Demon of Gothos Mansion

In 1970 I was ready to give up on comics, and I might have but for the comic book stylings of Neal Adams. I always bought multiples of Neal Adams covers and stories—not for speculation— but because, well, because, well I dunno, just because. Neal Adams revitalized the Batman character, and in my mind his version remains the best.

The Halloweenish cover below is so iconic, and was a tribute to the iconic Bob Kane cover from Batman's first year. Both are my favorite Batman covers, and might be some of yours as well.

Neal Adams — Batman #227 — 1970

Bob Kane — Detective Comics #31 — 1939

Beautifully Staged

Those of you who are following modern comic books know that the DC Universe has been rebooting, starting storylines from scratch.

I have not been following it at all. First, I have no time to get up to the comic store. Second, I have no desire to even browse the selections. My experience with modern comics presents no charm for me. Nothing against the creators' skills, but rather the editorial dictates.

You don't have to go all the way back to the ancient ages of comics to find some appealing DC books. Below, from 1992, this cover by Matt Wagner is one of my top ten favorite Batman covers of all time, very iconic, beautifully staged and drawn. I bought the comic just for its cover.

If modern DC comics would apply this level of quality to their editorial concepts throughout their books, well, I might just make time to get up to the comic store.

Matt Wagner — Detective Comics # 649 — 1992

Decrepit Bookshop

I was twelvish when I had to have some dentistry work done.  On a Saturday morning I had to take the city bus, alone, downtown to an ancient medical building, with spooky old hallways and reeking of horrible medical odors—by myself, mind you, submitting myself to a creaky, greasy old geezer putting his huge hands in my mouth and inflicting great jabbing pain. Well needless to say, as I left the office, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.

It was a cold rainy day, as I recall, and as I left the building I was sort of lost, having lost track of the bus stop. Looking around, trying to get my bearings, my sight and senses were drawn to a hole-in-the-wall decrepit bookshop, with a sign advertising 2nd hand magazines. With a sense of foreboding gloom I entered, expecting to be tossed out on my ear. But the old guy at the counter looked somewhat friendly and ignored me. So I warily and curiously poked around a bit, not knowing what to expect at this point.

Well, you can see where this is going. This was the early 60's when printed material was truly ephemera, not expected to last, and valued but little. I was too young to realize the extent of treasures that abounded in this shop, but I certainly recognized several long long bins of comics settled smack in the middle of the store. Salivating, I shuffled through them, and recognized some of the comics I had seen advertised in the first comics I had ever bought. And then more, and older. Most of them were priced at 8 cents, directly on the cover (!) with a marker. Some had the title of the cover torn off (a practice that was actually illegal, as those were store returns that were supposed to have been destroyed). Some were priced at an unheard of 50 cents, but oh, those were the nice ones.

Besides my bus fare, I had 2 dollars that was supposed to buy me some lunch (early 60s, remember?). But to hell with food, now I had to figure just which comics were the best for the price. Four good ones, or like 24(!) of the 8 centers?

I can't believe I had the nerve, but I told the guy that a couple of these 50 centers were pretty beat up, and could he go any lower? Nonchalantly he said said he could drop two of them to 40 cents. And BAM, this is what I bought:

This Jungle Comics was a beauty, but I sold it a couple of years ago for a lot more than 50 cents.

I sort of liked Krypto back then. I've already told you what I dork I was (am).

This Adventure was so beat up it should have been an 8 center, but I loved these panel covers.

And this Detective was in decent shape, but had that awful 8 cent mark on it, making it worth 8 cents, but actually I sold it too, years later, for quite a bit more.

Panel covers were cool, by my standard, and this was a book-length Wayne Boring story. It got more beat up in my possession.