Comic books and memories10345
 Collector
|
michaelekrupp private msg quote post Address this user | |
Thanks, Marty! ...and you’re welcome. I would love to see some stories from you on here . |
||
| Post 26 • IP flag post | ||
 Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock
|
Tedsaid private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by michaelekrupp I was there! I went to that, the superhero water-ski show! I don't remember much about it, but I was about the same age, at about the same time. I remember Wonder Woman and Superman. Maybe Green Lantern? Aquaman, of course. The parents made me and my brother cut coupons out of a few comics so we could save on the entrance price to Sea World. The ad itself brings back memories of that long drive to Florida, and staying in the house my great grandad used to own, with the orange groves next door. I collected Superman, Superfriends, Shazam!, Richie Rich, and a few others at the time. My older brother liked Batman and Star Wars and Daredevil. Man, I didn't know they were giving away Treasuries! That would have made up a little for having to deface my comics by cutting out the coupons. Shamu was awesome, but my favorite was feeding the dolphins. They were so happy to get the fish we tossed in their giant, open mouths. We went to Disney World, too, and I loved that place so much.  |
||
| Post 27 • IP flag post | ||
 PEDIGREED... Again!
|
martymann private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by michaelekrupp I'm afraid my stories put people to sleep. Marty |
||
| Post 28 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
michaelekrupp private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by martymann That’s a chance I am willing to take! |
||
| Post 29 • IP flag post | ||
|
PEDIGREED... Again!
|
martymann private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by michaelekrupp In 1942 I bought my first comic book off the newsstand, ALL WINNERS #4... Marty |
||
| Post 30 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
michaelekrupp private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I never worked in a comic book store, but I did come pretty close. As a teenager In the late ‘80s I worked at a 7-11 that had a very well maintained comic book rack. In the early ‘80s, before comic book specialty stores began popping up all over, this was one of my main childhood sources for comics. After working at the 7-11 a couple of months, they put me on the midnight shift. When you are working midnights there is a pretty good window between the 2a.m. alcohol cut off and the 5a.m. coffee crowd where there’s very little business. Needless to say, I read just about every comic that hit the newsstand between late 1988 and the first half of 1989. I remember discovering the Peter David Hulk on that spinner rack, also the DC comics that were based on TSR games such as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The Superman titles were pretty exciting during that period. John Byrne had moved on to West Coast Avengers and Roger Stern and others were now guiding the man of steel’s exploits. It was a pretty good gig to be getting paid to spend half of the night reading comics! I remember that during the period I was working there the magazine distributor decided that we were to receive a new spinner rack. They put the old one in the back with the intention of having me carry it out to the dumpster later. Of course I begged them to let me take the thing home! I had no car back in those days, so I had to carry the thing about a half a block to get it home. I must have been quite a sight struggling to lug a very large magazine rack down the street! Somehow I managed to get the thing home. I ended up giving it to an uncle who fancied it. I’m pretty sure he still has it. Another key memory of that 7-11 took place many years before I started working there. I must have been about 12 years old. I was standing there perusing the comics, as usual, when another kid about my age came in with his dad. His dad was grumbling something to the effect of “you don’t need anymore comics! If anything you need to get rid of some of the ones you already have!”. Being an enterprising 12 year old, I offered to buy any comics they wanted to get rid of. It turned out that they lived within walking distance of the 7-11, so I ultimately went over to their house to buy some comics. It turned out that the kid from the 7-11, Andy, had a twin brother named Matt. We all became fast friends and the two of them are to this day my oldest friends. That 7-11 is still there, although the neighborhood has taken a turn for the worst and it’s probably not a safe place to visit anymore. I am sure they no longer have comics, probably haven’t for decades. But that store, so important to my youth, will always be a source of fond memories for me. |
||
| Post 31 • IP flag post | ||
 Masculinity takes a holiday.
