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| Images copyright DC COMICS |
Dug out some old BATMAN comics recently, after reading my TALES Of The BATMAN, GENE COLAN volume. When my eyes gazed upon the above cover, images of my bedroom in another house popped into my mind, and I mentally dated it circa 1984. You can imagine my surprise when I read the indicia and saw that it was, in fact, an early 1980 mag that went on sale (in America at least) in late 1979. So how the heck did I get it so wrong?
As regular readers will know, I've lived in my current abode twice. The first period was between 1972 and '83, and the second period from 1987 to the present. As it was during my first 'term in office' when I bought the above mag, I should mainly associate it with this dwelling and not the one in between. I can only assume that for some forgotten reason, something caused the cover to impress itself upon my subconscious mind while browsing through my comics collection in that other room one evening, and supplanted my earlier memories of when I first got it.
However, I suppose there's always a slim chance I didn't acquire the comic until a few years after it first came out, and that I bought it in '84 to fill a gap in my collection. I considered that possibility, but a vestigial memory of owning it in this house before I flitted yet persists, though my later association now appears to be the primary one. (At least, it does today - that might not be the case tomorrow.) I always find it disconcerting when that happens, as I tend to use comics as signposts to various points in my life and I hate it when there's a blip in the process.
Have you ever looked at an old comic and recalled the place, the month, or the year you bought it, only to find upon checking the date on the cover (or in the indicia) that your recollection is off and that you couldn't possibly have bought or owned it where or when you thought you did? Tell all in the comments section. In the meantime, take a look at the pretty pics on offer.
6 comments:
The one time my memory was way off was with DC's Spectre #1. I seemed to remember reading it at my grandparents' house during spring break, in April or May. But it was cover dated November-December 1967, so it would have been on sale in September. Maybe I am conflating it with some other comic, possibly Justice League #46 and/or #47.
Some DC comics were sold in bagged three-packs back then, and those may have been copies that had gone unsold individually. So, in some cases, my memory might be off by a month or two, because, for example, I may have bought World's Finest #158, Aquaman #29, and Detective #354 in June when they were originally on sale in April or May.
TC, it doesn't help if, like me, you sometimes bought the same issue twice, several months apart. I'd do this sometimes because I'd maybe cut figures out of my original copy (or given it to a pal), then I'd see it again in all its pristine newness on the spinner-rack and simply have to own it again. Because distribution was spotty in Britain at the time, comics often turned up again months or years after they'd first gone on sale here.
I would have sworn that I read the Complete Fantastic Four in my old house in 1976..... but it came out two years after we moved. Definitely not a MWOM or Titans read.
CFF came out in September '77, CN, so that would mean you moved in 1975. (Or '74 if you think the comic came out in '76.) Funny how the mind can play tricks like that, eh?
I was watching a "Horizon" special on how we store long term memories in the brain a few months ago and it said the brain is simply not built to remember all things 100% ( or anywhere near that) and that what we may think is a correct memory is between 20% to 100% incorrect. The brain will only ever store certain things and fill it out with other memories ( it will recall the comic you bought/, perhaps the shop you bought it in , but perhaps not the correct year or who you were with at that time etc)- overall the facts are there but not in the right order hence the disconnect and when we dont question it, it i only because we accept that version which the brain gives us as that is never always 100% (but is close enough as few folk want to or need to recall it all) - It was amazing the facts folk got wrong on major event they witnessed (events that were clarified re TV footage etc)
I think the first time we remember something it's probably reasonably accurate because it's closer to the event, but the next time we remember it, we're actually recalling our first remembrance of it, the next time the second, the time after that the third, etc. So it's like photocopying a picture, then photocopying the photocopy, ad infinitum. So years later, the memory is like a 400th generation memory.
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