Subscribe RH Love

Comic Relief

by | Jun 19, 2024 | Opinion

People use different ways to learn to read. Some folks use the vowels and consonants method. Others memorize how the words look.

 I used both, but I had a secret weapon many didn’t know about.

 Comic books.

 While most kids were having, “Fun with Dick and Jane,” I was having a blast with Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four.

 It started when my dad came home one day with a stack of comic books he’d picked up for a quarter at a garage sale.

At the time, new comics were 12¢ each, and were only available locally from a rack at the Piggly Wiggly in Ashdown, Arkansas.

But, thanks to the moms of the boys who were now out of the house, comics could be had by the sackfull for cheap. A summer garage sale after a good spring-cleaning was the best place to find them.

 There were two major comic camps in the 60s and 70s: D.C. and Marvel.

 D.C. gave us Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and The Flash.

 Marvel (the house that Stan Lee built) brought us Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The X-Men, Captain America, The Hulk, and Thor.

 Since my youth, many other characters have come from Marvel and have made the company one of the most successful, not only in comics, but also in movies and associated marketing.

 Comic characters are a serious, multi-billion dollar business.

 Comic book lovers aren’t just nerdy kids with dissociative disorders (although I’ve met a few of those along the way); comic book lovers include just about all walks of life.

 There’s no bigger fan of Superman than comedian Jerry Seinfeld. And lots of other well-known and successful people also love comics. They include TV host Seth Myers, and from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Patrick Stewart and Wil Wheaton. They played the captain and Wesley Crusher, respectively.

 Many of the well-known comic character aficionados got hooked on them the same way my buddies and I did. We started reading comic books.

 For me, comics were an escape. At a time when the Internet didn’t exist, and kids didn’t have a phone or a TV, you had to make your own entertainment. Or let Stan Lee do it for you.

 And boy, did Stan Lee do a bang up job.

 The reason my buddies and I leaned more towards Marvel than D.C. was that Stan Lee talked to us. In every comic, Stan wrote a message. And it was to us, the readers.

 I have no idea who ran D.C. Comics back in the day, but everyone knew who Stan Lee was. And they still do now.

 In my opinion, Stan Lee was one of the most brilliant marketing guys in American business. He made you feel as if the Marvel characters weren’t just your heroes, they were your buddies.

 His trademark, “‘nuff said,” would end his messages, and they became his editorial trademark for the reader. His later appearances in Marvel movies became his trademark for those who were late to the game.

 My buddies and I would talk about Stan Lee’s latest message as we sat around reading or trading comic books.

 And trading comics was serious, and at times, intense.

 The value of a comic could go up or down based on whether an old enemy of the comic hero had recently been killed off. If you had a copy of a previous appearance of that character, the value went up.

 If you had copies of a comic where an enemy was considered lame, its trade value was less.

 It wasn’t uncommon for three-or-four-to-one trades to occur. If you wanted a comic that was considered highly coveted, you might have to give up a stack of yours for it.

 I played a lot of empty-lot, neighborhood sports with kids in town, and I traded a lot of comics. I don’t remember much about the baseball and football games we played, but I remember comic book trades very well.

 As a matter of fact, I still have every comic book I ever had, less the ones I traded. They’re all in individual plastic sheaths, inside lightproof boxes, stored in a climate-controlled part of the house.

 You see, my mom saw the difference comic books made in my youth. So, when she was tired of them being in my old closet, she called me to come get them instead of selling them for a buck in a yard sale.

 That makes my mom the biggest superhero of all.

 ‘Nuff said.

Enjoying this column? Want to read more like this? Subscribe to The Wylie News and support your local newspaper today!

By John Moore | thecountrywriter.com. 

Subscribe RH Love

0 Comments

Subscribe RH Love

Related News

Kitsch me if you can

Kitsch me if you can

Columnist John Moore grew up with yard art, and still proudly displays a concrete gargoyle out on the front porch. Photo: John Moore Pink flamingos. Chalk and concrete figures. Cast iron pots with flowers. Old school bells. Cars on blocks. The yard art of yesterday....

read more
Put a pencil to it

Put a pencil to it

Columnist John Moore loves pencils. Even pencils that cost $30. Courtesy John Moore They call it, “click bait.” It’s when you come across something online that sounds amazing, so you click on it to learn more. Click bait is something that turns out to be nothing as...

read more
Time for a Change

Time for a Change

Last weekend, I did something I don’t think I’ve ever done before—I forgot to discuss the time change with my husband, the chief clock changer in our house. So when I woke up at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, I approached the day as “business as usual” and went downstairs to let...

read more
House proposes $7.5 billion in new school funding

House proposes $7.5 billion in new school funding

Critics say a House bill proposing $7.5 billion in new funding for public education doesn’t go far enough, The Dallas Morning News reported. House Bill 2 would raise the per-student allotment by $220, to $6,360 a year. It would also invest $750 million in teacher pay...

read more
Voucher bill has backing of House majority

Voucher bill has backing of House majority

A slim majority of Texas House members have indicated they will back House Bill 3, which creates education savings accounts that allow families to use taxpayer money for private school education. The Dallas Morning News reported that 75 Republican legislators have...

read more
House unveils its voucher version

House unveils its voucher version

Texas House members filed a bevy of education bills last week, including a proposed $8 billion investment in public education and a voucher bill that ties the amount of money spent for private schooling to the dollar amount provided to public schools. The Austin...

read more
Door number one

Door number one

Columnist John Moore has some milk bottles to return, but the milkman no longer stops by his home. Courtesy John Moore Social media, for all of its faults, every now and then offers something worthwhile. I’m a member of a group on Facebook called, “Dull Men.” The only...

read more
Voucher bill passes Senate, arrives in House

Voucher bill passes Senate, arrives in House

A bill to implement school vouchers in Texas sailed through the Senate largely on party lines last week and now awaits consideration in the House, the Austin American-Statesman reported. House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, said he believes there are enough votes...

read more
A hare much

A hare much

Columnist John Moore recalls the friends of his youth, including Harvey The Rabbit. Photo: John Moore I never had more than one at a time, but I had stuffed animals.  Don’t all kids have a security blanket when they’re young? At first, I had a monkey who had a...

read more
Order photos