|
EbayMafia private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by michaelekrupp @MichaeleKrupp You just jogged a great memory from childhood. The spinner racks in some places weren't kept current so I remember my brother driving us around to mini-marts and liquor stores looking for back issues that were already marked up in the LCS. Pretty sure I started my X-men collection at #148 but in visiting the spinner racks I found X-men 147, 146 and 145 without paying the LCS back issue premium. Funny, just the other day I was looking at my X-men and wondering why I would own an X-men #145 in such sub-par condition. Your post just reminded me why, lol! |
||
| Post 32 • IP flag post | ||
|
PEDIGREED... Again!
|
martymann private msg quote post Address this user | |
| While the newsstands and newsrooms always seemed to be up to date with the monthly releases, I did find that the GREYHOUND BUS STATION seemed to have older issues in the spinner rack. Most of the time they were kind of beat up but once in awhile I'd find a "goodie". Marty |
||
| Post 33 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
|
1lpfan private msg quote post Address this user | |
| These are all awesome stories! I have to admit, I’m pretty jealous of all these stories! I’m too young to have any stories from too long ago, so I’ll just tell how I got started. It was January of 2011 and I was close to turning 13. I had always loved super hero movies, especially Batman ones. Once when I was at Barnes and Noble with my mom, I just for whatever reason decided that I wanted to try a comic book, so I got Batman: The Dark Knight #4 from the newsstand. When I got home, I read it and I really enjoyed it. Once my birthday came around a little less than a week later, I got a few new books and a subscription to Batman: The Dark Knight. I was just hooked and I would ride my bike to the LCS a short distance from my house every Friday after school to just look and see what I could find. I’ve been collecting on and off ever since. |
||
| Post 34 • IP flag post | ||
|
Masculinity takes a holiday.
|
EbayMafia private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by 1lpfan @1lpfan Notice that most of these cool memories were just everyday activities when they were happening. Now you will be aware to recognize your memorable collecting events as they are happening. |
||
| Post 35 • IP flag post | ||
 Leftover Sundae Gnus
|
CatmanAmerica private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I remember buying comics off spinner racks at the local Palace drug store in my home town as a 10 year old. My favorites were Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers drawn monster of the month Marvels ...which I knew only as Ind. comics because that was what was printed in the upper left hand corner of the front cover. At that time, comics were still 10 cents, but transitioned to 12 cents shortly after I started collecting. My other favorite line was DC’s Mystery in Space featuring Adam Strange’s adventures as an archeologist/explorer caught and transported via Zeta beam to Rann every month, battling aliens while trying to develop the greatest long distance romantic relationship in the universe that was always being interrupted at the end of each story by the beam pulling him back to Earth. I still have quite a few of those MiS adventures with Adam & Alanna. Great series. Alas, my collecting gradually shifted to Gold by the late 60’s after discovering ECs through B&W paperback reprints of early Mad and then noticing back issue classified ads placed in comics by dealers like Howard & Gail Rogofsky. SA collecting came to an gradual end as I became infatuated by GA so much that I redirected most of my allowance to the back issues. My first true superhero GA Comic was Plastic Man #10 from Rogofsky. That’s pretty much where everything started. As Stan the Man used to finish his monthly letters columns for Marvel, ‘Nuff said!’   |
||
| Post 36 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
michaelekrupp private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Back when I was in the sixth grade, I had a friend named Cindy Strobl. She was probably my first true female friend and, although there may have been stronger feelings between us than just friendship, in the the sixth grade those feelings were way to new and confusing to be trusted. I will always remember Cindy, not just because she was probably the first girl I ever had a crush on who wasn’t on TV, but because of what she did for me at the end of the sixth grade. On the last day of school that year (1981), Cindy showed up to class with a burgundy colored duffel bag, which she placed on my desk and said “I have something for you”. I opened up the bag and inside it was a piece of paper with an itemized list, and 202 comic