Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Can it be true? Can yet another month have reached its death-defying climax and be teetering on the brink of falling off the cliff at whose base lies the shores of the month of May?
Yes it can.
Which means we're only eight months away from Christmas.
However, I suspect Christmas is not what's on our minds.
But just what is on our minds?
I don't know.
In all this universe, only one thing knows.
And that's the comments section below.
It's true. We've reached the return of the feature in which the first person to comment gets to set the topic for debate.
Many subjects have been covered in the three years since this feature was launched but many more remain uncovered. So, whatever your thoughts and queries, be sure to express them and we shall see just what chattenstance unfolds.
Posts
22 comments:
Do you have any comics-related sense memories?
I first started reading US comics when I was about 13, and I used to take them to read when I'd visit my grandparents.
I used to read them in the sun room / conservatory on hot days, and the smell of the pulp newsprint paper comics used to be printed on heating up in there on a hot sunny day is something I'll never forget.
Very interesting twist, Matthew!
My first comic plugged 1978's upcoming Annuals on its back cover. The titles of the Annuals, printed in white, on a black background, made it seem as if my particular favourites out of the titles(that I wanted for Christmas) were illuminated with a (mental/imaginary?)"special glow", standing out from the others (sort of).
If anticipation's the greatest part of pleasure, I certainly got a lot of pleasure anticipating getting my selected annuals(out of those magical white titles, on a black background), in the run up to Christmas!
Phillip
Matthew: do I have any comics-related sense memories? DO I…
That smell of summer rain first making contact with warm, dusty asphalt = STAR REACH 1
The smell of a specific type of dirt (my Dad was digging up and and re-seeding the back yard) = DAREDEVIL 75
The taste of a Marathon candy bar = FICTION ILLUSTRATED 3 (Steranko’s CHANDLER)
And songs…so many songs….
Foreigner, ‘Cold As Ice’ = STAR WARS 4
America, ‘Tin Man’ = ASTONISHING TALES (Deathlok)
Joni Mitchell, ‘Free Man In Paris’ = CAPTAIN AMERICA 177
Elton John, ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ = VAMPIRELLA 39
George McCrae, ‘Rock Your Baby’ = ADVENTURE COMICS (The Spectre) 435
And that’s literally just the tip of the iceberg — I could go on all day (don’t worry, I won’t).
b.t.
One last one, not tied to any one specific comic:
In the late 70s/ early 80s I was in the habit of driving to Hollywood every Wednesday to buy comics and genre magazines at the old Caheunga Newsstand. There was a little Sandwich shop on Caheunga and Selma called Chompies where I would eat lunch and read comics. The place always smelled of freshly-chopped onions, so whenever the missus chops up raw onions in the kitchen, I get a Chompies flashback complete with snatches of CINEFANTASTIQUE, FANGORIA and various bad 80s comics.
b.t.
One more ‘last one’ — actually, a correction — I paired up the wrong Joni Mitchell song with CAPTAIN AMERICA 177. It should be ‘Help Me’, not ‘Free Man in Paris’. Not that it matters.
Okay, I’m done! For reals!
b.t.
Thanks for the topic, Matthew.
Right now, I'm struggling to think of any but I shall contemplate the matter overnight and see what I can come up with.
Good Lord… If Charlie is allowed to venture into the domain of DC Thompson annuals… The aroma of those pages is forever happily seared into his mind!
Also, there is the aroma of older marvel comics, I’m talking pre-1966 or 1967 that I certainly recall when visiting my cousins house who was older than me. And I do not perceive the same odor from Marvel comics later than that.. Perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me or perhaps there was a change in the paper at Marvel so that my recollections are spot on?
That said, at that time, my cousin lived with his father and grandparents and they all smoked Winston. So perhaps there’s a bleed over from the cigs
CH
The whiff of newsprint and comics seems to be a common experience! Alas, not for me- I have no sense of smell. Yet that didn't keep me from a multisensory comics sensation; no sir. As b.t. shared so well, auditory stimuli are easily linked up with four color fun. A few specific examples:
Dr. Strange 4 and "On Broadway" by the Drifters. Indeed, this song seemed to go so well with Dr. Strange stories, I often played the record while reading them for months afterward (the song REALLY seems to evoke the Colan/Palmer art for some reason, or maybe it's just me).
Man-Thing #5 and "Sideshow" by Blue Magic. Kind of an obvious association, with the macabre tale of Daryl the Clown. Of course the song has a rather dark tone , and it was a hit about the same time the book came out.
Avengers #127 and "Haven't Got Time for the Pain" by Carly Simon. Again, a link from hearing that song (which I loved) while reading that book. Actually, I still remember hearing it while walking to the store to buy that issue.
Amazing Spider-Man #136 and "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot. My favorite title, my then-favorite song both coincided with my birthday month. That warm, yellow cover and the summery sound of the song just meshed perfectly.
Red! Didn’t you and Mike, at BitBA, run a post on songs that seemed to be in perfect synchronicity with comics?
You may be right! I should check that out, Charlie...at any rate, it's a subject well worth revisiting!
