AKA Mike Horshead
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A short history of comics from my viewpoint (Part 2)
posted Sunday, 21 May 2006
Downstairs there was a box, a huge cardboard box, full of comics. Dad told me that he worked with a guy that had just gotten married and his wife thought comics were silly. She gave him an ultimatum, either they go or she goes. After thinking about it for a couple of weeks, he gave the comics to Dad. There were over 400 comics in that box, the oldest was a 1952 Marvel Family. The newest was a 1960 Archie. It had Adventure, World's Finest, Superman, Batman, Detective, Action, Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, Walt Disney's Comics & Stories, Showcase, Lois Lane, Bugs Bunny, Archie and a little bit of everything else. Sadly there were no EC books, nor Marvel. This just cemented my reading habits for the next few decades.
Back then people didn't board & bag their books, but I did the best I could. When I got into high school our class sold magazine subscriptions and surprise surprise, Marvel comics were available through this offer. For the next several years I got Spider-Man, The Hulk, X-Men and Howard the Duck. After a while, Howard got canceled, Spidey just got old, X-men got boring and the Hulk never changed. I went back to DC.
After I got married and had kids, we went though some tough times and I remember selling my X-men comics for grocery money. I got $10 a book, which I thought was pretty good. This was the new X-men with John Byrne doing the artwork. Then we hit another tough time and I sold all of my Action & Adventure for a little over $200. I eventually learned that I got totally ripped. This was before ebay & internet, but I should have realized that the first appearance of Brainiac and the Legion of SuperHeroes should have been worth $200 by themselves. I still regret that decision.
Then later on I divested myself of stuff I didn't want my kids to read, mostly scary stuff with demons & monsters & such. Then finally in the nineties I discovered that they were actually reprinting the Carl Barks Donald Duck & Uncle Scrooge books, & better yet... They were printing NEW stories..
We were in Comic Book heaven.
Back then people didn't board & bag their books, but I did the best I could. When I got into high school our class sold magazine subscriptions and surprise surprise, Marvel comics were available through this offer. For the next several years I got Spider-Man, The Hulk, X-Men and Howard the Duck. After a while, Howard got canceled, Spidey just got old, X-men got boring and the Hulk never changed. I went back to DC.
After I got married and had kids, we went though some tough times and I remember selling my X-men comics for grocery money. I got $10 a book, which I thought was pretty good. This was the new X-men with John Byrne doing the artwork. Then we hit another tough time and I sold all of my Action & Adventure for a little over $200. I eventually learned that I got totally ripped. This was before ebay & internet, but I should have realized that the first appearance of Brainiac and the Legion of SuperHeroes should have been worth $200 by themselves. I still regret that decision.
Then later on I divested myself of stuff I didn't want my kids to read, mostly scary stuff with demons & monsters & such. Then finally in the nineties I discovered that they were actually reprinting the Carl Barks Donald Duck & Uncle Scrooge books, & better yet... They were printing NEW stories..
We were in Comic Book heaven.
And you were going to say....... (1)
1. Eldest left...
Sunday, 21 May 2006 9:43 pm
can't wait till you get to the part where joel and i get straight up
addicted cuz of you...
