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Post by dbutler69 on Jul 5, 2021 14:16:24 GMT -5
Since you're from Vermont, ever been to the Rutland Halloween Parade? I imagine you wouldn't have had an opportunity to meet Tom Fagan. Despite only living a little over an hour from there, I never did get to go! I think we always ended up having other family plans that conflicted. But every time I read a comic book referencing it, I always have some regret I didn't make it there back in the day. I love those Rutland Halloween comics from the 70's!
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Post by brutalis on Jul 9, 2021 22:56:07 GMT -5
Do you Remember When you came of age receiving the freedom of having a driver's license allowing the ability to travel all around in search of comic books? The sheer joy of a day off from work spent going to and fro covering miles of asphalt seeking elusive issues or missed new issues. Each stop at convenience stores, used book stores and LCS's providing both the lowest in disappointment when nothing found or the highest thrill scoring great finds. Such an adrenaline rush creating the need to stop at any spot you knew was carrying comics.
Long drives across town or into connecting cities building a sugar rush from too much soda and candy bars in the joyous search of comic books. Excitement building as the pile grows larger from each stop. Deftly calculating how much you can afford to spend on comics, sugar buzz and gasoline to make that perfect day of shopping. Finally coming home exhausted when you have either spent all your money or have hit all the places you can think of.
Even more fun when the day was spent with a couple of fellow comic addicts. The fevered discussions of stories read and wondering how it will end or continue to twist and build? Talking of favorite characters and who is better? What villain is best? What If scenarios? DC versus Marvel? All this from learning to drive. This is the game changer when the world of comics begins to explode for me taking on a life of it's own .
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Post by majestic on Jul 10, 2021 9:18:58 GMT -5
I got my driver's license at the same time LCS were just starting. So that was a whole new experience as well rather than buying off the news stand. For me I bought comics and music with my money. At first it was albums for at home and 8 tracks for the car. Then in a few years I switched entirely to cassettes.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jul 10, 2021 10:09:15 GMT -5
I had my own car since age 16. I spent my adolescent years growing up in a rural area, with the nearest large city (Birmingham, AL) being about 40 minutes away. There were three smaller towns of around 10-15,000 within a 20 mile radius, and visiting one of those towns still required a deliberate trip. Most of my comic purchases were made at various drugstore, grocery and convenience store trips to those cities, but usually on trips where I went with my mom to shop for groceries or other things. Comics never became a deliberate road trip until I went to college out-of-state. I figured out when new books came out each week, and made the rounds each week after class-- again, hitting multiple drugstores and convenience stores. On top of that, I began ordering through Westfield's subscription service around that time. LCS shops weren't really a thing in the south back in the 70's-80's and there was only one that I knew of in Birmingham, carrying primarily new issues. Westfield's subscription service offered me the opportunity to be on the front end of the B/W indie boom of the early '80's.
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Post by kirby101 on Jul 10, 2021 10:13:59 GMT -5
Truth be told, I have much fonder memories of riding around town on my bike in search of all of this weeks comics.
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Post by Graphic Autist on Jul 10, 2021 10:59:10 GMT -5
Truth be told, I have much fonder memories of riding around town on my bike in search of all of this weeks comics. Same here! And age 13 I decided to be a big boy and take the Metro (Washington, DC’s equivalent of the subway) alone to the first LCS I ever visited. I have great memories of reading new issues on the ride home while trying to remember to keep alert enough to hear when my stop was coming.
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Post by brutalis on Jul 10, 2021 11:01:59 GMT -5
Truth be told, I have much fonder memories of riding around town on my bike in search of all of this weeks comics. That was my 1st stage of comic collecting. But a limited joy as 1 Circle K and 2 Korean markets within bike riding range to pursue my searches. But dang it all if those weren't memorable weekends! And any time my mother sent me to 1 of the stores for her cigarettes or milk or such between weekly grocery shopping I spent time at the comic rack digging through them in hope of finding issues I missed or passed on before. Good times indeed...
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 12, 2021 9:57:42 GMT -5
By the time I got my driver's license, I had just entered what I'd call my first big break with comics, so I never used my new-found automotive freedom (such as it was, since I didn't have my own car) for comics hunting. I did, however, occasionally make Saturday or Sunday trips up to Portland, OR to hit the used book- and record stores, but that's another story. As for the earlier phase, the closest town was 3 miles from our house - I did ride my bike there occasionally (although my parents *really* frowned on that), but there was only one mom & pop corner shop there with a spinner rack. Mainly I depended on accompanying my mom when she went grocery shopping, and then doing a quick tour of the grocery store's spinner rack, the magazine aisle in the adjacent drugstore and then any nearby convenience stories (which I think I covered in greater detail in an earlier post in this thread).
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Post by tonebone on Jul 14, 2021 14:50:22 GMT -5
Truth be told, I have much fonder memories of riding around town on my bike in search of all of this weeks comics. At 13, I lived in a town with a population of 207, and I would ride my bike to the corner mom-and-pop store to pick up my DC's (all they ever sold), but to get my Marvels, my mom would drive me into the nearest town (pop 20.000) to visit the Kerr Drugs (Marvel, Harvey, Charlton, Archie, Mad, etc.) or the Fast Fare gas station (all Marvel). I would also ride my bike to a local flea market that sold DC Dollar comics back issues for a quarter.
