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Post by brutalis on Dec 19, 2020 6:11:44 GMT -5
Woke up around 2am this morning, couldn't fall back asleep. Grabbed my cell phone to read a few comic books. Made me Remember When as a teen in the late 70's (yes, da good ol' days) when reading a comic book in the middle of the night was a bit more difficult. You either had to bundle up in bed with a flashlight hoping your parents wouldn't catch you or take that loooong pretend late night toilet library visit with a few comics. Couldn't risk sitting in the kitchen or living room because then it was a certainty I was gonna get busted.
These days the cell phone is a built in flashlight and comic book all in one. Boy do kids today have it easy.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 19, 2020 8:18:51 GMT -5
Never tried the bathroom trick, but, man, I remember reading comics with a flashlight under the blankets...
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Post by kirby101 on Dec 19, 2020 10:04:45 GMT -5
A question for the older members. Anybody reading comics from late 50s into the early 60s when Marvel started introducing their superheroes? What was that like. They pretty much changed their entire line from monster books to superheroes. Was there any resentment that the monster stories went away. Or was there excitement at the new heroes in all the books? Or both. I have read about the creation of the new characters, but I have never really seen much about how the readers saw this radical change in all their books.
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Post by tarkintino on Dec 20, 2020 11:41:02 GMT -5
A question for the older members. Anybody reading comics from late 50s into the early 60s when Marvel started introducing their superheroes? What was that like. They pretty much changed their entire line from monster books to superheroes. Was there any resentment that the monster stories went away. Or was there excitement at the new heroes in all the books? Or both. I have read about the creation of the new characters, but I have never really seen much about how the readers saw this radical change in all their books. I was not around in that period, but have a number of family and friends who were readers in that period, and whenever the topic of the "start of Marvel" comes up, I recall some mixed reactions; some claimed to have loved the change, because they had already jumped on the DC bandwagon, being fans of their Silver Age-launching changes and/or new versions of Golden Age superhero characters at the end of the 50s. Others were never that fond of superheroes and just did not care about Marvel getting into the superhero business, preferring westerns more than anything else. Having posted that, I would say the change meter clearly leans toward acceptance of Marvel shifting to superheroes, and almost always including a great deal of reverence for Stan Lee's style of creation/writing.
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Post by brutalis on Dec 20, 2020 12:27:10 GMT -5
Found out a few years back that my dad was reading Sgt Rock and a few western comics as a kid in the 50's. Says he just never did get into superhero stuff. He remembers the occasional funny animal book but comic books were not a big part of his life. For the most part he says comics were always a little kids thing and were usually put aside or forgotten as a teen. Money was put to use for buying music, dating and other stuff.
None of my adult family or my many cousins are readers. I am the ONLY one who has a book or comic book collection so I often wonder about those early days. Was reading a more disposable kind of thing? Was stuff read once then given away or being sold again to buy more? Where they bagged or put in boxes never read more than once? Is that why there were so many used books/thrift stores to be found? It would explain the 5 year turn around idea, in that kids would read and then outgrow comics so that a new generation arose, repeating the cycle.
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Post by kirby101 on Dec 20, 2020 13:54:09 GMT -5
As someone who did read comics causally through the 60s, I can say they were disposable. I did not become an avid, monthly reader until Conan #1, 1970. Before that we would buy or read other kids comics. But we didn't collect orv follow any series. The only book we bought every month was the Silver Surfer. And yes, our Mom did throw away Amazing Fantasy 15, Spider-man 1 and 8 and FF 29. (and more, but those I remember having) We were too young for the Marvel monster books of the 50s, so my introduction to Marvel Comics were the superheroes. I had no concept of how new these books were. It was just Marvel was Spider-man and the FF and the Hulk.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2020 14:02:37 GMT -5
One of my supervisors on the job, who was on the brink of retirement, found out I liked comics and would love any opportunity to chat about them. Sometimes, other staff would think we'd be talking about work when I was in his office for 15-20 mins or more...but getting something signed takes less than a minute....we'd be talking about anything else under the sun for the rest of the time.
He told me he owned a copy of original Batman #1, kept it in a box, and his mum threw out all his comics. I had to make sure the office window was closed in case he felt to jump.
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Post by badwolf on Dec 21, 2020 14:33:15 GMT -5
Woke up around 2am this morning, couldn't fall back asleep. Grabbed my cell phone to read a few comic books. Made me Remember When as a teen in the late 70's (yes, da good ol' days) when reading a comic book in the middle of the night was a bit more difficult. You either had to bundle up in bed with a flashlight hoping your parents wouldn't catch you or take that loooong pretend late night toilet library visit with a few comics. Couldn't risk sitting in the kitchen or living room because then it was a certainty I was gonna get busted. These days the cell phone is a built in flashlight and comic book all in one. Boy do kids today have it easy. I remember reading by the light of my alarm clock when I was in bed.
