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| Copyright MARVEL COMICS |
I was gazing at a framed picture of the cover to FANTASTIC FOUR #1 on my wall the other day and it got me to thinking. The comic came out in 1961, but I was too young to know about it then and didn't discover the FF until '66, when their adventures were reprinted in the pages of British weekly, WHAM! (The origin story, split over two issues, was simultaneously published in SMASH! as well.)
Back then, of course, U.S. monthly magazines were stacked in spinner-racks over in a corner somewhere, while U.K. weekly titles were usually displayed on newsagents' counters right next to the daily papers. That probably accounts for why I was largely unaware of MARVEL and DC comics 'til around the mid 1960s.
Know what though? I'd love to be able to go back into the past and observe my younger self buying whatever comics I bought at the time - just to see what monthly superhero mags, unobserved by myself, were on sale in the same shop while I was making my purchase. Imagine being able to see yourself as a kid, standing a few feet away from classic first (and subsequent early) issues of FF, THOR, HULK, SPIDEY, etc., but totally oblivious to them.
Well, okay - not just to see, now that I think about it. Obviously I'd take back some old currency to buy and bring them back to the present with me, all in absolute pristine condition. I could also buy a few spare issues to sell to modern day collectors for astronomical sums, thereby ensuring a comfortable old age for myself.
I find it fascinating to ponder the many goodies I may have stood next or near to in my youth and simply never noticed what 'treasures' perhaps lay only a few feet away. Hitherto, I've always sort of assumed that if I didn't see or know about some item at the time, then it was likely never available in my neck of the woods, but that's too simplistic an assumption when I think about it.
Anyone else ever nurture such nutty notions? Do tell!
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Incidentally, I do the same thing with people. When I attended a new school in a new neighbourhood back in '65, it transpired that the boy sat at the desk behind me used to live just around the corner from my previous home. We'd never met before, even though I used to go by his house every day on my way to my old school. I later found myself wondering if we'd ever passed in the street or waited in the same bus shelter, or perhaps stood next to one another in the same queue in our local newsagent's - without ever noticing (or remembering). Of course, it doesn't matter a whit to the price of cheese, but such things fascinate me for some strange reason.
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