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Post by Calidore on Dec 11, 2019 21:55:53 GMT -5
I think the one that really piqued my interest was the Sea Monkeys, but alas, I never ordered them, or anything else from the comic ads.
My sister got the sea monkeys, I think in our very late teens/early twenties. She emptied the container (they were very tiny little things) into her fish tank, and they started swimming in loop de loops, which was pretty cool. Then the fish hit and completely massacred them. We would have been thoroughly traumatized if we were younger.
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Post by tartanphantom on Dec 11, 2019 23:35:27 GMT -5
Reading through this thread for the first time (still "new" here), it triggered several childhood comic book memories for me. Thought I'd share one of my favorites with you. It was late May, 1972. I had just finished the 3rd grade and my 9th birthday was about two weeks away. I was the oldest of three sons, and my parents sat us down and told us that we were moving. Thing is, we were moving back "home", or what I thought of as "home". My father worked for South Central Bell, which at the time was one of the "baby bell" subsidiaries of AT&T. He had taken the job in early 1966, which had moved us from the bayous of deep southern Louisiana to Birmingham, Alabama. I was only three at the time, and barely remember anything about living in Louisiana, apart from what our house looked like, and the family dog. Fast forward to 1969-- we had been living in Birmingham for about 3 years, and I remember that as "home", as it's where I first attended pre-school and kindergarten, and had lots of friends in our new suburban neighborhood. After only 3 years, my father had been given a major opportunity for a big promotion in the accounting department-- but there was a hitch... It would involve relocating to Manhattan to the AT&T headquarters for a 3-year developmental assignment. So, we left our still "brand-new" house, packed up and moved to Berkeley Heights, NJ for the duration of his assignment. Suburban New Jersey was quite a culture shock for a young southern boy. I attended 1st-3rd grades there, and sure, I had plenty of friends. We went into NYC many times, had some great vacations in various New England states, But it never felt like "home". Even so, I had several friends my age who loved comics as much as myself, and we constantly bought and swapped books, sometimes horse-trading them for baseball cards, packs of firecrackers, or other boyhood treasures. I was too young to think about any brand loyalty, but my favorite characters at the time were Daredevil, Batman, Sgt. Fury, The FF, and oddly enough, The Spectre and Metamorpho. I had discovered the last two completely by accident, as their own titles had been out of print for awhile (didn't know this at the time), but I had found several of their books at a Flea Market in a huge stack for a nickel apiece, and I was hooked on the weirdness of the characters, and was always fascinated by how much The Spectre reminded me of a "Green Space Ghost" (remember, this was a 7-yr old kid in 1969-1970). As far as non-character books, I also loved Charlton's Hot Rod and Haunted series, as well as House of Mystery, and just about any horror/sci-fi, western or war comic I could get my hands on. Of course, romance comics were for "sissies" and funny comics were sometimes good and sometimes not... although I never turned down an issue of Li'l Hot Stuff if it was offered to me! My mother was a teacher, and I had begun reading a little past age 4, so by the time I hit 1st grade, I was reading at close to a 3rd grade level. This is probably why I gravitated to the more "serious" comics at an early age instead of the usual Richie Rich/Casper/Little Dot stuff. Anyway, I digress. Our move back to Alabama was scheduled for the week of my birthday. Knowing that it would be an extremely long drive, I asked my mom to take me to the local drugstore, which is where I usually purchased my comics. She mentioned that since it would be a long trip, it would be OK to get some extra money out of my piggy bank, on top of my regular allowance in order to buy extra comics for the trip. The drugstore in Berkeley Heights was a great place for comics, because they had TWO spinner racks, not just one. You could often find issues that were still a couple of months old in addition to the newest releases. I distinctly remember buying the following issues-- I didn't recall the specific issue numbers on all of them, but the covers remain burned in my memory since that May of 1972: Adventure Comics #420 Batman #242 Captain America #151 Daredevil #89 Marvel Feature #4 Marvel Team-up #3 Ghosts #6 Marvel Spotlight #5 And last but not least, the most expensive comic I had ever purchased at that point-- 50 cents for 100 PAGES! WOW! Not only that, it had a SPECTRE story in it! I was so excited, and it remains one of my favorite books to this very day. Superman #252 All for the princely sum (for a soon-to-be 9 yr. old) of $2.20 (plus NJ sales tax, of course). Well, needless to say, I got about 10 times my money out of them in sheer reading and re-reading pleasure. And you know what? That trip back to Alabama seemed to take no time at all...
My original copies have long since been lost, thrown away, disintegrated or traded away. However, I have managed to re-acquire replacement copies of all of them over the years, and whenever I read one (especially the 100-page book) it never fails to temporarily transport me back to that moving adventure in '72.
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Post by brutalis on Dec 12, 2019 7:35:41 GMT -5
Fantastic story tartanphantom and it speaks to the very reason I started up this thread. Our memories of cherished moments which relate to comic books are some of the best instances we should all hold onto and remember, whether from the distant childhood past or throughout our lives into adulthood or even found today or tomorrow. These comic book related moments of our lives mean something and should never be taken for granted. Stan would end this with EXCELSIOR! So shall I...
