How popular was Flash during the period from 1959 - 1963?

[otherworldsj33]

I found 5 dollar bill laying in the street on my block when I was five. A bunch of us kids around that age would play in the street on and near my block. So I took my friends to the candy store about 2-3 blocks away. Maybe 4 of us .We purchased milk shakes, and comics. I had never read a comic before then. I don't remember exactly which ones, but it was 1964, and I purchased the DC's; Batman's, and Superman families. I knew Superman from the syndicated TV show I would sometimes watch.. But no Flash's. I think I got some comics, also DC's, for my friends too, around 1 each. I got the most for me, about 5 or 6 comics. I saved them, and, over the months, when I could, started buying more to read and collect. Who knew, all these years later, I'd still be collecting them. Thinking about it, my parents gave me a lot of leeway for my age. Literally played on railroad tracks, walked as far as 4-5 blocks away, almost got trampled by a runaway horse from the nearby staples one time. And this was in Brooklyn. I guess God was watching out. Talk about different times.

[bronze johnny]

The railroad tracks you're referring to in Brooklyn- was it an old freight train line?

[otherworldsj33]

Yes, it was. I was near Glenwood Rd.. where I played on them. You know them? It's still in operation, BTW. Goes to LI.

[bronze johnny]

I played on the line that ran near 19th Avenue. It has to be the same line. Had all kinds of junk and garbage on the track and was kind of creepy, especially as it started to get dark. As kids we had heard of a freight train that ran through there late at night. Your story reminded me of the days we explored those tracks. Cool.

[Hepcat]

I found 5 dollar bill laying in the street on my block when I was five.... So I took my friends to the candy store about 2-3 blocks away. Maybe 4 of us .We purchased milk shakes, and comics. I had never read a comic before then. I don't remember exactly which ones, but it was 1964, and I purchased the DC's; Batman's, and Superman families.

 

Interesting. Had I had that kind of luck at the age of five, I would have stocked up on pop, ice cream, penny candy and Dell and Harvey funny animal comics in place of the Superman and Batman ones.

 

Thinking about it, my parents gave me a lot of leeway for my age. Literally played on railroad tracks, walked as far as 4-5 blocks away, almost got trampled by a runaway horse from the nearby staples one time. And this was in Brooklyn.... Talk about different times.

 

That was par for the course in those days though. Helicopter parents hadn't been invented yet. Kids could be kids. We lived on the very edge of the city beside an auto wrecking yard when I was five in 1957. I used to visit old man George who lived in a tarpaper shack beside us with his beagle Rex. George had strange habits. He played the banjo and ate fried eggs with ketchup which was something not found in our house. A couple of houses down Mr. Gayle had stock car bodies on his lawn and a machine shop out back because he raced out at the Delaware and Nilestown Speedways. We kids also played in the woods behind the house all the time and my father dammed up the creek one year to create a swimming hole, and a backyard skating rink another year. Some of the bolder older kids (say eight) used to walk across a water pipe traversing the ravine through which the creek ran.

 

The kindergarten was about six blocks away and I was simply sent there on my own. I remember how horribly embarrassed I was one time when I playfully suggested I wasn't going to kindergarten that day. My mother had George's wife escort me to school since she was heading in that direction. I was mortified. What if one of the other kids had seen that a big boy like myself needed an old lady to lead him to school?

 

[Gopher John]

While I can't speak from first hand experience (I wasn't alive in 1959-61), here is my perspective of the "popularity" of the early DC titles.

 

Batman and Superman were the coolest superheroes (powers, gizzmos, etc.), but Barry Allen was the coolest human alter-ego. I can't imagine any kid relating to alien Clark Kent or to millionaire-playboy Bruce Wayne, but Barry got his powers by accident and had pretty normal human foibles.

 

I think that is where Marvel really did their thing right. It wasn't that they had better superheroes, it was that they had better characters.

 

Just my two cents.

[conditionfreak]

I seem to recall Flash was fairly popular. He was not on par with Supes, Batman, X-Men, or even the FF. But he was pretty popular with my friends and I.

[conditionfreak]

While I can't speak from first hand experience (I wasn't alive in 1959-61), here is my perspective of the "popularity" of the early DC titles.

 

Batman and Superman were the coolest superheroes (powers, gizzmos, etc.), but Barry Allen was the coolest human alter-ego. I can't imagine any kid relating to alien Clark Kent or to millionaire-playboy Bruce Wayne, but Barry got his powers by accident and had pretty normal human foibles.

 

I think that is where Marvel really did their thing right. It wasn't that they had better superheroes, it was that they had better characters.

 

Just my two cents.

 

Clark Kent, for all intent and purposes, was a farm boy. He may have been the only one who didn't get his powers from an accident, although that could even be debated. All the rest did. Spiderman, Batman (actually no powers, but because his parents were killed, he developed his abilities). Daredevil, The FF, Hulk, etc.

 

Bout the only ones who did not get their powers from accidents, were the mutants. X-Men and the like. And of course Thor and Iron Man. I can't remember about the Wasp, but I am pretty sure that Antman got his from an accident.

 

Most kids related to Peter Parker more than any other. In my memory, few related to Barry aka The Flash. But I only know about my little couple of blocks in Cincinnata. (misspelled intentionally)