Tell Me a Tale - For Those Who Love Comics 7 7

[Robot Man]

On 3/8/2023 at 8:04 AM, 1950's war comics said:

i remember that too !!  back in the mid 70's was before most stores put a sign up saying "only two kids allowed in the store at one time" and justifiably so as 14-16 year old boys are prone to shoplift , 

i am sure he got ripped off many times which ruined the vibe for the young honest customers

all the good comic he kept behind the glass at the counter , i remember he had a fine X-Men #1 for $20 which was way out of my budget .....

We had a used book store in our area that did the same thing. We didn’t steal though. We just took turns distracting the owner so we could snoop around the store looking for old comics.

He had a box in the front of newer comics. But often we would find some GA buried in the stacks of magazines around the store.

One time I saw something yellow poking out of a stack of old Life mags. I slipped it out and it was a Superman 9. Pulled out an old WDCS and another out of the pile. They had $3.00 penciled on the back cover. I took them to the front and mixed in a couple from the box.

He spotted them and asked where I got them? So I told him. He wasn’t going to sell it to me until I pulled the cash out of my pocket. He saw the money, took it and threw us out.

It was local folklore that he had piles of GA in the basement but we were unable or to scared to go down there. I still wonder…

[ttfitz]

On 3/8/2023 at 10:53 AM, Robot Man said:

My mom had bought me a cheap electric guitar and I played it every day until my fingers bleed.

Was it the summer of '69?

[Robot Man]

On 3/8/2023 at 11:12 AM, ttfitz said:

Was it the summer of '69?

It was back in the prehistoric age when the real guitar gods ruled the earth…

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 3/8/2023 at 1:24 PM, Robot Man said:

It was back in the prehistoric age when the real guitar gods ruled the earth…

The peace that comes with those old instruments. I've long waited for one and spend on comics instead. 

 

[Robot Man]

On 3/8/2023 at 11:26 AM, ADAMANTIUM said:

The peace that comes with those old instruments. I've long waited for one and spend on comics instead. 

 

I own a good number of vintage guitars now. I just got a nice 1959 Gretch Country Gentleman. I got it by selling off several boxes of these “rare collectibles”. Much more fun than 2nd and 3rd rate “keys”…

[ttfitz]

On 3/8/2023 at 2:24 PM, Robot Man said:

On 3/8/2023 at 2:12 PM, ttfitz said:

Was it the summer of '69?

It was back in the prehistoric age when the real guitar gods ruled the earth…

Yeah, but I'm guessing you and some guys from school had a band, and tried real hard?

[universal soldier]

On 3/8/2023 at 10:36 AM, Robot Man said:

In the snow?   

Uphill both ways! 

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 3/8/2023 at 3:16 PM, universal soldier said:

On 3/8/2023 at 9:36 AM, Robot Man said:

In the snow?   

Uphill both ways! 

Glad there was a road!  

[universal soldier]

Comics have been a part of my life since I was about 5.  Shortly after turning 5 I fell and broke my arm (fractured at 3 but they wanted it to not interfere with any growth so no action). When they x-rayed it was realized that I had a bone cyst and would need surgery to resolve this. I went to Children's Hospital in Boston to have a bone graft done where I met another paitient. He was about 7 or 8 and had just lost most of a leg while trying to ride on the back of an 18 wheeler. I remember meeting him and seeing him in bed surrounded by comics. Needeless to say, my parents bought me a few and the rest was history.

I have many other "key" moments throughout the years but one I don't remember came up just the other day with my mom (who is 95 and sharp as a tack).  I was not an easy child and even worse as a teen. When I was 7 I really wanted a comic book. No idea what one but I was being a brat, having a meltdown or whatever while my Mom was dropping my Dad off at the airport. Not getting what I wanted, I took off into the drop off areas at Logan airport weaving through traffic heading for the exit ramp. Cut to mom chasing me down before I get run over and losing her  on me. She was sharing how mad she was that day and how scared she was that I was going to get hit by a car. All over a comic...   Both my parents always supported the hobby over the years regardless of these type of incidents and she also shared that if I disappeared in a store, she knew right where to find me.

 

As an aside, the bone graft was from cadaver bone. For years I would chase my younger sister around telling her I had a ghost arm while making ghost noises.

[Hudson]

On 3/8/2023 at 4:35 PM, universal soldier said:

. I went to Children's Hospital in Boston

I took off into the drop off areas at Logan airport 

North shore or south???

