THE RUNAWAY SUPERBOY - PART FIFTEEN OF FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST...

Images copyright DC COMICS

SUPERBOY #146 is 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 stories.)  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 got this ish the same day as X-MEN #45, both bought for me by my bruv on or around the time of his birthday in December 1968.  I recall comparing the full-colour X-Men story with its black and white reprinting in the pages of bombastic British publication, FANTASTIC, shortly before it finished its 89 issue run.  I think I also flicked through FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #6 in the same shop on the same day of purchase of the other two.

The 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 was in 1968, when I was a mere ten year old boy.  Many years later, as an adult, I finally obtained that FF mag, but it cost a lot more than it would have back in the '60s.  Couldn't tell you where I got it from 'cos I can no longer remember.  Not that it matters, I suppose, because it's too firmly associated with that shop from my childhood days.

And perhaps that's how it should be.

(*Update:  Well, it did at the time of writing, but around three and a half years later, it closed its doors for the final time.  It's now a fast food outlet.)

   

Update: I've now got the conclusion to the above tale, which you can read about here.  Before you jump over to have a look, below is the cover (replica edition) of #147, the Giant reprint issue, so that you've got all three issues in sequence.