Ride The Wild Spinner Rack - Part 3

Editor's Update 10/17/2014: The Ride The Wild Spinner Rack series appears in multiple posts, including, so far, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Enjoy.

RIDE THE WILD SPINNER RACK

Part 3: Kid Stuff

I was possessed.  My comic book obsession was such that right after the last bell rang on my junior high school Wednesday afternoon, I would literally RUN a couple of blocks down 54th Street to H Street, where I would turn left and sprint the last half mile to Womble’s Drug Store (now a bagel shop).

That’s right, if you were to drive that part of H Street around 3:00 on a Wednesday afternoon, you’d see a nerdy 13 year old racing up the street as if being pursued.

When I got to the store, I’d stop and stare at the latest arrivals: Avengers 17 (“Four Against the Minotaur!”), Strange Tales 133 (Dr. Strange SHARING the cover with The Human Torch and The Thing in two different stories), X- Men #12 (“The Origin of Prof X!”), and all the others.  The only thing that came anywhere close to my love of comics was my love of music.

“They’re disobedient, disrespectful oafs!
Noisy, crazy, dirty, lazy, loafers!
While we're on the subject: Kids!
You can talk and talk till your face is blue! Kids!
But they still just do what they want to do!
Why can't they be like we were,
Perfect in every way?
What's the matter with kids today?”

“Kids” Bye Bye Birdie

Ride The Wild Spinner Rack - Part 2

Editor's Update 10/17/2014: The Ride The Wild Spinner Rack series appears in multiple posts, including, so far, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Enjoy.

RIDE THE WILD SPINNER RACK

Part 2: The Last Wave

Needless to say, I was hooked.  My thirst for more Fantastic Four, Spiderman (which of course featured the FF on the first issue’s cover!), Strange Tales, The Avengers and the rest grew exponentially in the months ahead.  Midway through 1963 a FF #14 letters page writer said he had started a New York City FF fan club.  The person answering the letters asked if anyone else out there had started a club.  Bingo!  What a great idea!  I immediately drew up a charter for the Sacramento branch.  Membership: me.  I also held all the offices.  I sent Marvel my good news and a few issues later (I’m not sure which one because I no longer own it) there was a half page dedicated to listing all the clubs around the country.  The Sacramento branch, along with my address, was right there in the mix.

“Surf fever brings them here to meet the test
And hanging round the beach you'll see the best

Ride The Wild Spinner Rack - Part 1

Editor's Update 10/17/2014: The Ride The Wild Spinner Rack series appears in multiple posts, including, so far, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Enjoy.

Part 1: A Grocery Cart Full of Comics

Way back during the Silver Age, I was a pre-pubescent DC Comics fan: Carmine Infantino was a favorite artist, Gardner Fox was a favorite writer, and anything edited by Julius Schwartz was right about in my science-fiction possessed wheelhouse. 

There was a drug store about six blocks from my home where adults would get their fix from pharmaceuticals and I would get mine from the comic the book spinner rack.

I would scan it and bring home Mystery in Space, Strange Adventures, Justice League of America and all the rest.  I was hooked on DC and there didn’t seem to be anything else out there that mattered. 

My only other interest was music: what I played on the piano, movie musicals, and what I heard on the radio.  Around this time I bought my first record, a 45 (look it up) by Dickey Lee, a teenage tragedy song called “Patches."

Revisiting Legion of Super Heroes

  Since day one of reading comics I have been a Marvel Zombie. Not the nicest way to describe those of us who found their love of comics and passion for characters in the 616…but probably an apt one. There were only a couple DC titles I read as a kid and Legion of Super Heroes (LOSH) was my favorite. Back in the day, it was hard to find every issue of a book at your local convenience or grocery store so I missed a lot. As I got older and had more money, I completed some but not all of the LOSH. But it was not till yesterday that I had the opportunity to read a complete run from #283 all the way to the end of the 80’s.

     My good buddy Douglas Briel has spent the last couple years putting together this great run and last night he let me borrow the first box. I opened it to find a reprint of Adventure Comics #247, the first appearance of the LOSH from 1958.  In typical Silver Age fashion, Superboy is introduced to the Legion through a series of humiliating encounters that end in a big laugh as they take him to the 30^th century aboard their Time Bubble. Awesome!