Old Days

"Old days,
Good times I remember.
Fun days,
Filled with simple pleasures.
Drive-in movies,
Comic books and blue jeans,
Howdy Doody,
Baseball cards and birthdays
Take me back
To a world gone away.
Memories,
Seem like yesterday…"

from "Old Days" by Chicago.

I'm too young to have watched Howdy Doody, I was never into baseball cards, and I never went to a drive-in theater until I was an adult, but comic books I can relate to.

I was first exposed to comics through my older brothers' collections of Silver Age Marvel comics. They had sold most of them by the time I came along, but a few tattered copies remained on the floor of our basement. It was there I became fascinated with The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man, Captain America, and above all, Spider-man. I'm sure this is why I "made mine Marvel." I was never a DC fan, even though I loved watching Batman and Superman on television. I was even a fan of the Saturday morning Superfriends shows. But to me, their characters were never as believable as the Marvel characters who had lives outside of being a hero, and who sometimes lost their fights, and usually the girl too.

Later, I would buy my own comics with my $1 allowance at the Rexall's Drugstore in Franview Plaza in Lemay, Missouri.  $1 would buy 3 comics and still leave change for candy from Ben Franklin.

But even given my Marvel leanings, when I came across these 60's DC issues at a garage sale a couple summers ago for $1 a piece, I couldn't pass. My brothers had a few DC comics, and I recall seeing these issues advertised within them.

Adventure Comics #340, January 1966

Action Comics #315, August 1964

Adventure Comics #320, May 1964

Action Comics #335, March 1966

Adventure Comics #336, September 1965

Adventure Comics #334, July 1965

Batman #178, February 1966

Adventure Comics #341, February 1966

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #87, September 1965

Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #61, November 1965

Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #62, January 1966

Superman #192, January 1967

Superboy #126, January 1966

I did come across this lone Marvel comic at the same sale:

Silver Surfer #10, November 1969

Alas, Silver Surfer was always a little high brow for me.  Norrin Radd forever lamenting the loss of his Shalla-Bal was more than the 12-year-old in me could stomach.  Give me Spidey duking it out with Doc Ock, Mysterio or the Green Goblin any day!

These days, whenever I need short escape on a hot summer day, I'll get out one of my old comics and relive the adventures on my porch. 

Old days, good times I remember.  Memories...seem like yesterday.