Comic Books, Super-Heroes and Me: **Phase 1: The Early Years

Sometimes after making my Wednesday purchase of new comic books, I wonder what I'm doing.

Most comics now cost $2.99 -$3.99 each. It doesn't take long to run up quite a bill. And what do I do with these illustrated marvels? After reading them, they get bagged up, placed in an acid free box and stored away in a temperature controlled dry room. Any particular comic may never be looked at again. Ah, the joys of collecting.

I will pause on this and think back to what comic books have meant to me over my life and then realize they have been an integral part providing many memories and much enjoyment.

My earliest comic book memories date back to the the early 60s. I was a young boy of 7 or 8 years old when our family would visit my grandparents every Sunday in Plainfield, Indiana. My Grandmother would fix up a big fried chicken dinner for everyone and she would give my sister and I a quarter each along with a box of Cracker Jack or a small bag of potato chips. I would promptly run down to the corner Rexall Drug Store and buy a couple of comic books or if I wanted to splurge and had a few more cents available, I'd pick up the latest Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine.

I can't remember the first comic book I purchased but I do remember buying

Amazing Fantasy 15 off the newstand. I debated whether to buy it because the price was 12 cents rather than the 10 cents I was used to spending. But that cover introducing Spider-Man sold me.

I can conjure up memories of reading Amazing Spider-Man 4 with Sandman while I was sitting on the stairway leading up to my grandmother's apartment. Elektro became a favorite villain when I read through the 9th issue of Amazing Spiderman. It would take awhile before he was replaced by The Green Goblin.

Spider-Man was definitely a favorite. A teen-age hero who wasn't a side kick but the main guy was exciting. He struggled with all the problems other kids had and he was easy to relate to. To this day, my since of responsibility continues to be the virtue that drives me most. I learned it in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man. "With great power, there must also come great responsibility"-- Uncle Ben Parker Amazing Fantasy 15

As much as I enjoyed Spider-Man and the other early Marvel Comics with the dose of realism they provided, my favorite comics were put out by DC. These were the icons. I had been buying Superman, Batman and The Justice League before I bought Marvel and they are still my favorites. When Superman and Batman teamed up in World's Finest Comics, I thought I was getting something special. It was like getting double the value for my 12 cents. World's Finest 139 "The Ghost of Batman" and Worlds Finest 142 featuring the first Composite Superman story stand out vividly. The Composite Superman was especially cool as he was a caretaker of the Superman Museum when a Lightning Bolt struck the statuettes of the Legion of Super-heroes releasing their energy into his body. He uses the power of Chamelion Boy to alter his appearance into the Composite Superman and forces Superman, Batman & Robin into a partnership and then seeks to end their careers as heroes.

If having Superman and Batman teamed up in the same comic wasn't good enough, I could always turn to the Justice League of America. The combination of Super-heroes interacting with one another was always a book I looked forward to. One particular issue, number 30, introduced a team of Super Villains who were alternates of the heroes I was familiar with. These characters from Earth 3 provided an interesting twist to the ongoing teamups with super-heroes from the golden age with the current incarnations. Ultraman countered Superman, Owlman was Batman's doppleganger. Power Ring and Superwoman were Green Lantern and Wonder Woman's counterparts. These matchups have continued into the modern day most recently in an animated movie released on DVD entitled "Crisis On Two Earths".

During those days Superman remained my favorite character. I loved the imaginary stories like "The Sons of Superman" featured in Superman 166. This story took place in the future telling the tale of Superman's sons Jor-El II and Kal-El II. Superman's wife is never identified. She is only visualized in silhouette. Jor-El II had super powers like his father and Kal-El II did not. Superman tried various methods to enable him with powers also. Both boys were later taken to the bottle city of Kandor to receive a Kryptonian education. Of course, there neither boy had super-powers, and while there they learned of the exploits of Nightwing and Flamebird- crime fighters of Krypton. Superman and Jimmy Olsen had taken on these identities in earlier adventures. The boys have an adventure of their own disguised as the new Nightwing and Flamebird. The villain they battle frees himself from the bottled city and the boys must follow. Monsters are unleashed and Superman and young Jor-El use their powers to fight the threat and young Kal-El is unable to assist due to his lack of powers but later Kal has to find a way to save Superman and Jor-El who are dying in a kryptonite trap. Kal recues them and no longer feels inferior to them because of his lack of super powers.

The following issue #167 features one of my favorite Curt Swan Superman covers of all time. Lex Luther and Brainiac have Superman shrunk down, trapped in a canary cage.

Superman never seemed to disappoint me. In addition to the comics was The Adventures of Superman TV show. I remember rushing home after school to watch it, along with Sergeant Preston of the Yukon and The Lone Ranger. It was Superman I wanted to see the most. I would recite along with the introduction as the music played and a streak of light surged across a body of planets exploding into the Title:

"Faster than A Speeding Bullit

More Powerful Than Locomotive

Able to Leap Tall Buildings in a Single Bound

Look Up In The Sky!

It's a Bird!

It's a Plane!

It's Superman!"

Yes, It's Superman Strange visitor From Another Planet Who Came to Earth With Powers and Abilities Far Beyond Those of Mortal Man

Superman, Who Can Change the Course of Mighty Rivers

Bend Steel In His Bare Hands

And Who Disguised as Clark Kent, Mild Mannered Reporter For A Great Metropolitan Newspaper

Fights the Never Ending Battle For Truth, Justice And The American Way!

These adventures remain for me the best non animated depiction of the Man of Steel (with only Smallville rivaling but because Superman hasn't been introduced, only Clark Kent, I don't really count it) and George Reeve's portrayal of Clark Kent is much better than any of the movie versions.

Interest in girls didn't fully blossom until many years later, but I do remember some form of infatuation with the opposite sex beginning around kindergarten. I contribute this to the girls of the Legion of Super-Heroes. There was just something about these beautiful girls in costume displaying super powers. I'll let someone else try and analyse a first grader's interest in Triplicate Girl.

By fifth grade the campy Batman TV show was all the rage. I didn't want to miss an episode. My friends and I would dress up as super-heroes. Mark Kasting always wanted to be Batman. I didn't mind being Robin. I could relate to him better and I thought Robin was cooler. We had to watch Batman on my parents old Black & White TV and I was always jealous of those with color sets. One Wednesday evening, my folks were invited over to some friends of the family for dinner. I reluctantly had to go along fearful I would miss my favorite show. To my great joy we were able to watch Batman in color over at their house. Ah, the memories.

I sent away for autographed photos of Adam West and Burt Ward as the dynamic duo and other memorabila, but the coolest 1966 item I collected was a set of Topps Batman cards illustrated by Norm Saunders. When I had collected all but one of the cards in the set, I found another guy who had the card I needed. He told me I would have to walk to school on my knees in order for him to give me the card. I swallowed my pride and payed the price. He got his amusement, I completed the set

To my regret, I didn't consider collecting comics back in those days. I would read them a time or two, put them into a pile until it built up and then with a friend, Paul Stergar, we would lug them around the neighborhood selling them for a nickel apiece. What we collected was baseball cards and we used our nickels to buy packs of ball cards with a stick of gum. By the end of grade school, I had tired of comics and before I started high school I had also given my entire collection of baseball cards to Paul. (The collection of cards included multiple Mickey Mantle cards from nearly every year and many many more.) Paul probably got rich from the cards we collected.

My interest in Comic books would revive about the time I started college. More later.