouble. But, turns out I wasn't. She indicated that she had a large group of comics in a box at her house that used to belong to her son. She asked me if I wanted them. I of course could hardly contain my glee as I replied in the affirmative. She admonished me for reading them in class, but since I was doing well in the class she gave me the benefit of the doubt.

 

We set a date for that coming weekend and she told me to bring a friend as it was a large box. My brother and I rode our bicycles over to her house that Saturday and carried the box between us all the way home, in tandem.

 

It was filled with Silver Age Marvel and DC comics, as well as some late GA and Atom age books. It was our real first exposure to books from tha era. They were all mid to low grade, but we didn't care. It was heaven on earth. And went a long way towards establishing our mail order and later convention sales stock. As well as our own collections!

[action1kid]

Thats a great story bill.

[october]

I remember my friend Chris bringing the centerfold he had ripped out of his brother's Playboy.

 

I remember my buddy giving me two playboys. He had "hidden" them by stapling Beckett baseball card priceguide covers over them.

[Bronty]

My 6th grade math teacher caught me reading a comic tucked inside my textbook one day in class. She took the comic, a Thor if I remember correctly, and asked me to stay after class.

 

I just knew I was in trouble. But, turns out I wasn't. She indicated that she had a large group of comics in a box at her house that used to belong to her son. She asked me if I wanted them. I of course could hardly contain my glee as I replied in the affirmative. She admonished me for reading them in class, but since I was doing well in the class she gave me the benefit of the doubt.

 

We set a date for that coming weekend and she told me to bring a friend as it was a large box. My brother and I rode our bicycles over to her house that Saturday and carried the box between us all the way home, in tandem.

 

It was filled with Silver Age Marvel and DC comics, as well as some late GA and Atom age books. It was our real first exposure to books from tha era. They were all mid to low grade, but we didn't care. It was heaven on earth. And went a long way towards establishing our mail order and later convention sales stock. As well as our own collections!

 

Amazing story!!

 

I have a bit of a twist on that - being born in Italy and moving to canada when I was five, I missed the "Topolino" (Italian mickey mouse) comics I used to read... so my aunt in Italy, a schoolteacher, used to confiscate them from caught reading in class and mail them to me

[Bronty]

I remember my friend Chris bringing the centerfold he had ripped out of his brother's Playboy.

 

I remember my buddy giving me two playboys. He had "hidden" them by stapling Beckett baseball card priceguide covers over them.

 

I used to do that hell I still have a copy of cherry somewhere that has an uncle scrooge cover on it

[Bronty]

I remember my best friend giving me a copy of Wolverine Limited Series 2 when we were 11 (it was worth FIVE BUCKS!) and I couldn't get over what a generous gift if was That was my first english language comic and the beginning of my collecting

[143ksk]

My best memories are after school malfeasance with Dan Clowes. We produced our own "underground" comics, which since we didn't really know that much about undergrounds, were mostly just slightly obscene versions of Mad magazine Then there was seeing how many windows we could knock out with rocks in the abandonded building next to his house. The panes were really small and on the third floor, so it took a lot of skill to hit one. And the prank phone calls, And... Fortunately, the statute of limitations has long since run on our activities

[agro23]

I think comic book-wise one of the best memories I have is Saturday morning trips when my dad would take me and my friend to 7-11. We'd spend our $0.50 allowance to grab two comics a Bazooka big wad (with Marvel stickers and what not) and other penny candy. Sometimes he'd treat us to slurpees (I still have a bunch of the Marvel cups). Then we'd get home and run to my pal's lawn and spread our haul out as soon as we'd mixed it together with the previous several weeks' lot. His mom got so worried we'd mix up whose were whose she took a felt pen and wrote a neat purple "A" for me and pink "P" for him in the logo box of each. (So, if you ever find any early BA 15- or 20-cent Marvels with a purple "A" in the box let me know. The parents in their infinite wisdom sold them all one Sunday at the swap meet for 5 cents each.)

 

Of course all this did was fuel our hunger for comics and collecting. Since I lived in San Diego I had my pick of great stores. At age thirteen or so with the encouragement of friends and family I actually filled out an application to work at Richard Alf's Comic Kingdom (to his great amusement). I wish I had been in on the joke since I didn't know his father and mine were colleagues at SDSU!

 

But none of this has to do with Golden Age comics. Unless I think about the Cass st. Pacific Comics and the boxes of 50's Adventures or Bats and Supes in the low 100's or similar stuff all available for about $4 each. Of course being a Marvel zombie it was Timely or nothing and being on a fixed allowance that meant "nothing."

[AJD]

I have really fond memories of my dad stopping at the local Mobil petrol station (gas station for many of you guys) to fill up the old station wagon. In those days (1960s) there were sometimes free comic book giveaways. There was a series of Disneys (one below) and possibly others. I'm trying to put together a series (1-24). The early ones are really tough and I'm only halfway there.

 

[General Zod]

- I got caught trying to pass a note and then trying to eat it in panic... my friend had called the teacher "Dragon Lady" and drawn a giant hovering over her while she was depicted in horror.

 

- One day in 3rd grade at recess I was cornered by more than five girls while two of them took turns trying to kiss me. One of them grew up to be really hot. Opportunity missed.

 

Oh wait, these are supposed to be comic book related? D'oh!

 

- I also snuck in comics into school to read during "study hall" period. I would always choose to sit next to a wall or a corner so I could angle my oversized notebook away from prying eyes. A friend threatened to rat me out until I passed him a couple of BA Spider-Man books I pulled out of my backpack. I had a whole stack sitting in my locker. He later invited himself over and proceeded to read every single G.I. Joe book in my collection.

[Silver Surfer]

Walking to the my LCS which was a good 20 minutes away on foot for the first few times in grade 5 or 6 after school was nerve racking and exciting. Had to make up excuses as to why I got home late but what a rush. Had to hide any comic pick ups as well. One of my buddies was an A student and his mom didn't mind if he collected comics so we got we eventually got around to making the 40 minute bus ride downtown to check out one of the bigger LCS in town on Saturday's. Man those were the glory days.

[adamstrange]

Had to hide any comic pick ups as well.

 

Bummer. We didn't have that problem as my Dad read our comics. He's now 75 and I still send him trade paperbacks that I think he would enjoy.

 

I didn't buy many comics growing up and was never a regular reader of any series. I usually went for 100 pagers or large editions because, as my Mother pointed out, you would get more pages for your money.

[Silver Surfer]

Yeah but my parents were from Europe, grew up during WWII in the middle of all the chaos when they had next to nothing, came to Canada with nothing and had to work their arses off so we could have a pretty good life so spending money on frivalous things like comics was not something they understood. I'm not complaining, they eventually didn't have a problem with me buying comics but it wasn't something I shared with them. (thumbs u

[KirbyJack]

In 1978 I moved to a new jr. high and met a new friend named Mark Tuttle. He was a real comic guy (I just read 'em back then). I will never forget his reply one Friday when I casually asked what he was doing that weekend.

 

"Buying a Batman #2."

 

Mark, if you're out there, PM me, man.

[Silver Surfer]

I haven't seen my buddy since about that time as well. Would be cool to see if he is still in collecting.