Flashback Friday # 128

Comic Books

Welcome back one and all. In this edition of Flashback Friday we take a look into the majority of my literary conquests. Comic books. They were my companion throughout my life as a youngster. Today's "Graphic Novels" are nothing more than comic books with chapters.

I had three main places where I got said comics. If I bought them, it was normally from the general store a mile or so away or the grocery store in Marengo. Both of them sold comics in a three pack with no cover, or the top half of the cover missing for 50 cents a pack. I found out much later in life that books like that are reported returned and destroyed. Someone must have had a pipeline that funneled these to our area. My other source was my Uncle, who also liked to read comic books, but did not like to re-read them. When he stopped by, he would have a paper bag full of comics for me.

At that period in my life, It really didn't matter what the genre was. The only exception was "Mushy Love" comics. (They were like the romance novels, but with pictures) I really liked the war comics (Sgt. Rock, Sgt. Fury & the Howling Commandos). Super hero comics were big with me too. The Flash was my favorite super hero. I also had western comics (Jonah Hex, Rawhide Kid), and of course, comic comics (Archie, Richie Rich, Baby Huey). I even read the "scary comics" like "The Witching Hour" & "Grimm's Ghost Stories"(I don't think I could read stuff like that now). The "Illustrated Classic" comics was probably the peak of my literary reading. I read Huckleberry Finn, Ben Hur & The Time Machine that way. The teacher doesn't look too highly on a book report written on a comic book.

I never tired of reading them again. At one point, I had somewhere around 400-450. Needless to say, my reading of "real books" suffered. At one point, Mom signed up for a kids book club that sent a book a month. I got "Mouse & the Motorcycle, The Mysterious Bender Bones, Mrs. Pepperpot's Outing and many others. I don't think I read all of them. Many of the titles I read when my kids were little and brought them home from school.

I had comics at my house, and I also had a stack at my grandma's house in Westerville. She was so frustrated with me always reading comics, that she gave me a book and told me that she wanted me to read it. It was Living Free, the sequel to Born Free. I had the book in my possession for many years. I never read it.

Since I've been married, my wife has stretched the bounds of my literary realm.She got me hooked on Louis L'amour and I've read everything that he has written. The last comic book I remember reading was "The Death of Superman". My oldest daughter's boyfriend had the series (it lasted 5 comic books long). If I read comics now, it's from the newspaper.