So a friend of mine, let’s call her, “Trixie” was
cleaning out an attic recently. Her son
found some issues of “Action Comics”, “Jimmy Olsen”, & “World’s Finest”. She asked her son if he wanted them. He said no.
She said that she knew someone (spoilers – ME) who would. She was right.
Trixie, I love ya.
The books are from the mid to late sixties & are
monthly publications and this got me thinking.
I too am from the mid to late sixties and I have an original publication
date (birthday) in December. ‘Come to
think of it,” I thought to myself, “lots of people have such a publication
history.” Then I thought of my immediate
family. How cool would it be to find a
comic in the birth month for each family member, frame them, and put them in a
collage on a wall in the ops center at Rancho del Evil Chicken? “Very cool, indeed.” I thought to myself.
But how does one organize such an undertaking? Do you choose only Marvel, only DC, or do you
mix and match? Of course you go with
characters that you love but what if the cover in your birth month is a little
less than you had hoped – do you plan for back up covers? Yup; you do.
My thoughts immediately were drawn to, “The Amazing Spider-Man”. In December of 1968 the cover has Spidey with
his back to the view, askew, with the gauntlets of Mysterio ready to crush him.
Not bad but then I thought to myself, “What was the HULK
up to?” Apparently he was in the Savage
Land with Kazar fighting “UMBU the Unliving”!
Nice cover – looks like it’s right out of the sixties – and now I have a
dilemma.
Then there is my wife.
I narrowed her down to two covers, “Detective Comics – Batman and
Batgirl” 384 and, “Silver Surfer” 4. The
Batman issue has the quote, “Who is the mysterious SHE?” prominently featured
on the cover so that scores some points there.
The Silver Surfer cover is set up in a classic Jack Kirby-esqu
slugfest between the “God of Thunder” and the “Sky-rider of the Space Ways!”
What about the kids!?
My oldest was born just when “Doomsday” was being introduced to the DC
universe. His arrival was big news for Superman and her arrival was big news for us.
My middle child has a love for Tony Stark and all things, “Iron
Man”. She was born during the whole, “Heroes
Reborn” saga at Marvel. A pretty good time to be alive.
Rob Liefeld & Jim Lee breathed life back into these
guys when no one else could.
My youngest was born when “Batman Beyond” was making the
transition from TV to comics. Further,
Terry McGuiness is one of her favorites. I hope that DC does more with Terry in the future - so does my youngest.
So now I have another reason to save my pennies. My wife has already threatened to take her
issue into work – thereby throwing off the entire Comic Book Project concept in
the process. I may have to get both issues
for her so she can alternate at work and not throw off the AWESOMNESS of the
feng shui that the framed collage would provide.
I know that I have some of these issues in the
attic. So, if you will excuse me, Gentle
Reader, I have a mission to attend to.
This project is not going to start itself.
