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The Fantastic Four #150 is a comic that conjures up memories of me sitting reading it on my grandparents' itchy red bed settee on one of my family's weekly Sunday visits. By this time we were living just 5 minutes round the corner from them, as opposed to the adjoining neighbourhood we'd stayed in for almost 7 years up until June of 1972. Not that such a snippet of information is important to you, but it's relevant to me.
Anyway, it turns out that regular readers CJ and McS also have personal associations with this very same issue, and it reminded me of how comics and their covers can often be gateways to pleasanter times in our past, and the guardians of cherished memories of people, places, and events that are dear to us.
However, it just occurred to me that some comics must surely have sad or even unpleasant associations that we'd probably prefer to forget, though I can't think of any in my own particular case. So here's a question for all you Crivvies to ponder, and answer if it's not an 'ordeal' for you to remember. Are there any comics in your past that conjure up unhappy occasions, and that you can't look at or think of without being saddened by the recollections that they summon?
Or can comics only connect us to halcyon days of yore, as opposed to horrible days? What say ye all, Crivvies? Let your voices be heard.
15 comments:
Kid, you seem to have had a very happy childhood and you're very lucky because many of us can't say the same. I don't want to go into details but my parents had a very difficult relationship which caused all kinds of problems through my childhood years so looking at comic covers from that time is a bittersweet experience because I have fond memories of the comics themselves but the period I was actually reading them wasn't so great. That's why I'm not keen on buying reprints like the True Believers series or the Conan Epic collections - I don't want to be reminded too much of those days.
I'm not saying that there weren't unhappy or unpleasant times in my childhood, CJ, just that I don't seem to associate such moments with any particular comic. In that, I certainly am lucky. Yours is just the sort of answer I was looking for, in that it confirms my notion that surely all comics wouldn't necessarily have had happy memories for everyone, but without going into the detail as to why. You do seem to remember your mother and father with apparent fondness quite regularly though, so your memories of them haven't been too coloured by whatever your experience sometimes was. Ta for answering.
I was lucky enough to have a very good childhood so comics I associate with that time are positive but I do seem to recall a time I came home with a batch of comics at the same time my exam results came in (can't recall if it was my O levels or prelims) and errr let's just say I did not do well and my mum and dad had a "talk" with me on spending to much time reading comics and SF and not studying, which was true . Sadly I can't recall the actual comics but I got it was a wake up call and I did pull up my socks and passed most of my O levels and highers . There was another comic I remember an ex of mine send back to me (with some other stuff, clothes etc) when we split up, it was Inhumans issue 4 (a limited series from 2000) It wasn't a good relationship and that time was a bad time as we were engaged etc and although I was upset and felt bad for ending things, I was glad it was over (so maybe it's a good memory in some ways)
A bit of both perhaps, eh, McS? It's strange, because I think it's unlikely that everything was going rosy for me all the time, but I just don't associate any particular comic title with a 'bad' (or sad) period in my life. Maybe I've just forgotten any negative experiences with which I could link a comic, but I'm glad if that's the case to be honest. Still got that Inhumans #4?
Actually I do still have that issue of Inhumans. I'm the same I don't associate any specific comics with a particularly bad time. But I'm sure there were times things weren't great for me like most folk I just don't link any specific comic to those times . The Inhumans comic was really after the event etc. I think as well comics for myself at least, were used to cheer me up.
Amazing how memory works just as I sent that last reply I just remembered a rotten time linked to a comic. A few days before Christmas 1973 or 1974 I bought the (Seaboard) Psycho 1973 horror annual. On Christmas Eve I got the worst toothache (actually second worst i had an abscess on tooth about 5 years ago ) and was up all night. I remember the pain subsiding and took the time to read my annual. I remember just opening up the comic and reading the contents page just as I drank a cuppa tea and the heat must have hit a nerve - the pain was unreal and lasted till after boxing day. I saw the Psycho annual on sale a few years ago and I was taken right back to that loooong weekend of pain (and no I didn't buy it)
So I have to ask, McS - did you not buy it because it wasn't a particularly good or significant annual, or because you specifically didn't want to be reminded of that long weekend of toothache? Who knows, perhaps a memory will dawn of a comic with negative connotations for me, 'cos some days I remember some things that I don't remember on others. As you say, amazing how memory works (or doesn't in some cases).
I just wasn't prepared to pay the £20 they were asking for it Kid. However as I recall it wasn't a great magazine but if I saw it again for a decent price (under £10) I woukd probably buy it.
I'll keep an eye out for a copy, McS, and let you know if I ever see one for sale at a reasonable price.
The worst comic-related me memory that springs to mind for me was when I bought and read Youngblood #1, and - let's be diplomatic- didn't enjoy it.
There's also the time I split a glass of milk all over a pristine copy of Marvel Team-Up #117. Curse me for a novice, as Dr Strange would say.
Don't think I've ever read any issues of Youngblood, DS. Heard the name, but know nothing about the character (that I remember). Did you buy another copy of MTU #117?
Nope. This was a few years after it was originally published, and I never got hold of another copy (the guest star was Wolverine, so it was a little pricey as a back issue in the 80s and 90s). I did manage to read the following issue though, which recapped the story.
I've had the occasional accident myself with a few comics, DS. Sickening, isn't it? Maybe Marvel will do a Facsimile Edition with any luck.
None of my comics have a particular emotional connotation, so I'll just comics that I remember where I was when I bought them. There are only three.
Hulk #102 / Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1: I was visiting my Uncle Arthur in Amington shortly after he bought his first house. I picked up these two comics at a nearby newsagent. I sat reading them in his barely furnished house. He said they were rubbish. Later on he said, "Let me read your rubbish comics", and he read both of them while I watched him. He was clearly fascinated, but he wouldn't admit that he liked them.
Giant-Size X-Men #1: I think it was summer 1977. I visited Birmingham's "Nostalgia & Comics", which was still in its original location, not the big shop it is now. There were two copies of Giant-Size X-Men #1 on sale for 50p each. I was interested, but I didn't buy a copy because it was a very high price. I returned a week later. The two copies were still there. Another customer picked up a copy and bought it. That made up my mind. I took the other copy to the counter. Before my eyes, the shop's owner (Phil, I think) stuck a 75p sticker on it. I told him it had only cost 50p a few seconds earlier, to which he replied "But there's only one left now". I paid the 75p, but I never liked that guy.
I'm not surprised - I don't think I'd have liked him either had he done that to me. Still, it's worth a small fortune these days - if you still have it.
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