Some old, good friends

I spent a little time yesterday with some old friends. Some you probably even know. The fact is, I have walked past them about every day for the last six years and didn't even say a word, although, silently I promised to get around to them one day.

Before I get too far ahead of myself I should say they are friends from when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s. And they aren't even real, except in your mind. These friends are in the comic books I collected long, long ago. I had not seen them for about 30 years or so until I was clearing out my old room at home after my Mother passed away. My brother and I were cleaning our old stuff out of our parent's house so that it could be put on the market.

I took a few pictures and other mementos of my youth and threw a LOT of stuff out. Clothes, albums, magazines, and assorted other junk. I decided though to box up all the comic books I could find and bring them home with me until I could decide what to do with them. There in the garage the boxes sat for for the last six years until now.

I always figured I would get all the ones in good condition and see if they were worth anything at a comic book store. I first started going through the boxes to put the characters in some sort of order. Of course you couldn't have just Archie comics. You had to have Archie, Archie and Pals, Archie and Me, Archies Joke Book, and then each of his friends had books...Jughead, Jughead and Me, Reggie and Me, Betty and Veronica, Bettie and Me......you get the idea. This was going to be a long process.

As I was putting them in some sort of order, however, I started remembering the stories somewhat just from the covers. Now I was not only sorting them, I was reading as well. This little project of about two hours turned into an all afternoon and evening event.

The more comic books I went through, the more I stopped to read...Archie, Sad Sack, Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Richie Rich, Bugs Bunny, Dennis the Menace. I even had some Monkees, Beverly Hillbillies, and Banana Splits comic books......I took one or two from each of the big series' and read cover to cover. It was fascinating to look at the old art and stories and remember again being 9, 10, 11, 12 or so. Particularly on days when I was home sick from school or during the summer when I could get my parents to bring home the latest comic books from F. P. May Drugstore. I had a list of the new ones mind you and I would read them as I did now cover to cover.

And all the old ads on the back covers......Sell Christmas cards for cash, sell Grit for cash and prizes, draw Binky the deer, 200 plastic green soldiers for $1.99, incredible sea monkeys, Schwinn bicycles, sell flower seeds, Aurora plastic models, Daisy Air Rifles, and others.

All in all, it was a fun way to spend the better part of the day reliving memories with old friends. I'll probably sell some if not all of them soon. A few are actually worth something. Most about $2-$5 depending on the condition but these were only 12 cents new for the most of them. (25 cents for the 80 page giants!) A handful  are even upwards of $25 each and still fewer over $100. Maybe not just yet though. Like a few of the human-type, some friends you like to keep around for a while longer.