books. All of these were Archie titles, with the exception of four issues of Jonah Hex. Needless to say, I spent that entire summer reading Archie comics. These were all new to me, as I had never plunked down my hard earned coin for an Archie. In 1981 I was very heavily into X-Men and super hero comics in general. I also was very fond of Harveys, especially Richie Rich, and even bought the occasional Gold Key and Charlton here and there. For some reason I had always thought of Archies as “girl comics” and never gave them any attention. If it wasn’t for Cindy, I may never have been introduced to the world of Archie, Jughead, Reggie, Betty and Veronica and the others. It was a key step in my appreciation of diversity of genres and acquiring a genuine love for all comics. As for Cindy, our friendship faded away over time. In the seventh grade I had my first real girlfriend. In hindsight, remembering how upset Cindy was when she found out I liked another girl, it seemed like that was the end of our friendship. Had I realized how strongly she felt back then, she probably would have been my first girlfriend. I guess it’s true what they say: “boys just don’t it”. | ||
| Post 37 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
michaelekrupp private msg quote post Address this user | |
| At what point does a person go from being a reader of comics to being a collector? I imagine for some people this is a gradual process that occurs over time. For myself, I can point to one particular moment where I crossed the line from reader to collector, probably changing the trajectory of my life in the process. I have been a comic book reader since I was old enough to read, around age six. I have been a hoarder of comics almost as long, since a neighbor girl have me a paper grocery bag full of comics her brothers had outgrown when I was seven. However, it wasn’t until the summer of 1980, shortly before my eleventh birthday, that I became a collector of comics. I remember the day very well: I had been spending that summer with my dad, who was dating Linda, the woman who would become his second (and third) wife. This woman had previously been married to my uncle (my dad’s brother) and was the mother of three of my cousins, so I knew her before they started dating. Suffice it to say that she and I never really got along well. In spite of that she did me a life altering kindness on that day. I guess it’s true that the universe balances everything out. One of my go to sources for comic books that summer was Lawson’s drug store in Royal Oak. They had an incredible wall display of comic books that I would spend my time staring at whenever we went in there. For some reason I had gone in there with her that day. I spent the five or ten minutes we were there perusing the comics, as usual. I would never have dreamed of asking her for fifty cents to buy a comic book, but when I met up with her at the check out line she surprised me by offering to buy me one. It didn’t take five seconds to decide which comic to buy. I went back to the rack and grabbed X-Men 138 and ran back to the checkout line. I had been flirting with buying an issue of X-Men for several months. I think it must have always come out the same week as Avengers, because there were a few occasions where I remember buying the Avengers and leaving the X-Men on the shelf. I stared at X-Men 137 on the shelf for the entire month it was there. The only reason I didn’t buy it was the 75 cent price. When you’re 10, quarters aren’t easy to come by, so I stuck to the 50 cent comics. To say that X-Men 138 changed my life is not overstatement. It just so happened that this issue recapped the entire history of the X-Men. After reading that comic I knew everything there was to know about the X-Men. I must have read that comic 100 times. X-Men immediately became my favorite comic book, and never missing an issue became my top priority. Previously I had picked my comics based on who the villain was, or which comic had the largest number of heroes appearing in it. The concept of collecting every issue as they came out had never occurred to me before that. Also, I began to seek out the back issues. The local flea market had a few dealers who sold old comics. Instead of using my old criteria for buying comics, I specifically began looking for old X-Men comics. X-Men remained my favorite comic for years afterward. My interest began to wane somewhere around the end of 1986, shortly after the “Mutant Massacre” storyline, but by that time I was already a die hard comic book collector and there would be no turning back. If it wasn’t for X-Men 138 and the random kindness of a person who was generally not very kind to me, who knows what path my life would have taken?  |
||
| Post 38 • IP flag post | ||
 I have a problem with fattening women up.
