My First Comics Were not Super-Hero Comics

I have been collecting comics for a very long time.

The first ones I bought (well, my mother bought them) were when I was 5 years old, in Kindergarten.  I was an early reader, thanks to my mother.  She would go to the local grocery store and leave me near the magazines and books.  That is where I saw the incredible Classics Illustrated, Jr. comic books.  They were marvelous retellings of fairy tales and other children's classics.

I don't know what the first one was.  It very well could have been this one.  It dates back to the late fifties, and it was 1960 when I would have picked it up.

The titles apparently didn't change fast enough for me at the grocery store. However, an ad in the back would enable you to mail order comics you wanted.  My mother let me select three, costing a whopping 45 cents total (plus shipping).

That was the longest wait of my life.  When you're five, three to four weeks can seem a lifetime.  Every day I would check the mailbox in eager anticipation.  Until the glorious day they finally arrived.

What did I order?  Stories that had Princess in the title.  I'll leave others to psychoanalyze what that meant. I know that when I was three, I looked at an art book that my parents had and was mesmerized by a picture of St. George slaying a dragon, thereby rescuing a princess.  When people ask me what career I was first interested in, I know the answer.  A dragon slayer.  I wanted to be a dragon slayer.

This one may have been the original one.  Or it could have been part of the mail order.  It's the most beat-up of the ones I have.  But to me, it is a sign that I loved it very much.  I must have kept it out and carried it with me, and read it over and over.

Some were renditions that remained uninfluenced by the Disney animations.  Beauty and the Beast is an example of this.

It wasn't long before I moved on to other comics.  I liked comics of TV shows, like Sea Hunt and Davy Crockett.  I don't think I got superhero comics until about 1963.  

I've never stopped reading comic books.  I've never stopped collecting.  From 5 to 66, they have been a part of my life.

Now that I have retired from accounting, I am cataloging my collection and preparing it for a potential mass sale.

It's not a quick process.  It takes time, research, and organization.  And then there are times when I discover long-unseen treasures, and I have to detour down memory lane for a while.

Stay tuned!  There are more excursions to come!