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So who was ahead of there time...anybody?????
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42 posts in this topic

Agree, the post war Spirit stories are among some of the best written and drwan of the Golden Age, and Tracy not only holds up, but the 40s were the high point of the strip. For the most part Timely's are a disappointment on the inside when compared to the covers, as are most GA books, especially if you are used to the more complex plotting from more recent eras. Usually the best you can hope for are some awesome splash pages.

 

In the Superhero genre there is some fun oddball stuff like the Wolverton and Fletcher Hanks strips, still funny humor oriented strips like Cole's Plastic Man and I guess you could count Boody Roger's Sparky Watts and Babe, but for straight up superhero stories, I've generally found late 40s DC to be more engaging than most stuff from the era, not as compelling storywise compared to later eras, but still entertaining. For the most part GA storytelling is best appreciated in a historic context and evocation of an era, like much pulp writing and mid 60s garage band rock and roll.

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yes Spirit & Spoon Tracy both nicely adult.

 

& hello Ameri: this is one of the best things I've ever heard on this forum:

 

"That said, I find golden age stories and art were far superior than about anything that came out in the late 60's and beyond and the new creators are just apeing or refining techniques invented by the old masters. The old books might not look as sophisticated as the multi book epics we're used to now but the artists and writers of yore knew how to tell concise stories with just a few pages and the art had a raw energy that has never been surpassed, pages had more panels and art as well, something unheard of today."

 

Thanks Pat. I was thinkin someone was going to say "go to bed old man" :grin:

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...there were a few shops around but not like PBC!

Passaic Book Center... :cloud9: Going there really was like a dream. Even in the 90s, if you looked around you could find some amazing odd stuff. On one visit they had bins full of old fanzines for a buck each...

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...there were a few shops around but not like PBC!

Passaic Book Center... :cloud9: Going there really was like a dream. Even in the 90s, if you looked around you could find some amazing odd stuff. On one visit they had bins full of old fanzines for a buck each...

 

My sons bought 100's of MARVEL COMICS through the catalog...with prices from 32 cents

to $1.00. We visited there once and really enjoyed the experience...I don't think such a

place like that exists today.

 

17141319186_4a7d253062.jpg

 

mm

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On 4/15/2015 at 8:10 AM, jimjum12 said:

 

..... Passaic Books..... I remember those ads. I've always thought that any collectors from New Jersey who lived near Passaic and those in California who lived near Cherokee Books should be required to give the rest of us a 25% discount......since they had such an unfair advantage :baiting: .... We've got an LCS around here that still has that "old school" feel about it, and it. also, has an Adult section that you have to be 18 to enter..... I call it the "Trenchcoat" section. I love hearing about anything to do with the olde legendary stores.... thanks. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

Most of my earliest comic spots had the 'Trenchcoat' section :cloud9:.Sadly,they were mostly gone by the time I was eighteen(and well,I lived with a lass by then..)

Jimbo,that place sounds like a nostalgia dream come true,I can almost smell the old newsprint,and imagine beaded curtains clicking as someone tries to sneak into the back....

Calgon,take me away lol 

Sheesh,I just noticed this post quoted was from 2015 lol more minor nostalgia for ya!

Edited by porcupine48
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9 hours ago, porcupine48 said:

..... Passaic Books..... I remember those ads. I've always thought that any collectors from New Jersey who lived near Passaic and those in California who lived near Cherokee Books should be required to give the rest of us a 25% discount......since they had such an unfair advantage :baiting: .... We've got an LCS around here that still has that "old school" feel about it, and it. also, has an Adult section that you have to be 18 to enter..... I call it the "Trenchcoat" section. I love hearing about anything to do with the olde legendary stores.... thanks. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

Its funny but growing up I spent my summers with my grandparents & and going to PBC  & then coming home I had Fat Jack's in Philadelphia ( the old store on 20th & Sampson) Which if anyone recalls in the early 1980s had another comic shop right next to it which was just super crazy as they hated each other and would always be happy to work a deal so they got the sale. ( Avengers  #1 NM $175, which was a fortune back then, graded a 8.5 20 yrs later) The other shop always smelled of skunk weed & the owner had the mandatory hippie ponytail vibe you would expect, it was a legit counter pop culture shop of the era, which are long gone. 

