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Friday, September 30, 2022

ANCIENT HISTORY

Travel back with us now to Brooklyn in the 1960s: My best friend, Bob Izzo, and I have pooled our comics, setting up shop in front of our apartment building and selling the books for a nickel each. With our ill-gotten gains, we will indulge in multiple slices of pizza...and, no doubt, buy more comic books!

We didn't always stick so close to home. As my old friend Michael Todd, who usually joined us in these groundbreaking business endeavors, reminded me, we'd sometimes lug the books over to nearby Newkirk Plaza, just outside the subway station. This clever plan meant two things: 1)  More potential customers and 2)  We were mere feet away from the object of our desire: the pizza place!

My mother took this picture from our apartment window.  I'd love to have a clearer view of the comics themselves, but I'm grateful for this blurry window into the past.


12 comments:

  1. You are grateful for the photo, until you realize you no longer have those comics.

    Also, you may not have thought about this as a human child, but the subway would also be a good location because people may want ti buy something to read for the ride.


    Jack

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    Replies
    1. I can't worry about the value of those old comics, Jack—although I do sometimes think about the box of comics my mother made me throw out that had AVENGERS #1 in it. That would take care of my mortgage.

      And, in those days, most people over the age of twelve wouldn't dare read a comic book on public transportation!

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    2. Were 10 year olds barred from the subway?

      Not so much the financial value, but the emotional one.

      My mother was born in 1950, and around 1958 my grandparents bought their first TV... they were a nurse and a grocer it took a little while,., but when it arrived, there were two show my mother watched. One was Howdy Doodey (which she had actually listened to on the radio previously) and the other was The Adventures of Superman.

      So, naturally, she started reading the comics, Every Sunday, My Grandfather would get the Chicago paper... my Grandmother and her parents were from Chicago... and my mother would accompany him, where he would buy her an American comic book. Sometimes Superman, or Action Comics, or Lois Lane, or whatever the hell Superboy and Supergirl were in, and on even the odd Justice League.

      She stopped reading them until about the age of 12-14, but she still wanted to keep them. My grandmother however one day had different plans, and decided she was too old for them. So she packed them all up in a box, along wit a few other things...like Beatles cards, whatever the hell those were... and gave them to my Mom's cousins.

      These were the cousins on her FATHER'S side. Why does that matter? My grandfather was a cowboy, and was from Michigan City, Indiana. My mother's cousins grew up outside of Michigan City, and while not farmers, they did have chickens. Once they were done reading the comics,t they lined the bottom of the coup.

      Now, my mother had the first appearance of Brainiac, The Legion of Superheroes, Supergirl and more!

      However, the one she always went on about when I was a kid was the Superman 25th Anniversary special. You may be thinking, "I read comic then, and I don;t remember that at all." Well, you are not alone. A lot of people who read comics did not know what she was talking about, people who sold comics had no idea,

      Back when the comic bubble was a thing, my brother would claim he saw it on TV being priced in the thousands. That... was a lie.

      How could I know that? Comics went for insane prices during the bubble. Since no one but my mother remember, it must be insanely rare.

      Well, I found it, and bough tit for her, when I was about 18, years old. What she was remembering was the 1963 annual, which as you may recall, in those days were all reprints.

      One of the issues that plagues comics, and still hangs around after the bubble burst, is that everyone thinks about value over what the impact.

      I know that is not how YOU think about them, but it clearly effected you enough that assumed it was what I was talking about.

      Jack

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    3. I LOVED that Superman Annual! I remember seeing the ad and harassing my mother, describing it to her so that, when she was out doing her errands, she could stop by the local candy store and pick it up for me. I even homaged that image of the silver Superman statue in SAVIOR-28 and there's a statue of Anyman in our upcoming DeMultiverse story that also echoes that image. One of my primal Superman experiences.

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  2. He Dematteis, remember that time this...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaIo1trTpKQ

    Jack

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    Replies
    1. And... more importantly... Johnny Cash.

      Jack

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    2. Did you know, Johnny Cash was one of if not the first American to learn of Stalin's death?
      When he was in the Air Force, he was manning the radio when the news came through from Russia.


      Jack

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    3. And he didn't write a song about it?

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  3. Hey Dematteis, you like optimism...

    https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/10/02/colorblind-residents-see-color-for-the-first-time-using-new-technology/69532627007/

    Jack

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