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 12, 2019 9:28:36 GMT -5
Agreed. Great story, tartanphantom!
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 12, 2019 9:41:51 GMT -5
A great story, tartanphantom. I went to a few Berkeley Heights (formal name Governor Livingston HS) football games in the mid-60s. Ni-i-ice area. (Jack Bicknell, who was Doug Flutie's coach at BC, was the coach back then.) I wonder if you recall the name of either the sports teams' nickname or the name of the yearbook there. Given your recent photo and contest topic, you might be delighted to know that the teams are called the Highlanders and the yearbook is the Claymore.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2019 16:41:48 GMT -5
tartanphantom ... that's a wonderful story and I just wanted to say thanks for sharing it and enjoyed the part of your experiences with your Mother here. That's one of my favorites too ... I still have my own copy.
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Post by tartanphantom on Dec 12, 2019 18:32:38 GMT -5
A great story, tartanphantom . I went to a few Berkeley Heights (formal name Governor Livingston HS) football games in the mid-60s. Ni-i-ice area. (Jack Bicknell, who was Doug Flutie's coach at BC, was the coach back then.) I wonder if you recall the name of either the sports teams' nickname or the name of the yearbook there. Given your recent photo and contest topic, you might be delighted to know that the teams are called the Highlanders and the yearbook is the Claymore. Now that you mention it, I do remember that the high school's nickname was the Highlanders. Didn't really make the connection until you mentioned it. I only attended William Woodruff Elementary while living there, but I had friends whose older siblings went either to "Columbia" (the middle school) or "GL High" as they called it, and I knew where the school was located... just a stone's throw from Bell Labs.
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Post by Farrar on Dec 12, 2019 20:26:01 GMT -5
... She mentioned that since it would be a long trip, it would be OK to get some extra money out of my piggy bank, on top of my regular allowance in order to buy extra comics for the trip. The drugstore in Berkeley Heights was a great place for comics, because they had TWO spinner racks, not just one. You could often find issues that were still a couple of months old in addition to the newest releases. I distinctly remember buying the following issues... Wow, so many comics at once! I'm envious. As a child when my mother treated us kids to comics I could only ever obtain at most 3 comics at a time (a comic for me, and one for each of my siblings, though as the eldest child I commandeered their buying choices so the comics were really mine, all mine). Then when I graduated to buying my own comics, my lunch money/rather meager weekly allowance meant I could only buy (again) 3 comics at most per trip to the candy store. Hey, I had to save some of my $$$ for candy and soda and egg creams! And by the time I got a healthy allowance (substantially more $$$), I was out of comics.
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 12, 2019 20:31:10 GMT -5
tartanphantom ... that's a wonderful story and I just wanted to say thanks for sharing it and enjoyed the part of your experiences with your Mother here. That's one of my favorites too ... I still have my own copy. Love that cover!
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Post by tartanphantom on Dec 14, 2019 1:23:59 GMT -5
Wow, so many comics at once! I'm envious. As a child when my mother treated us kids to comics I could only ever obtain at most 3 comics at a time (a comic for me, and one for each of my siblings, though as the eldest child I commandeered their buying choices so the comics were really mine, all mine). Then when I graduated to buying my own comics, my lunch money/rather meager weekly allowance meant I could only buy (again) 3 comics at most per trip to the candy store. Hey, I had to save some of my $$$ for candy and soda and egg creams! And by the time I got a healthy allowance (substantially more $$$), I was out of comics.
Yes, 3 comics was also pretty much my limit most of the time... but since it was going to be a long trip, I guess Mom figured that allowing me to buy extra books (with my own money) would help keep me quieter, for a longer period of time.
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Post by Rob Allen on Dec 14, 2019 3:55:47 GMT -5
A great story, tartanphantom . I went to a few Berkeley Heights (formal name Governor Livingston HS) football games in the mid-60s. Ni-i-ice area. (Jack Bicknell, who was Doug Flutie's coach at BC, was the coach back then.) I wonder if you recall the name of either the sports teams' nickname or the name of the yearbook there. Given your recent photo and contest topic, you might be delighted to know that the teams are called the Highlanders and the yearbook is the Claymore. Now that you mention it, I do remember that the high school's nickname was the Highlanders. Didn't really make the connection until you mentioned it. I only attended William Woodruff Elementary while living there, but I had friends whose older siblings went either to "Columbia" (the middle school) or "GL High" as they called it, and I knew where the school was located... just a stone's throw from Bell Labs.
For about six months in 1978 I had a job at the Allstate Insurance regional office across the street from Bell Labs. I was newly graduated from college and newly married, working as a security guard from 4pm-midnight, so I could look for a "real" job during the day. My first task when I arrived was to go up on the roof, take down the flag, fold it and store it away. Since I was up on the roof alone, I usually smoked a joint. I didn't read comics on the job - too unwieldy, and dangerous to the comics. But I did read a lot of science fiction and fantasy at that job.
