SUPERBOY #146 is yet another comic I had as a boy which I never
got to read the conclusion of in the next-but-one issue. (Again, just like
WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #178, the succeeding publication was an 80
Page Giant which featured reprints of earlier tales.) The wrap-up of the
Superboy adventure came in number 148, but I've never read it in the
forty-odd years since I first obtained the original comic featuring the first
part of the story. (Or if I have, I've long since forgotten it. I don't think I
have 'though.)
If my flashback faculty is faithfully fulfilling its function, I obtained this comic
at the same time as X-MEN #45, both bought for me by my brother on or
around the time of his birthday in December 1968. I remember comparing
the full-colour X-Men story with its black and white reprinting in the pages
of bombastic British publication, FANTASTIC, not long before it finished its
89 issue run. I believe I also flicked through FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL
#6 in the same shop on the same day of purchase of the other two.
That shop still exists, although it's changed hands quite a few times
over the years - and it's been decades since it sold any U.S. comicbooks.
However, one glance at Superboy #146, X-Men #45, or FF Annual #6
(even 'though I didn't buy it) and I'm once again back in that shop as it
used to be in 1968, when I was a mere ten year old boy. Many years later,
as an adult, I finally obtained that FF Annual, but it cost me quite a bit
more than it would have in 1968. Couldn't tell you where I got it from 'cos
I don't remember any more. Not that it matters much, I suppose, because
it's too firmly associated with that shop from my childhood days.
And perhaps that's how it should be.
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