|
Post by beccabear67 on Jun 23, 2019 15:50:43 GMT -5
Over the years I've noticed how many comic book readers and creators have stories of having a long period in bed ill, and before kids had TV sets in their rooms you were limited in terms of entertainment. I think I really latched on to reading and re-reading comics as a kid because I seemed to be sick all the time, whatever was going I seemed to get; measles, chicken pox, barking cough, flu, middle of the night nose bleeds. Dick Giordano who was a kid when comic books were pretty new if around much at all had people save up Sunday funnies sections for him and from there he went around collecting them from the various newspapers afterwards when he was well. So, did you have your 'relationship' with comics reinforced through a period of illness, even hospitalization? Were you actually introduced to comics reading then perhaps? Did they make you feel better? Did anyone bring you specific comics that you remember? I don't remember any specific comics because we had a pile of comics around from my youngest aunt and uncle, my older brother and myself anyway. I would spend the day with them, whatever stuffed animals were about, and some little china animals I collected that came from the Red Rose brand of tea, then someone from school would drop by on their way home with the day's school work that I could also do in bed. I don't remember having anything when I got the red measles though, I almost died as I wasn't eating and just seemed to exist for days. Later a relative who managed an apartment building gave me a little b&w Viking tv on a wheeled cart someone had left and it gave me tv as a choice. I remember it had a single earbud you could plug in and watch in secret late at night without anyone else hearing.
|
|
|
Post by Jesse on Jun 23, 2019 17:02:26 GMT -5
I first got into the comic book format as a young child in the hospital after getting a tonsillectomy. IIRC it was an issue of Heathcliff and copies of Cracked and MAD Magazine. I had read Sunday comic strips in my grandpa's newspaper pretty regularly before that. When I broke one of my arms as a kid it was superhero comics anything with Wolverine, Batman, and Spider-Man. Years later in high school I was briefly home schooled for medical reasons and for inspiration to complete my art class sketchbook assignments I would go through my old collection from when my brother and I were kids.
|
|
Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,411
|
Post by Confessor on Jun 23, 2019 18:00:03 GMT -5
I wouldn't say reading comics when I was ill particularly cemented my love of them. But, yes, I did used to read comics when I was ill in bed and off school.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2019 18:33:24 GMT -5
I have comic books on top of my bed as a kid and still do that today. Even, I'm sick or not ...
|
|
|
Post by beccabear67 on Jun 23, 2019 22:11:50 GMT -5
I'm sure I must've gotten a new one or two while ill, I can feel the excitement of a shiny new cover and interior pages as yet unbrowsed from some moment like that. I still get a slight feeling of that when I get a new comic, magazine or book but I think the biggest imprint was while I was sick once or twice. Other than that we were given some coins to pick out what we wanted (maybe even a bag of three) in some roadside stop heading to visit some relation without kids, or at various stops with my grandparents on summer 'vacation' (which involved a lot of fishing, picking, scaling, shelling, boiling and canning in fact). Also a few times I would have a no school day and spend it with my Dad in a bakery delivery truck and ended up with a new comic then (plus a fresh sausage roll or apple turnover) as payment for helping a bit bring stuff into various shops.
|
|
|
Post by dbutler69 on Jun 24, 2019 8:57:57 GMT -5
My only memory of a comic book on my sick bed was one time when my father brought me home an issue of Adventure Comics featuring Dial H for Hero. It surprised me because he rarely bought me a comic without my asking for it first. So, that was cool and still brings back fond memories.
|
|
|
Post by badwolf on Jun 24, 2019 9:15:18 GMT -5
Don't really remember anything specific but I read comics all the time so I'm sure I read plenty when I was sick. The only prolonged illness I had as a kid when when I had pneumonia in 7th grade and was out of school for two weeks. I do remember my mom asking me once if I wanted her to get anything from the store while I was sick and I asked for a "fun book", I meant one of those Marvel Fun Books they put out in the 70s, I think there were four and I had one or two (there are two covers that look very familiar when I look them up) but at that age and time I had no idea how many there were, just that they existed...she brought me a generic activity book that was also called a "fun book" and I remember being disappointed.
|
|
|
Post by brutalis on Jun 24, 2019 10:13:38 GMT -5
My parents NEVER bought me any comic books. That was my own habit to pursue. Saying that, anytime I was sick in bed was spent with the radio playing and comics and/or books for reading. Without a television that was the ONLY way for passing the day away outside of sleeping through the illness. Nowadays I can spend a sick day in bed with television, DVDs, CDs, video games and internet on my cell alongside my beloved comics and books. So many more options to choose from...
|
|
|
Post by beccabear67 on Jun 24, 2019 11:45:00 GMT -5
I used to cut my comics up sometimes, mostly the covers, and make poor folks stickers and sometimes paperdoll things that could stand up. I even remember cutting out all the tiny illustrations from an ad for posters and making a room for the paper dolls with those on the wall. Not sure if I did that while sick or not but probably. I know I had fever dreams set in the Scamp and Archie comics 'worlds'.
Not to say I was never outside but between a sand box loaded with various cat poops and a lack of kids my age where we were, everyone else seemed four-five or more blocks away or four-five years older or younger, plus bee stings I always seemed to get, I became more indoors (except in the summer or spring break). I wonder if I was as sensitive to noise then, I still have a major problem with most lawnmowers seeming super-loud. They say only children bonded with comics a lot, having one brother five years older was close for me but with the benefit I had all his comics to look through as well (even if one was a Deadman I couldn't figure out how to read).
|
|
|
Post by brutalis on Jun 24, 2019 14:09:23 GMT -5
I used to cut my comics up sometimes, mostly the covers, and make poor folks stickers and sometimes paperdoll things that could stand up. I even remember cutting out all the tiny illustrations from an ad for posters and making a room for the paper dolls with those on the wall. Not sure if I did that while sick or not but probably. I know I had fever dreams set in the Scamp and Archie comics 'worlds'. Not to say I was never outside but between a sand box loaded with various cat poops and a lack of kids my age where we were, everyone else seemed four-five or more blocks away or four-five years older or younger, plus bee stings I always seemed to get, I became more indoors (except in the summer or spring break). I wonder if I was as sensitive to noise then, I still have a major problem with most lawnmowers seeming super-loud. They say only children bonded with comics a lot, having one brother five years older was close for me but with the benefit I had all his comics to look through as well (even if one was a Deadman I couldn't figure out how to read). Who among us a child didn't cut up comic books? I destroyed more than my fair share. Used to cut them out and make shadow boxes, cut them out and glue them onto cardboard thereby creating my own poster/fights to hang on the bedroom walls. I would cut out figures and paste them onto paper and then draw in the missing portions/etc or draw new scenes around them. All of this of course when I was much younger with only a handful of comics before the collector awakened inside of me.
|
|