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 15, 2019 9:30:42 GMT -5
Now that you mention it, I do remember that the high school's nickname was the Highlanders. Didn't really make the connection until you mentioned it. I only attended William Woodruff Elementary while living there, but I had friends whose older siblings went either to "Columbia" (the middle school) or "GL High" as they called it, and I knew where the school was located... just a stone's throw from Bell Labs.
For about six months in 1978 I had a job at the Allstate Insurance regional office across the street from Bell Labs. I was newly graduated from college and newly married, working as a security guard from 4pm-midnight, so I could look for a "real" job during the day. My first task when I arrived was to go up on the roof, take down the flag, fold it and store it away. Since I was up on the roof alone, I usually smoked a joint. I didn't read comics on the job - too unwieldy, and dangerous to the comics. But I did read a lot of science fiction and fantasy at that job. Not entirely rlated, but I had a summer job one summer when I was in college working at a marina during the weekdays. Because I was working weekdays, when most people were at work, it was very slow, and I got a lot of reading done. I read 23 books that summer, including the Shannara trilogy.
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Post by brutalis on Dec 26, 2019 16:05:03 GMT -5
Seeing all the covers from tartanphantom posting above has me Remembering When I began to learn how to draw from my comic books. At 1st it was using tracing paper where I would trace the bodily outlines in ink (from covers and inner pages) that captured my imagination. I would combine heroes and villains from publishers which I dreamed of them meeting or fighting. Magnus Robot Fighter versus Vision, Red Tornado and Iron Man, Tarzan meets Ka-Zar and Zabu, Batman and Robin against Captain America and Rick Jones, The JLA versus Avengers, Fantastic Four teaming with Challengers of the Unknown, Doom Patrol against the original X-Men. So forth and so on, very simplistic tracing. As my tracing skills improved I moved onto tracing the outlines while filling in the muscles or with attempts at new costume designs of my own. Eventually the tracing went away as I moved into Junior High and High School where I was quickly becoming capable of drawing up pages on my own from just looking at what the artist themselves had drawn. I quickly became known around school for taking smaller drawings of heroes and villains and enlarging them into full page poster like shots. Friends and classmates were all clamoring for me to draw their favorites or turning them into new heroes/villains. Eventually the bug took over so I began my small attempts for creating my own hand drawn comic books and copying them for friends with the school Xerox ink printer since I had full use of it with working on the school newspaper. There were teachers in my class who became enamored of my little doodling upon test papers. They would "request" me drawing on the top or bottoms or sides of their class tests to entertain them while having to grade all the test work. I had a history teacher during my Junior year in high school who actually paid me for doing up maps and half page drawings to "illustrating" some historical pamphlets he would make and pass out as he was hoping to get a contract for writing his own history book. My science teachers all wanted posters from me utilizing super heroes and science to interest students. My school newspaper instructor also taught a class on world mythology and would ask me to come in on different days of the week before her classes began to draw scenes upon the green chalkboards in chalk. She would leave them up for a week or two as she taught different chapters. My great grandfather and both my dad's grandparents at one point or another dabbled in art/paint, so I must have it within my genetics the desire to draw. I have a dictionary which my mother had bought for us 3 boys before we began grade school (egads, over 50 years ago!) which has drawings inside that I had doodled or scribbled alongside the descriptions of trains, planes, tractors, animals and such. So the love of art along with appreciation and admiration for the skills artists have has long been in my blood. Before comic books and especially once begun reading them, my adoration of comic book artistry grew and became something I enjoyed. To this day I will NOT criticize any comic artist with saying I "hate it" as they are paid professionals doing something I could never accomplish myself. I truly admire and appreciate that there are all kinds of artists and like life and work itself, it takes all sorts of us to make things work at times. So I prefer to finding something good with any artists drawings to enjoy and explore and learn from. What about you all? Where you ever scribblers, doodlers, artists or writers in your youthful growth and exploration of the world which surrounds us?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2019 16:11:40 GMT -5
My notes in school had more drawings than words. I drew all over my textbook covers. My book reports always had a cover even if it didn't need one.
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Post by brutalis on Jan 10, 2020 8:14:34 GMT -5
I was thinking last night to Remember When I used to always carry some comic books with me everywhere I went. Growing up I had comics stashed in the family car for whenever we traveled each week to the grocery store or during vacations or doctor trips. Kept a small stash at each of my grandparents homes for whenever visiting for something to read. And of course there was the ever changing weekly comics that I would carry to school in my notebook/binder. Nowadays I have a Kindle which stores a bunch of comics and also books and music for my traveling around and yet I still keep some cover-less comics (have had for years) in my car glove box because there is nothing quite like holding an old treasured physical comic book in your hands while waiting somewhere. If I am meeting folks for a movie and awaiting their arrival, or sitting at a restaurant waiting for a friend for lunch or dinner or sitting at a store before they open, it provides me a few precious personal and quiet moments enjoying one of my favorite hobbies being able to sit and peruse my beloved comic books. How about you all?
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