 

On a side note: I live in Southern NJ & in the early 1980s ( I was 13/14) Both my parents thought it was "JUST FINE" if I took a 1 hr bus ride to Philadelphia to both comic shops. So once a month with my allowance money in hand ( "don't talk to strangers!") call us if you have any problems ( "don't forget your dime!") off I went. "Your father will pick you up at 3 pm at the bus stop. ( "don't miss your bus!"). Wow just a different world huh? My generation just seemed so much more independent & self sufficient & to some extent a little naive. I swear today DYFS would be called for child abuse lol. PS don't get me started on the cigarette filled cars and what the hell was a seat belt?

Edited by I am not Glenda
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8 hours ago, I am not Glenda said:

 

 

On a side note: I live in Southern NJ & in the early 1980s ( I was 13/14) Both my parents thought it was "JUST FINE" if I took a 1 hr bus ride to Philadelphia to both comic shops. So once a month with my allowance money in hand ( "don't talk to strangers!") call us if you have any problems ( "don't forget your dime!") off I went. "Your father will pick you up at 3 pm at the bus stop. ( "don't miss your bus!"). Wow just a different world huh? My generation just seemed so much more independent & self sufficient & to some extent a little naive. I swear today DYFS would be called for child abuse lol. PS don't get me started on the cigarette filled cars and what the hell was a seat belt?

Right?I live in Ottawa,so sort of a friendly place,but still,a city-and in the late eighties(I was 11/12) I'd disappear downtown on the bus by myself to visit comic shops in the seedy parts of town-stepping over passed out drunks around needles-on Saturdays or during summer break.Learned quick to mind my own business and the street smarts learned have kept me safe and fairly fearless all these years.

Seat belts?I remember lying in the back window of Papas 74 Grand Am on trips to visit family giving folks the finger while ma and pa were smoking up a storm,pa likely having a road beer or two...

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8 hours ago, I am not Glenda said:

Its funny but growing up I spent my summers with my grandparents & and going to PBC  & then coming home I had Fat Jack's in Philadelphia ( the old store on 20th & Sampson) Which if anyone recalls in the early 1980s had another comic shop right next to it which was just super crazy as they hated each other and would always be happy to work a deal so they got the sale. ( Avengers  #1 NM $175, which was a fortune back then, graded a 8.5 20 yrs later) The other shop always smelled of skunk weed & the owner had the mandatory hippie ponytail vibe you would expect, it was a legit counter pop culture shop of the era, which are long gone. 

 

On a side note: I live in Southern NJ & in the early 1980s ( I was 13/14) Both my parents thought it was "JUST FINE" if I took a 1 hr bus ride to Philadelphia to both comic shops. So once a month with my allowance money in hand ( "don't talk to strangers!") call us if you have any problems ( "don't forget your dime!") off I went. "Your father will pick you up at 3 pm at the bus stop. ( "don't miss your bus!"). Wow just a different world huh? My generation just seemed so much more independent & self sufficient & to some extent a little naive. I swear today DYFS would be called for child abuse lol. PS don't get me started on the cigarette filled cars and what the hell was a seat belt?

I got a comic shop near me where the owner openly smokes weed. I live in CA. Doesn’t bother me a bit especially when I get a healthy discount on stuff like this.

BD26D780-51AF-4E8F-BE43-DBDF1356A574.jpeg

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3 minutes ago, porcupine48 said:

Right?I live in Ottawa,so sort of a friendly place,but still,a city-and in the late eighties(I was 11/12) I'd disappear downtown on the bus by myself to visit comic shops in the seedy parts of town-stepping over passed out drunks around needles-on Saturdays or during summer break.Learned quick to mind my own business and the street smarts learned have kept me safe and fairly fearless all these years.