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Post by Farrar on Dec 21, 2020 20:49:37 GMT -5
As someone who did read comics causally through the 60s, I can say they were disposable. I did not become an avid, monthly reader until Conan #1, 1970. Before that we would buy or read other kids comics. But we didn't collect or follow any series. The only book we bought every month was the Silver Surfer. And yes, our Mom did throw away Amazing Fantasy 15, Spider-man 1 and 8 and FF 29. (and more, but those I remember having)... That sounds like my friends and cousins; they had large collections of Marvels and/or DCs, but they kept them piled all together (that is, when they didn't throw the comic out or trade it away after reading). The good thing about their unorganized piles was that they never noticed when I "borrowed" some of their comics, since they weren't keeping track of what they had. Also some of my friends would just give me their comics after they were done with them. As I have mentioned in other threads, I was never as generous as they were--I kept all my comics (except for some Archies, which I would sell) and never lent my comics to anyone. Me, I had my Marvels and DCs all organized by title and issue number. And I religiously tried to buy certain series every month: Avengers, FF, X-Men (original series), Marvel Collectors' Item Classics/Marvel's Greatest Comics, Amazing Adventures, Sub-Mariner, Justice League of America, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Wonder Woman, Adventure, Action, Detective, Metal Men, Teen Titans. I followed series for characters, and if a favorite character guest-appeared in another comic I'd try to buy that issue too. Back then I also sought out back issues of many of these series to fill out my collections; after awhile I had many more back issues than new comics.
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Post by brutalis on Jan 1, 2021 11:28:57 GMT -5
Yeah I Remember When my days of starting in comic collecting was allotted ONE brown grocery paper bag by my mother. So many of my days spent digging and resorting those precious few comics. Much different from NOW where i have a room full of boxes to pores through.
There was a stronger sense of joy and fun as i rummaged through that bag. Poring over them, flipping pages, trying to choose all the comics to keep and which to trade with neighborhood kids. This summer sorting and condensing from long to short boxes helped provide me that sense of wonder and childhood joy once more.
Deciding to reduce while focusing on series or individual comics that I WANT TO READ or hold onto gives those comics a more special and treasured place in my collection as well in my thoughts and heart.
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Post by The Cheat on Jan 1, 2021 14:02:57 GMT -5
Yeah I Remember When my days of starting in comic collecting was allotted ONE brown grocery paper bag by my mother. So many of my days spent digging and resorting those precious few comics. Much different from NOW where i have a room full of boxes to pores through. There was a stronger sense of joy and fun as i rummaged through that bag. Poring over them, flipping pages, trying to choose all the comics to keep and which to trade with neighborhood kids. This summer sorting and condensing from long to short boxes helped provide me that sense of wonder and childhood joy once more. Deciding to reduce while focusing on series or individual comics that I WANT TO READ or hold onto gives those comics a more special and treasured place in my collection as well in my thoughts and heart. Agree 100%. Life's too short to read crap (or even mediocre) material, even if it does star your favourite character, or is part of a 500 issue run that you like "most of", or whatever.
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Post by brutalis on Mar 7, 2021 16:01:32 GMT -5
Remember When in the old days before internet and LCS shopping we were forced to suffer by missing issue(s) of our favorite series? If you were lucky and had willing parents or friends to drive all around town to assist your search you might have better chances but if like me your options were limited, it was frustrating. Until high school I had very limited choices. There were 2 Korean markets which carried small shelves of a few comics and magazines. As I started high school a Circle-K opened up so now I had 3 in the neighborhood.
Until that time I was left to trading with a few neighboring kids or coveting copies I missed that my 2 cousins might have. Oh the pain, the agony and sorrow. There was a odd combo Magic, used comics, cheap toy store near the grocery store my folks used most frequently and every so often I might be able to convince my dad to go browse it as mom shopped. Occasionally I could find a few odds and ends with my grandfather once a month when he went used bookstore hunting for his pulps and westerns.
Other than that, once I avidly began to grow into collecting series there was many a hole (sometimes many issues in a row) or multiple holes to fill. Not fun when your young and REALLY WANT those missing issues and wonder if you will ever find them. The advent of the LCS and internet has opened a new world of fulfilling all those missed chances and empty slots between issues.
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Post by kirby101 on Mar 7, 2021 16:09:40 GMT -5
In high school and college I went to 3-4 different 7-11s and drug stores to make sure I got all the books that came out. And Marvel had a weekly schedule so you knew, this Thursday is FF and Conan! It was the new books, like Man-Thing or Werewolf BN that would be a real problem.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2021 17:23:09 GMT -5
As a kid in the late 60s/early 70s reading material was disposable. Comic books. Magazines. Paperbacks. The only reading material that was saved were hardback books. It wasn't until I was into my late teens in late 70s that I was able to hold on to my comic books and paperbacks like Tarzan & Conan... I felt when I moved out of my parents house in the early 80s I had more reading material than clothing!
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Post by tarkintino on Mar 7, 2021 18:45:01 GMT -5
In my city, we had several book dealers, a couple of comic book stores, 7-11's, drug and other stores selling comics, but if you were really serious about not missing issues, liquor stores were always the place to go, as they always had around two months of many titles on the rack at any given time, so if my book dealers had been overrun by other serious collectors, I knew I had to hit the liquor stores to have a chance at my sold out titles.
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