• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Summertime Comic Book Memories
2 2

22 posts in this topic

9 hours ago, piper said:

Summer also meant “annuals”. There was a DD King Size Special 4 for sale on the boards today. DD, Sub Mariner, and Black Panther. What kid could resist?

More a winter and Christmas product here in the UK. I remember being very confused as a kid when I bought an imported American Marvel annual for the first time by mail order, as it wasn't an oversized hardcover.

Edited by Ken Aldred
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, The Lions Den said:

I was feeling a bit of comic related nostalgia today, likely because of the heat wave we're having here in Michigan. Seriously, it's so hot here that yesterday I made the mistake of walking out on our front deck without footwear and within seconds I burned the bottoms of my feet. Yow! For some reason it made me think of all the good times I've had reading and collecting comic books during the summertime. This made me wonder what memories other folks may have related to comic books during the summertime---I can always appreciate a good story. 

But since I brought it up, here's a story that I remember...

When I was about seven years old, my oldest brother had a big box of comics he kept in the upper level of our garage. This was before bags or boards or anything like that. (The only bags I ever saw in those days were available from a guy named Robert Bell. I remember wondering why anyone would put their comics in a bag? I mean, comics were cheap). Anyway, all of us used to go up there and hang out (I have three brothers). I don't really know where my oldest brother got all those books, but he had a lot of them. It was a pretty big box. I remember reading my first Spidey comic up there (the Lizard!) and I was hooked. So it became a pretty regular thing that summer---sneak up to the loft and read some comics. But then one day I went up to the loft...and the box was gone!  :whatthe:  What had happened? Well, according to the eldest brother, our father didn't like the comics stinking up his garage, so he took the whole box to the local dump. I was astonished, dismayed, outraged! How could he DO something like that? We all talked it over and we came up with a plan to ride our bikes up to the local dump and "save the comics" (in those days, the dump wasn't called a landfill; it was just a dump. No pass was required for entry). So we all rode our bikes up to the "landfill" and spent a couple of hours looking for the books. No luck. Not a trace. I remember riding home and wondering if someone else had found the box before we did...  hm

So I spent the next few days moping around, doing other stuff....it's kind of a blur. I remember asking my dad why he threw them out, and he just gave me a look like I was the dumbest kid in the world...and I think that may be the event that triggered my collecting journey, one that's lasted well over 50 years, because I can never forget how great those times were, reading those comic books up in that old loft. :cloud9:

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my story, and I hope some other people have some good memories related to summertime...and comics. Stay cool...

 

 

Our local dump was always a goldmine of discarded (usually coverless) comics - and Playboys.  :cloud9:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Drummy said:

The summer after third grade, on pretty much the first day of vacation, I got the chicken pox and had to stay home for about a week.  Feeling sorry for me, my mom got me some comics and a couple treasuries to read while I was stuck at home.  I distinctly remember reading these Batman stories from this treasury for the first time.  I was always a Marvel zombie, but this book got me into DC for a couple years as well (albeit on the margins).

So if you've never read "Batman's Strangest Cases", you should!  Take it from a sick nine-year-old.

Dan

s-l300.jpg

That looks like a nice selection of comics.  A pair of Neal Adams stories, Wrightson's Swamp Thing 7.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was about 10.  I remember riding my bike down my street about a half mile to the comic and card shop.  I always went early in the morning, sometimes being the only person outside when they unlocked the door.  I had to go early because I went to the pool almost every day.  
 

I have a friend that is in his mid 50s.  He always tells me 2 different stories from when he was a kid.  The first, how he remembers running down the street from the pool to the corner store to get some Bub’s Daddy bubble gum and some comics.  The second is from the later years of the 70’s when he was a teen.  He always says “It was all about reading horror comics and listening to Alice Cooper!”.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, DocHoppus182 said:

I was about 10.  I remember riding my bike down my street about a half mile to the comic and card shop.  I always went early in the morning, sometimes being the only person outside when they unlocked the door.  I had to go early because I went to the pool almost every day.  
 

I have a friend that is in his mid 50s.  He always tells me 2 different stories from when he was a kid.  The first, how he remembers running down the street from the pool to the corner store to get some Bub’s Daddy bubble gum and some comics.  The second is from the later years of the 70’s when he was a teen.  He always says “It was all about reading horror comics and listening to Alice Cooper!”.

This does bring back some great memories...thank you!  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

These are all great posts. For me, the one that comes to mind as most distinctly summer would be 1983 and we finally have a local comic book store, 20 miles away and I have enough money that I'm able to spend $20 to $40 and come home with a giant stack of comics. Like the kind of thing where you are loading up (after a lifetime of never having access to a single back issue) and they have to scrounge a cardboard box to put all your stuff in and where the owner tosses in a Conan treasury because you are buying so much. And this particular day, I'm just come home with the box but I'm signed up for my town's annual junior tennis tournament. And it's super hot and muggy. And I all I want to do is go to our one air conditioned room in the house (a fairly new feature at that for us) and read the comics. Not go out and compete in this heat. I think I broached the idea of just forfeiting but my dad wouldn't have it. And I probably had the thought of just losing quickly but wouldn't you know it, I just had the guy outclassed and there's no way I could lose to him. So I won the match, either had to come back to play the next round in two hours or the next day, but at least I got to finally go home and look at the new stash--it was that exciting to me and that fresh.

I didn't get to fully appreciate annuals. DC was basically still on its hiatus from publishing annuals when I was a kid in the late 70s and I somehow also missed out on the X-Men so never saw the classic X-Men annuals 3-6 though I would've loved them. And just missed MTIO 2 and Avengers 7 by a year--I certainly would've bought them if they were 1978 and not 1977. But there were a couple I loved, including ASM 14 and 15 and Avengers 9 and 10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, HouseofComics.Com said:

 

I didn't get to fully appreciate annuals. DC was basically still on its hiatus from publishing annuals when I was a kid in the late 70s and I somehow also missed out on the X-Men so never saw the classic X-Men annuals 3-6 though I would've loved them. And just missed MTIO 2 and Avengers 7 by a year--I certainly would've bought them if they were 1978 and not 1977. But there were a couple I loved, including ASM 14 and 15 and Avengers 9 and 10.

1815084943_AvengersxAnn7-a.thumb.jpg.b10533cf712234ad9c8717942203d0e9.jpg

I was fortunate to buy both of those off the rack. Need to get my MTIOs scanned still.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think my favorite memories of those summers (75-77) were doing my paper routes and doing my subscription collections. I worked hard to get those people to subscribe and each house I collected from meant 90 cents to 1.15. Once I got all the collections done-- I'd be loaded (kid-wise) and my next stop was riding my boke to the closest 7-11. That was about 2 miles. But it was the best time - I was on my way to buy up every Marvel super hero comic from the rack, along with about 15 candy bars and to top it all off-- a Marvel Slurpee cup. I know that sounds crazy a little bit. I didn't eat all the candy right away-- it was my stash for a couple of weeks. And if it was a brutal hot day, I would also stop at Garrett's Ice Cream shop just down the street to sit in the super cold AC, get a dipped cone and read through some comics at a table-- maybe play some pinball. Later in life, some of my buddies and I would go there to play Galaxian later replaced by Galaga.

It was an awesome time growing up in a small town in Chicago's south suburbs (Tinley Park).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can relate to the scrounging for money, then walking down to the 7-11 in Duluth (MN) to buy comics, Summit candy bars (anybody remember them?), bottle caps, and a Slurpee in a Marvel cup.  *AWESOME*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
2 2