Seat belts?I remember lying in the back window of Papas 74 Grand Am on trips to visit family giving folks the finger while ma and pa were smoking up a storm,pa likely having a road beer or two...

Yeah, I remembered my dad yelling at us to sit down and shut up while driving the old station wagon while smoking with a beer between his knees.  :roflmao:

When I was in high school, I used to take the bus down to skid row in LA by myself. The area was full of head shops, thrift shops, Army surplus store and a few used book stores. I looked pretty scruffy so I blended in pretty well. 

There is a bar pictured on the back of the Doors LA Woman called the Hard Rock (no, not that one), that always sold me a beer or two with no questions asked. It was strongly told that Jim Morrison frequented the place but I never saw him. 

Picked up a lot of cool stuff because most people didn’t want to go there.

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25 minutes ago, porcupine48 said:

Right?I live in Ottawa,so sort of a friendly place,but still,a city-and in the late eighties(I was 11/12) I'd disappear downtown on the bus by myself to visit comic shops in the seedy parts of town-stepping over passed out drunks around needles-on Saturdays or during summer break.Learned quick to mind my own business and the street smarts learned have kept me safe and fairly fearless all these years.

Seat belts?I remember lying in the back window of Papas 74 Grand Am on trips to visit family giving folks the finger while ma and pa were smoking up a storm,pa likely having a road beer or two...

You and I would have gotton along well as kids Jimmers. I had a couple of buddies that I would hang out with. All of our parents thought that each of the other kids were “bad influences”. Little did they know... We wern’t bad kids but did a lot of stuff we shouldn’t have. 

I remember taking a bus with my buddy Peter Casey to Watts to a pawn shop. Peter bought a beautiful Rickenbacker guitar at Madman Louie’s. I remember telling my dad that night and he about killed me. He wanted to remind me about what happened there a few years earlier. Man, he was pizzed! Can’t say I blame him now. I was sure clueless...

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21 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

You and I would have gotton along well as kids Jimmers. I had a couple of buddies that I would hang out with. All of our parents thought that each of the other kids were “bad influences”. Little did they know... We wern’t bad kids but did a lot of stuff we shouldn’t have. 

I remember taking a bus with my buddy Peter Casey to Watts to a pawn shop. Peter bought a beautiful Rickenbacker guitar at Madman Louie’s. I remember telling my dad that night and he about killed me. He wanted to remind me about what happened there a few years earlier. Man, he was pizzed! Can’t say I blame him now. I was sure clueless...

We've lived  similar lives in some ways,love the same stuff,just the timing was a bit off and some snow separating us!

Of course we weren't bad kids,or even particularly brave-just enthusiastic about what we loved,naive and needed to make our own mistakes.You've gotta go out and live and make memories,I wouldn't change my life,it's made me who I yam what I yam.

To quote my favourite movie Stand By Me “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”

little emo edit-I'd known my friend Paul that recently passed since I was twelve,and him passing really,really hurts.Luckily comics helps make friends as you get older,maybe it's the sharing of nostalgia,I don't know.

 

Edited by porcupine48
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Early comic cons offered unfettered access to professionals. It was all very innocent, disorganized and a bit amateur. At the '74 Seuling Summer con I was drafted by Jim Warren to assist in folding up some sheets he was using on his table because no one else was there helping him!! He signed my con book below.

tn_programauto74.jpg.a3662b0160a947340950b81c4d2da3c3.jpg

At another show Gil Kane came up to me and started telling me he was a comics pro. Honestly this sort of creeped me out; he was a very tall lanky dude and I wasn't much of a fan of his work. I was pretty non-responsive and he moved on in search of more appreciative youngsters!!

 

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