[universal soldier]

North, going back to about 1970 so I think that was the only location? I'm not sure if headed north or south that day at Logan 

[1950's war comics]

unlike today, in the 70's there was really no way to read early Marvel issues unless you had the reprints like Marvel Tale, Marvels Greatest or Marvel Superheroes, and even then the only way to read AF15 or Spiderman #1 was if you had Marvel Tales #1 which was a higher priced book even then ,

one of the few other options was the Stan Lee "origins" book issued in 1974

but that book was also $7 which was a princely sum for a 13 year old back then when a giant three musketeers bar was only a dime/15 cents, and a pinball game was only a dime or 3 for a quarter

[ttfitz]

On 3/8/2023 at 4:19 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

On 3/8/2023 at 4:16 PM, universal soldier said:

On 3/8/2023 at 10:36 AM, Robot Man said:

In the snow?   

Uphill both ways! 

Glad there was a road!  

 

[ttfitz]

When I was a young comic reader, there were no comic shops, at least not in small towns like I grew up in. My comics came from the grocery store, drugstore, and such. There was a small shop in town called the Odds and Ends Shop, which sold... well, odds and ends. On occasion, they would have a bunch of comics for sale, half of cover price, where I picked up a number of books.

I quit collecting at the usual sort of time in those days - around junior high, when I discovered girls (they didn't discover me until much, much later) and other pursuits, and in those days it definitely wasn't cool to read comic books. When I was a sophomore in college, there were a couple guys on my hall in the dorm who collected comics, and I got back into it then.

One day at college, I was at the corner drug store, which I believe had the very inventive name of Corner Drug. I found a comic I was interested in, and took it to the front counter. I believe the old man running the register was the owner, and after ringing up my order and taking my money, he slid the book across the counter. Since I planned on going to other stores after this, I asked him for a bag for my purchase.

"A bag? For a single comic?" he said, rather dismissively. "Well, I guess at your age, I'd imagine you'd want to hide away a comic book, too," he said as he gave me the bag.

"Well, at your age, I'd imagine you'd know better than to insult a paying customer." I said. Half a block down the street when it occurred to me.

I decided then not to give this guy any more of my business, and I am happy to report that 10 years later when I was in town for a football game, there were "going out of business" signs on the store. Showed him.

Edited March 10, 2023 by ttfitz
punctuation for effect

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 3/8/2023 at 4:13 PM, ttfitz said:

On 3/8/2023 at 2:24 PM, Robot Man said:

On 3/8/2023 at 2:12 PM, ttfitz said:

Was it the summer of '69?

It was back in the prehistoric age when the real guitar gods ruled the earth…

Expand  

Yeah, but I'm guessing you and some guys from school had a band, and tried real hard?

[alecholland]

So, when I was young (mid 1970’s), my parents would meet other couples for…stuff. If the other couples had children, we would usually be put in one of the children’s rooms to play while they did… stuff. It was at one of these children’s homes that I had my first encounter with comic books. David and Christie’s dad had a comic book collection and the few times my parents visited, he would always go grab a box of comics for us to read. I had no idea what my parents were up to until a few years later.

I still remember many of the comics I read at their house – Flash 138, Metal Men 15, Superboy 84, loads of Blackhawk comics, World’s Finest and many others. They were amazing! Everything about them, the artwork, the stories, the heroes and villains, all amazing. We didn’t have a much money though, so it wasn’t until a couple years later when I got a paper route that I could start buying comics. Also, around that same time, I met a kid a couple houses up the street from me named Randy who collected comic books. He introduced me to Rock Bottom Comics in Columbia, Missouri. The first comic I bought was X-Men. I think it was issue 108 (may have been 109 or 110), but almost immediately after I bought it I went back and bought every X-Men back issue I could afford with my paper route money.

It wasn’t long before I had a full run of X-Men from 94 – whatever the current issue was. If I remember correctly, it took me about 6 months to put the run together. I had to start buying my own clothes after I got the paper route job, so I used what money I had left over for comic books. I also bought my first “old” comics around that time, a copy of Superboy 84 and a copy of Sub-Mariner 1 (silver age) which cost me $10. I loved that cover and still do. By the time I was a teenager (early 1980’s), I had full runs of X-Men, Micronauts, ROM, and New Teen Titans had just come out. I also had a nice run from 1 – 10 of my all-time favorite, Swamp Thing.

When I was about to start 10th grade, my dad got a job in Kansas and we had to move. I kept my comics, but pretty much stopped collecting. There wasn’t anyone I met who collected comics and there weren’t any comic shops in the town we moved to.

Eventually, I ended up selling my comic collection to Clint’s Comics in Kansas City. At that point in my life (1989), I was a single parent, working three part time jobs and trying to go to school (UMKC) and needed the money. I thought I could get around $200 for my collection (I was naïve and thought I could get about 50% of their value), but Clint offered me $50 and I took it.