|
Bronte private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Although, maybe not in true "spirit" of this thread, my tale has to do with Ghost Rider. I had won 3rd prize in a contest for the movie with Nicholas Cage. I was notified of my winning and was promised "swag" bag full of stuff. As time went by, nothing came. I called the fulfillment center and they were of no help. As this was the first Marvel movie I really enjoyed, I was really upset. (Yes, I am prolly the only person that enjoyed the film) Every time I saw the film on repeats on satellite TV, I'd always be pissed on what could have been. Recently, I finally decided to rectify that by buying Marvel Spotlight 5. Although I had to buy it, my hopes are to replace those sour memories with new memories of a decent copy with good eye appeal. |
||
| Post 39 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
|
etapi65 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I lived in a trailer park in the great Charleston, SC area. Nobody had much, certainly comics didn't carry much value (particularly new comics). A guy living up the street was moving and I don't recall the reason why, but my Mom somehow heard he had comics to give away. So I went up to his house and he gave me a box of comics. Had mostly DC stuff Super Powers, several Green Lanterns, Star Wars comics and Transformers from marvel. I was probably 6-7 and loved reading and re-reading those comics. I still have the GLs, but I can't find the Super Powers or Transformers copies. went from there; but only really had the capital to start "collecting" in my mid-30s to present. | ||
| Post 40 • IP flag post | ||
|
Masculinity takes a holiday.
|
EbayMafia private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @michaelekrupp I think I finally got to read X-men 138 around 1983 when I was 13. Every time I see that cover it brings back the early-teen feeling of melancholy that I got from reading that book. More than I can remember from any other comic book. It's like a sad song that meant so much to you at a certain point in your life. And like you, I was captured by the recap of the early X-men adventures, presented in a way that made them feel like a real journey from teenagers to adults. Every time I see it I think "I should own a really nice copy of that book". | ||
| Post 41 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
michaelekrupp private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Back when I was a kid, people would always ask the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?”. From about the age of seven my answer was always the same: “comic book writer”. By that age I was already making my own comics, mainly about my dog, Snowball, who would don a cape and fight crime. Not particularly original, I know. Most of my pre-adolescent work was highly derivative, regurgitating ideas from whatever comics I was reading at the time. I churned our a ton of superheroes with names like “The Lord of Battle” and “The Ace of Spades” ( a Moon Knight Knock off). Around fifth grade I had a friend who turned me on to Army comics. I remember producing a lengthy comic called “Sgt. Pebble Goes To Hell”. The Sarge and his company somehow ended up descending underground, where they battled giant fire breathing ants on their way down to Hell itself. Not sure I ever finished it, but it went on and on. In the very early 1980s I discovered Jim Davis’ Garfield strip. This was huge for me because this was something that I could actually draw! (I never could draw a person). I spent most of junior high and high school drawing comics about Garfield. In my comics, Garfield traveled to other planets, wrestled professionally, smoked dope and did all kinds of other crazy stuff! I produced somewhere around 250 single page Garfield strips and several full length comics as well. It was pretty much all I did in class. I guess I was fortunate in that I was able to breeze through high school without ever really paying attention. As high school came close to an end I still was resolute that I wanted to be a writer. For most of my life, my mother would tell me not to waste my time on writing. There were too many writers and too few opportunities and with my brains I could easily go to school and be a doctor. I don’t think her “can’t win, don’t try” message ever really resonated with me, but by high school I had developed another passion equal to my love of comics: heavy metal music. I traded in my pencil for a bass guitar and started writing songs instead of comics. While I love music, love playing music, love composing music, there is one element that I really didn’t like: people. To be a successful musician you really have to like being around people, including strangers and phonies. As far as that goes, my personality is much more suited to being a writer. Plus, by that point in my life I was married with a small child. Being at the bar every weekend until 3a.m. is not a recipe for staying married, even if you are only there for work. I didn’t give up making music, but I did abandon the idea of playing in a live band. Although being a working musician was not for me, my creative impulse still remained strong, so I went back to the idea of making comic