Comics Spinning Round and Round!

Just going to the drug store was such a treat!  There was candy and toys, magazines and sodas, and best of all, there was a spinning rack of comics!

Each spin would take you somewhere new and exciting!  It could be the world of Archie and Jughead, Betty and Veronica, those crazy teenage kids from Riverdale High.  Others would allow you to read more exciting adventures from the TV shows you loved - Sea Hunt, Gunsmoke, Twilight Zone.  There were comics based on your favorite stars - Roy Rogers, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis.  There were comics that would take you to deepest space, the wild west, World War 2, the Okefenokee Swamp (thank you, Pogo and creator Walt Kelly).

When I started to collect, taking a fist full of change to the local mom and pop, super-heroes were revived and starting to dominate again.  I was then, and am now, a big Superman fan.  When he is written at his best, there is no better defender of truth, justice and the American way.  When he first came to Metropolis in the disguise of Clark Kent, he focused his career in helping the most disadvantaged citizens, and in going after those who would exploit them.

I saw the beginnings of the Marvel explosion, with the introduction of the Fantastic Four and the Amazing Spider-Man.  New, more realistic heroes with every day conflicts and angst.  They came one after another, creating incredible icons that still endure and dominate today.

Movie comics, Disney characters,adaptions of literary classics, funny animals, young romance - the variety was infinitely colorful and fun.  And all available for first a dime, then 12 cents, then 15 cents.  Now they cost as much as $3.99.  But most of you don't know that.  Because the spinner rack is gone.  Even as comic book characters dominate our TV and movie screens, the actual monthly comic has disappeared from our lives.  Oh, they still exist.  But you have to be in a big city and visit one of the dwindling number of comic shops, or order them online.

Now the visit to the drug store and other local establishments are so much plainer.  There is little to no reading material, certainly very little for kids.  Even the number of paperback books have been narrowed or eliminated.  You're left with greeting cards, celebrity gossip, and maybe a handful of magazines about hunting, cooking, guns or cars. Virtually nothing for the imagination to soar with, nothing to take you someplace else.

I know.  Times change.  Now kids get most of their stuff through computers and tablets.  You can get books and comics right to Kindle.  You can get video games from the computer, ones that can even play on your TV.  You don't ever have to leave home.

I think they're missing out.  There was nothing like getting on your bike and going to the drug store, and finding yourself someplace else.  From the super-powered world of Metropolis or Marvel, to the jungles of Tarzan, to the teens of Riverdale High, to the delightful talking swamp creatures of the Okefenoke, your bike ride became a ticket to the infinite horizon.

All in color for a few coins.  Ah, yes.  I miss those days.