No Records, Just Comics...

Anybody that knows me, knows that I love comics just as much as I love records...Sometimes as I dig through the longboxes that take up at least half of my bedroom, certain covers flood me with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia...I've gathered together a partial list of  some of the covers that do that for me...Keep me in mind, I don't consider theses the greatest covers of all-time based on any objective criteria...These are just the comic covers that burned a hole in my mind as a kid...And still do...

The Amazing Spider-Man #181: I can still remember where I was when I first read this...I was coming back from an epic trip to West Branch where I managed to score some GI Joes and this comic...Standout moment: My Dad listening to 102.5 FM and hearing U2's "With or Without You." His reaction? "Something about this song (wistfully)...really pisses me off..."

The Thing #25: Loved this comic. I still bust it out all the time for pure comfort reading...The plot consists of The Thing finding a barn full of beer and hanging out with Leprechauns...This comic made me want to drink beer sooooo bad as a kid...And I can tell you, that I have more than accomplished that childhood goal...Still haven't seen any leprechauns though...

Uncanny X-Men #222: I can still remember the moment I bought this comic...I was at the Meat Quarters, checking out their spinner rack and saw this particular issue... It was so damn blue and brutal that I couldn't get my 3 quarters together fast enough! I had picked up a few issues of X-Men previously but this was the one that made it a monthly must buy...I never ever ever missed another issue of X-Men until...oh, 2009...

I must have read this and the previous issue a zillion times...I have a deep obsession with Star Wars and these early Marvel comics probably have a lot to do with that...

(the preceding issue)

Howard the Duck #23

Even though Howard the Duck was a bit before my time, I had this and many other issues thanks to Jellybean's in Flint, MI...

These are distant memories were dealing with here, but here's what I remember...Jellybean's was a store that had used records, books, and comics comics COMICS!! I rarely got to go there, but when I did, I would trade in a stack of new comics for a slightly smaller stack of 70's comics...That's where I became fluent in Howard the Duck, the Man-Thing, Devil Dinosaur, Kirby's 2001, Marvel's Godzilla, and many others that I'm forgetting about at the moment...I think this is where my lifelong Kirby love first bloomed...I would buy all his 70's stuff not even knowing they were done by the same guy...There was just something about his work that jumped out to me as a kid...Here's a few old Kirby covers that enthralled me...

Devil Dinosaur #3 

C'mon! It had a caveman wearing a Triceratops head using another dinosaur as a damn club! If anybody ever doubted Kirby's genius, doubt no more...

2001 #9

Mister Machine! It's hard for me to think of too many other underused characters that had such great designs...I loove me some Machine Man...

Super Powers Vol. 2 # 2

I still consider this one of the Kirby's greatest covers..And that's some pretty high praise...He's done about 30 or so of my all-time favorite covers (the others aren't on this list only cos I didn't see them as a kid...This is pure nostalgia, remember?)

ALF Annual #1

See the Sacred Things post for another example of ALF on Mount Rushmore...King-Size annuals are another sacred thing that should have been on that list...The "Evolutionary War" trade dress carries a lot of nostalgic weight for me...It reminds me of the summer of '87...Holed up in my bedroom pouring over X-Factor annuals...

X-Factor Annual # 3

...Like this one...

Dareveil #196

I found that off-model Wolverine with the claws coming out of his wrist so damn compelling that I remember actually passing up a magazine that had Yoda on the cover just to buy it...

Who knows...It might have been this magazine...This is the only magazine I can find from 1983 (the year the Daredevil comic was published) that had Yoda on the cover...Remember, I didn't end up buying the magazine, so memories get especially hazy...

Transformers #1

I remember winning a poster drawing contest when I was 7 years old and walking away with the $5.00 cash prize...And $5.00 was a big deal back in 1984! Here is a list of the items I purchased at the Hale Drug Store with that five bucks:

. the above-pictured Transformers comic

  This exact E.T. action figure

...and a candy bar...I can't remember the exact candy bar, but my go-to's back then were either a Mars Bar...

...or a Hershey Big Block...

Oh, man...Looking at those candy bars is making me hungry...I might have to go down to the candy machine...Let's resume this another time...What are some of the comics that bring back memories for you guys? I want you to think long and hard about this one and bring me a 20,000 word essay, typed, single-space on Monday...