books. My lifelong buddy and fellow comic book geek, Andy Parasick, and I sat down to develop a concept for a comic book. We started out with a team of super heroes, a diverse collection of interesting characters which we thought had a lot of potential. After much deliberation we decided to streamline the concept, focusing on a singular member of the group: a young Native American who was under under the tutelage of his aged shaman grandfather. We decided to call our hero “Dire Wolf” and set about finding a way to get it published. The first hurdle we had to overcome was a large one: neither of us could draw. I was already active in the fan press at this point, so I began putting out feelers for an artist to bring our creation to life. We tried several artists but I quickly found that the process was similar to my experiences in the music business: finding someone with the necessary talent is hard enough, but finding someone with both the talent and the work ethic is nearly impossible! I eventually made contact with an artist named Victor J. Miller, Sr.. Vic was interested and committed to improving his craft. After briefly shopping the concept to publishers we decided to publish “Dire Wolf” ourselves and see what we could make of it. We published the first issue with the second issue well into production. I had written the first four issues and was working on number five when the next problem came along: the artist never finished issue 2. At first he claimed he broke his thumb and would need to take some time off. The next time I heard from him, he had self published a novel which he was trying to sell on Amazon. I think his real problem was that he couldn’t sell any of his comics. When we had the book printed, we split the cost and divided the copies between us. To make any money you would have to sell your share of the print run. I was fortunate in that I worked in a restaurant, with a lot of people coming and going. Most of the girls liked me well enough that if I just stuck out my hand and said “give me two bucks”, they would fork it over, no questions asked. I had no problem moving my copies. I don’t think Victor was so fortunate, and that was ultimately the end of “Dire Wolf”. Nowadays, I work crazy hours, 55-60 a week, and am also raising my 9 year old grandson and have little time for creative pursuits. If I am ever so fortunate enough to not have to spend the majority of my time at work, I am sure I will undertake some kind of creative endeavor. Unfortunately, I still can’t draw. Maybe I will try my hand at writing a novel someday... |
||
| Post 42 • IP flag post | ||
|
Masculinity takes a holiday.
|
EbayMafia private msg quote post Address this user | |
@michaelekrupp Your post made me go find a nice one of these: |
||
| Post 43 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
michaelekrupp private msg quote post Address this user | |
@EbaySeller Nice!  I was hoping today’s post would inspire some people to share stories of making their own comics as a kid, but some far no takers . |
||
| Post 44 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
|
BrianGreensnips private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @michaelekrupp I must say that I enjoyed the copy of Dire Wolf that you gave me last year. Thanks again and your post from earlier was pretty cool. | ||
| Post 45 • IP flag post | ||
|
Masculinity takes a holiday.
|
EbayMafia private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @michaelekrupp Sorry my story is so trite, but here it is. I am a terrible artist, but I realized you could draw a semblance of muscular superhero limbs just with connecting arcs. So as a teenager I tried drawing a few caped muscular characters using this simplistic method. My friend pointed out that my characters biceps "looked like a butt". I immediately saw what he was talking about and hung it up permanently after that. | ||
| Post 46 • IP flag post | ||
 I'd like to say I still turned out alright, but that would be a lie.
|
flanders private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by EbaySeller Time to go back to the drawing board. |
||
| Post 47 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
|
CatCovers private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @michaelekrupp During the B&W boom of the late '80s a friend and I wanted to start up our own comic company. We came up with a name (Suburban Voodoo Comics, or SVC) and about five or six different titles. He's an exceptional artist, while my talent is in writing. Lee and Kirby we were not to be. Schoolwork, general laziness and not having the foggiest idea how to actually launch this company all took their toll. Plus, drawing a comic is a heavier lift than writing one, simply from a time perspective, so he insisted we both contribute to the art. I tried. I failed. We never actually finished, let alone published, a single book. Cleaning out some stuff in my parents' house a few months ago, I found this drawing I did featuring a little more than half of our characters. Clearly, it's a good thing this was never inflicted on the world, and I've been able to scratch my creative itch writing novels.  |
||
| Post 48 • IP flag post | ||
 I hear their hourly rate is outrageous!