Fast forward to the year 2000 and my wife is looking for a Malibu Barbie on this new thing called Ebay. She found a seller who had one, and it was in really good shape, but it wasn’t still in the box. She wanted me to look at it to get my opinion and as we were scrolling through the seller’s items, I saw Superboy 84. “I had that when I was a kid!” In an instant, all those warm feelings about comic books came flooding back and before I knew it we were putting a bid on it. I ending up winning it for about $10. The flood gates were opened and now 23 years later I have about 40 short boxes of comics. 
 

[Axelrod]

On 3/10/2023 at 5:00 PM, alecholland said:

So, when I was young (mid 1970’s), my parents would meet other couples for…stuff. If the other couples had children, we would usually be put in one of the children’s rooms to play while they did… stuff. It was at one of these children’s homes that I had my first encounter with comic books. David and Christie’s dad had a comic book collection and the few times my parents visited, he would always go grab a box of comics for us to read. I had no idea what my parents were up to until a few years later.

I feel like you are leaving out the most exciting part of this story....

Though the part where you sell all your comics for $50.00 is fairly tragic.  

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 3/10/2023 at 5:00 PM, alecholland said:

So, when I was young (mid 1970’s), my parents would meet other couples for…stuff. If the other couples had children, we would usually be put in one of the children’s rooms to play while they did… stuff. It was at one of these children’s homes that I had my first encounter with comic books. David and Christie’s dad had a comic book collection and the few times my parents visited, he would always go grab a box of comics for us to read. I had no idea what my parents were up to until a few years later.

I still remember many of the comics I read at their house – Flash 138, Metal Men 15, Superboy 84, loads of Blackhawk comics, World’s Finest and many others. They were amazing! Everything about them, the artwork, the stories, the heroes and villains, all amazing. We didn’t have a much money though, so it wasn’t until a couple years later when I got a paper route that I could start buying comics. Also, around that same time, I met a kid a couple houses up the street from me named Randy who collected comic books. He introduced me to Rock Bottom Comics in Columbia, Missouri. The first comic I bought was X-Men. I think it was issue 108 (may have been 109 or 110), but almost immediately after I bought it I went back and bought every X-Men back issue I could afford with my paper route money.

It wasn’t long before I had a full run of X-Men from 94 – whatever the current issue was. If I remember correctly, it took me about 6 months to put the run together. I had to start buying my own clothes after I got the paper route job, so I used what money I had left over for comic books. I also bought my first “old” comics around that time, a copy of Superboy 84 and a copy of Sub-Mariner 1 (silver age) which cost me $10. I loved that cover and still do. By the time I was a teenager (early 1980’s), I had full runs of X-Men, Micronauts, ROM, and New Teen Titans had just come out. I also had a nice run from 1 – 10 of my all-time favorite, Swamp Thing.

When I was about to start 10th grade, my dad got a job in Kansas and we had to move. I kept my comics, but pretty much stopped collecting. There wasn’t anyone I met who collected comics and there weren’t any comic shops in the town we moved to.

Eventually, I ended up selling my comic collection to Clint’s Comics in Kansas City. At that point in my life (1989), I was a single parent, working three part time jobs and trying to go to school (UMKC) and needed the money. I thought I could get around $200 for my collection (I was naïve and thought I could get about 50% of their value), but Clint offered me $50 and I took it.

Fast forward to the year 2000 and my wife is looking for a Malibu Barbie on this new thing called Ebay. She found a seller who had one, and it was in really good shape, but it wasn’t still in the box. She wanted me to look at it to get my opinion and as we were scrolling through the seller’s items, I saw Superboy 84. “I had that when I was a kid!” In an instant, all those warm feelings about comic books came flooding back and before I knew it we were putting a bid on it. I ending up winning it for about $10. The flood gates were opened and now 23 years later I have about 40 short boxes of comics. 
 

Oh gosh.  Discovering EBay.  In the beginning I simply searched “Spider-Man” and browsed everything.  Had a box of something Spidey related coming in every other day.

 

Do you still have that Superboy 84?

Edited March 10, 2023 by THE_BEYONDER

[ttfitz]

On 3/10/2023 at 5:08 PM, Axelrod said:

On 3/10/2023 at 5:00 PM, alecholland said:

So, when I was young (mid 1970’s), my parents would meet other couples for…stuff. If the other couples had children, we would usually be put in one of the children’s rooms to play while they did… stuff. It was at one of these children’s homes that I had my first encounter with comic books. David and Christie’s dad had a comic book collection and the few times my parents visited, he would always go grab a box of comics for us to read. I had no idea what my parents were up to until a few years later.

I feel like you are leaving out the most exciting part of this story....

Swingers. 

[alecholland]

On 3/10/2023 at 4:08 PM, Axelrod said:

I feel like you are leaving out the most exciting part of this story....

Though the part where you sell all your comics for $50.00 is fairly tragic.  

I thought getting introduced to comic books was the most exciting part of the story...