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dave
Junior Member
Posts: 44
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Post by dave on Jul 15, 2021 10:39:45 GMT -5
Do you Remember When you were digging through the back issue bins and found that one issue you've been dying to find for ages or that one special bargain that lets you get away with buying a typically pricey book on the cheap? You know, the ones where your heart would start racing a bit and you'd pull the issue out of the bin with shaky hands, maybe move it to the bottom of the stack you were carrying so no one else could see the gold you were holding? My top 2 are pretty pedestrian, but they meant a lot to me at the time: 2. First time in a shop on the other side of town and I found Swamp Thing #20 in a bin for a dollar. This was in the '90s when everything had a $20+ price tag on it if there was any possible reason it could be justified. This issue marked the end of the story begun by Martin Pasko, which no one really cared about, but it also had the distinction of being the first issue of Swamp Thing written by Alan Moore. Also, it hadn't ever been reprinted--there was a monthly Vertigo series reprinting the Moore run in black and white, but it started with "Anatomy Lesson" in issue #21 (a much better place to start a reprint series than issue #20). I looked it over... perfectly good condition, didn't look like the back cover was missing or anything... the dealer just missed what made it collectible, I guess. Win for me! 1. I'd only been into comics for maybe a year or so, but I'd gotten into the FF pretty heavily. The Walt Simonson run was coming out at the time, which I liked, but I was particularly enamored of the preceding run by Steve Englehart and Keith Pollard (I must have been the only kid on the planet who loved what became known as the Thing's "pineapple" look.) I had most of it, but I just couldn't seem to track down #320--the one where the Pineapple Thing beats the holy hell out of the Gray Hulk. Every week when I went to the shop, the first place I went straight for--before I even looked at the new books on the shelves--was the bin with the FF issues in it to see if, by some miracle.... ah, but a fruitless journey, week after week. I came to hate the covers for #319 and #321--mocking little bastards, never having #320 between them they way they should. When the shop finally did get that issue in, for me it was like whenever they open the suitcase in Pulp Fiction... it practically shone at me out of the bin. It was priced twice as high as any other back issue from the era (a massive $2.50 out of my measly $5 allowance!), but I didn't hesitate. Naturally, it was the first thing I read when I got home... ...and found out the story was continued in Hulk #350.
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Post by brutalis on Jul 15, 2021 12:19:17 GMT -5
Do you Remember When you were digging through the back issue bins and found that one issue you've been dying to find for ages or that one special bargain that lets you get away with buying a typically pricey book on the cheap? You know, the ones where your heart would start racing a bit and you'd pull the issue out of the bin with shaky hands, maybe move it to the bottom of the stack you were carrying so no one else could see the gold you were holding? Welcome aboard dave! Great one! I had a blast in the early days of the LCS digging for GOLD as they say in filling the holes of my favorite series. Lots of joy taking home issues of FF and Avengers on the cheap knowing many of them were pricing way out of my range. Had quite a bit of luck too in grabbing up missing issues of Starlin's Mar-Vell and Warlock when the had just become highly priced. Got around 8 issues total I was needing at a used book store and the owner could care less about comics. Every comic in the place sat in milk crates priced 2 for a $1. Was never so happy as that afternoon when I got home and reading what I had missed out on!
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Post by brutalis on Aug 29, 2021 15:23:41 GMT -5
Trying to Remember When I was first capable of recognizing artists in simply seeing their artwork? And dang if I can actually designate a specific time. It was routine by the 70's that most comics had the artist/inker noted. About the only ones NOT carrying regular credits was true children's comics like Archie, Richie Rich and those based on cartoons like Disney or Warner Brothers. Charlton was also quite notorious for no credits along with Marvel or DC 1930-1950 reprints.
I was fairly well adept recognizing most individual artists and once a name was in the credits I was quick to remember it. It helps that by the 70's artists were quickly developing their unique signature styles. I could recognize and appreciate the "big" name artists as well for developing a fast growing list of what I liked. It was a fun time learning the names and styles of the pencil and ink artists of the time.
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Post by Rob Allen on Aug 29, 2021 22:37:19 GMT -5
For me, it happened toward the end of the period when I stopped buying comics for almost two years - from June 1969 to some time in spring 1971. At some point in 1970 or 71 I started an organized re-read of my collection. Seeing them with older eyes, in rapid succession instead of once a month, I found some artists' work easy to recognize, and as I got back into comics I kept trying to see the uniqueness of each artist.
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 30, 2021 5:12:43 GMT -5
The first artist whom I remember being able to recognize was Steve Ditko, though not necessarily in a good way. I wasn't a fan of his work, especially not his 70's/80's stuff.
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Post by brutalis on Aug 30, 2021 7:40:05 GMT -5
Ditko and Kirby was easily recognized as both had unique standout styles. Likely both of them were a lot of folks 1st artistic dawning.
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