|
sportshort private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @CatCovers Novels? | ||
| Post 49 • IP flag post | ||
|
Masculinity takes a holiday.
|
EbayMafia private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @CatCovers Certainly has more potential than anything I produced. I would say that it was a Valiant Effort(#2). | ||
| Post 50 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
michaelekrupp private msg quote post Address this user | |
Even as a young child I always had an interest in statistics. Back in my early teens I would keep careful track of my current top 10 favorite comics. I didn’t have any long boxes back then (or short boxes for that matter), so I would line my entire collection of each title up on the floor of my room in order from 1-10 and slide them around the carpet as titles moved up and down the ladder. In hindsight it was pretty hard on the comics on the bottom of the stack which were subject to being slid on the carpet. The comics at the top of the list didn’t change positions very often. X-Men was #1 from 1980-1982 with no real competition. When the New Mutants came out around Christmas of 1982 it was the first comic to seriously challenge X-Men for #1. Defenders was always near the top of the list, at least until DeMatties quit writing it and the book tanked. Teen Titans and All-Star Squadron were both regulars in the top five in the early ‘80s as well. So was G.I. Joe. By 1984 and 85, indie comics like Grimjack, American Flagg! and Jon Sable were regulars in the top 10. The comics in the bottom half of the top 10 were much more subject to moving up and down as I would become interested in different titles from month to month depending on what was happening in each book. Just for kicks, here is an approximation of what the top 10 would have looked like in 1983 around the start of 9th grade. You will have to use your imagination to picture the stacks of comics underneath the current issue, representing my entire collection of each title up to that point. |
||
| Post 51 • IP flag post | ||
 -Our Odin-Rest in Peace |
Jesse_O private msg quote post Address this user | |
| There was an accident that damaged an electrical transformer and I was without electricity for 7 hours today. The wi-fi worked for 5 of those 7 hours. But I read @michaelekrupp's post before I lost wi-fi and it got me thinking. I went to MCS and set the advanced search for August, 1983. These would have come out earlier, probably March or June, but I thought it would be fun to pick out the ones that I knew that I bought when they came out. It was a fun thing to do. So, here is what I KNOW that I bought off the rack brand new. These are all MCS pics. It surprised me how many DC titles I bought. I always considered myself a marvel true believer.                 |
||
| Post 52 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
michaelekrupp private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Jesse_O I bought at least 6 of those the month they came out and several others after the fact. Distribution was a little different back then. Newsstands were notoriously inconsistent and it was hard to catch every issue of a title, even with multiple sources. If you didn’t catch your favorites the week they came out in the comic shop it was entirely possible you could miss an issue. Although I followed both titles regularly at that time, I missed Avengers 234 and Firestorm 15 that month and didn’t get to read them until I bought them as back issues. I had a subscription to X-men and The Thing (a continuation of my Marvel 2-in-1 subscription) at that time, which was the best way to insure against missing an issue. | ||
| Post 53 • IP flag post | ||
|
Masculinity takes a holiday.
|
EbayMafia private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I've been trying to figure it out but best I can remember this is the first month that I walked into my LCS named "House of Fantasy" and became a collector: Marvel was printing a whopping 40 titles: http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/newsstand.php?publisher=marvel&type=calendar&month=3&year=1981&sort=alpha Looks like DC had only 29 titles: http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/newsstand.php?publisher=dc&type=calendar&month=3&year=1981&sort=alpha |
||
| Post 54 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
etapi65 private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by EbaySeller DC should still only have 29 titles. the rest should be events and specials that run 7-12 months, 2 going at max any given time. |
||
| Post 55 • IP flag post | ||
This topic is archived. Start new topic?