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I love this time of year. Autumn has its own scents and hues, and, as it starts to give way to Winter, assumes a magical, hybrid quality of the two seasons peculiar unto itself. When any last faint remnants of lingering Summer have finally disappeared and been replaced with the preliminary signs of Jack Frost's rapidly oncoming kingdom, I can't help but think back to what an enchanted time it seemed to be when I was a kid.
Arising on dark mornings, streetlights a-twinkle; the first spidery glints of frost on the windows and pavements outside; warm milk on cornflakes to fortify me for my trek to school; sitting before the electric fire, hypnotized by shadows of dancing, flickering simulated flames; the fresh, biting chill of the air - all those memories - or any combination of them - embody that particular period of my personal history. Even today, the alluring nature of the season is as much to do with the warm glow of memory as enjoying it for its own sake.
The walk to school, the chatter of friends, the sheer exuberance of childhood - how it all comes rushing back to me in torrents. A large part of those memories is shaped by whatever comics I was buying at the time: TV CENTURY 21, WHAM!, SMASH!, FANTASTIC, WHIZZER & CHIPS, The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL, SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY and many more - all those publications seem to blend into one big memory (regardless of whether they were actually available or I was buying them concurrently or not), and span a goodly number of years from primary to secondary school. (I often smuggled a newly purchased comic into the classroom in my schoolbag and then had to suffer an agony of waiting 'til I could peruse it during the interval.)
And just think what we had to look forward to at that time of the year; Hallowe'en, Guy Fawkes' Night, Christmas - and I had the added bonus of having my birthday fall at around the same time. No wonder I tend to look back on those events with such fondness - I was just the right age to appreciate them in all their spectacular, multi-coloured, atmospheric glory. I'm sure it's the same for most people.
So, in an unseemly fit of sentimentality and nostalgia, I've dug through my files and unearthed some comic covers which would've been on sale towards the end of the year back in the 1960s & 1970s, in an attempt to crystalize not only my happy recollections of days gone by, but - if you're around the same age as myself - perhaps also your own. Hope you enjoy them.
See? You can go home again - even if it's only for a short visit.
2 comments:
I was particularly pleased to see Whizzer and Chips and Lion and Thunder. Wham was a rarity for me, like Terrific. I seemed to read more copies of Fantastic, Smash and Pow (and TV Tornado).
I also sneaked a peek in class at JLA or Avengers or X-Men in my Adidas bag between 76-78.
I was never trendy enough to have an Adidas bag - only the old-fashioned leather schoolbag for me. (Which I still have and use from time to time.)
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