And Then I Saw It...

Doug: Venture with me to those days of yesteryear, when the men were men and the boys (and girls) got all wide-eyed and giddy when they entered the aisle at the supermarket with the magazine rack. Yep -- I'm talking about the Bronze Age, baby, with no Internet, no Diamond Previews, nothing at all to tell a poor soul what magnificent four-color love was about to enter my life. I have three distinct memories (among others) to share.

Doug: The first breath-taking moment I'll relate occurred at the Thrif-t-Mart on Broadway in Bradley, IL in the summer of 1977. Eleven-year old Doug was along with Mom on the weekly grocery run. As was my habit, I'd make my way over to the magazines and paperbacks. I felt all grown up looking at Parade, Creem, and their ilk. I was most enraptured by anything I could find that featured KISS. And then I saw it, right there on the bottom shelf just begging to be picked up: Marvel Super Special #1, starring KISS. Wowza. I grabbed it, leafed through it quickly, and then made a mad dash to the meat counter where I found my Mom. You may not think $1.50 is a lot of money, but back in those days that was "begging and pleading" money. But as she usually did, she said to put it in the cart. Yes!!!

Doug: Chronologically, my next moment came just a short while later, and it was a "twofer", so even better yet. I was at Belscot, a discount department store (sort of like a Wal-Mart or K-Mart) in Kankakee, IL. Not sure why that particular trip was being made, but you guess it -- I stole away to the magazines. And that store had a huuuuuuge magazine rack full of all sorts of goodies. On that particular day the pot o' gold happened to be Justice League of America #s 147 and 148! Not a regular JLA reader at the time, I had been however digging the Legion of Super-Heroes as well as the Justice Society revival in the pages of All-Star Comics. So to see all three teams in a throwdown, and against Mordru, was 10 tons of awesome right there. And again, the combined $1.20 price tag didn't seem to faze Mom and I walked out with all that comic book goodness.

Doug: Lastly, and this was also at Belscot but a few years later, I vividly remember having my senses shattered from a distance when Marvel Treasury Edition #21 met my eyeballs. We mentioned this one a few days ago -- the twice-up (that's original art talk to you) presentation of Fantastic Four #s 120-123 is spectacular. The John Buscema/Joe Sinnott art is worthy of the size, and what a grabber the cover is! And talk about pushing my luck... at $2.00 I'm sure I had to pledge to do some extra work around the house. But I exited the premises with that tome in my clutches -- you know I did!

Doug: I could go on, about the time I saw the Spider-Man novel, the first in that series, or the paperback that reprinted the first few issues of Amazing Spider-Man in color, or the similar offerings from DC that presented early tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes. But that's what you're here for -- to share those memories etched in your childhood's memories. I'm looking forward to it.