I have one more food/comic association:
Whenever I had a nickel or a dime left over after buying comics at Michael’s Liquor Store, I’d walk two blocks over to the Thrifty Drug store for an ice cream cone, which they sold for just 5 cents a scoop. It wasn’t the fanciest ice cream, kinda basic, but it was pretty decent, and it came in those old-fashioned wafer cones. I usually prefer the sugar cones these days but every once in a while I’ll get a wafer cone for old times’ sake and the waxy texture and kinda flavorless flavor takes me right back.
Comics I read while sitting on the bike rack in front of Thrifty’s while enjoying cheap ice cream:
TOMB OF DRACULA 32
DAREDEVIL 110
GIANT SIZE MASTER OF KUNG FU 3
JUNGLE ACTION 13
b.t.
So many songs linked to comics! That's something that doesn't happen with me.
I can remember certain songs as being linked to specific times, and I can remember what comics I was reading at those times...
'Dance Away' by Roxy Music being 2000AD I used to pick up religiously every Saturday morning having just moved to the other end of the country. Specifically the earliest ABC Warriors stories.
And maybe, when we were staying in London for a few months when we were between houses, and 2000AD & Starlord had just merged and Barry Manilow's 'Copa Cabana' was on the radio all the time...?
Ah, no, wait - got one.
'Lazy Calm' by the Cocteau Twins. First track off their album 'Victorialand'. I was listening to it for the first time when I read the Swamp Thing story 'Loving The Alien' in 1987. Permanently intertwined in my memory.
As regards musical sense-memories, I associated reading Marvel Superheroes Monthly # 1 with listening to the theme to the Superman movie. This, because I (along with my bro) got the 'Themes For Superheroes' album on the same birthday I got Marvel Superheroes Monthly # 1. I've bored SDC with this many times before.
Also, as a kid, I think I associated 'Eagle', by ABBA, with the energy-manifestation Phoenix projected whenever she got her dander up, and really decided to take somebody down! At that rate, ABBA should have titled their song, 'Phoenix', or Jean Grey should be named 'Eagle'. Neither sounds good.
Phillip
Free Comic Book Day this Saturday, at least in the USA!
Way back in the dim and distant days of 2011, I did a post about songs I associate with specific issues of comics. It can be found at this address:
https://stevedoescomics.blogspot.com/2011/02/comics-of-my-youth-i-can-hear-music.html
The associations in question were:
Kids in America by Kim Wilde, with Nightmare #17.
January by Pilot, and Angie Baby by Helen Reddy, with Savage Sword of Conan #4.
Shine A Little Love by ELO, with Nova #3.
Gonna Make You a Star by David Essex, with Mighty World of Marvel Annual 1975.
Whispering Grass by Don Estelle and Windsor Davies, with Avengers #66.
Dancing in the City by Marshall Hain, with Rampaging Hulk #9.
Roll Over Beethoven by ELO, with Mighty World of Marvel #5.
On the Run by ELO, with Conan the Barbarian #5.
Down in the Park by Gary Numan, with X-Men #108.
Steve, hope you had a good Bealtaine today, and the goddess watches over you. You too Matthew, and everyone else - beannachtaí na Bealtaine oraibh go léir. Up the workers.
I got a copy of Burne Hogarth's first Tarzan book late April fifty years ago, when we moved to England (probably to keep me busy and quiet on the ferry on the way over). What an amazing book that was, and not long after I got Jungle Action #9. Both of those completely obsessed me for ages, and strange as it may sound I associate jungle stories with the England of the mid-70s.
Actually, now I think of it, Tarzan was big in the UK back then - the Ron Ely tv series was on in April/May '74, and there was a regular domestic Tarzan comic (disappointing after the Hogarth, obviously).
-sean
I recall the most sensuous experience I ever had with a comic. It was with none other than Spider-Man 100.
It was a warm Sunday morning. We lived a few blocks from the dunes of Lake Michigan on the south end of the lake.
For reasons I'll never know my father decided to take me and my little brother for a walk to the nearby small grocery store where he ended up buying me Spider-Man 100.
We then walked a block down to the beach, along the sandy beach, and back home.
Remember it to this day: the sunshine, the warmth, the smell of the dunes and the grasses, the blue water, carrying Spidey 100... I even recall taking the shoes off and on, to wade a bit in the water.
A really treasured memory from my childhood. And, I still have the Spidey!
Since this is a "Speak Your Brain" day...
What do sandworms eat?
They gotta be eatin' something. They're pretty big. There doesn't seem to be hardly any plants or animals on Arrakis.
Do they, like, eat sand and crap out spice?
...I'm not sure Frank Herbert thought this through.
It's been bothering me for some time.
M.P.
Sean - I was into ERB, too. We had the 1974 Tarzan annual, but I don't recall what happened to it. Also, a Korak, Son of Tarzan, pre-dating my Marvels (?) I watched some Ron Ely, but my attention span was short at that age, so the Tarzan Lord of the Jungle cartoon's brevity proved a better fit. I suppose The cartoon's intro saying that the jungle is filled with lost cities is prescient, what with lidar(?) now detecting lost cities hidden amidst the Amazon jungle. About 30 years ago, I joined the ERB society. I think I offended them however (with my questionable social skills), as I'd bought a John Carter book (rare/ interesting?)in the Lake District, which the ERB society's head expressed an interest in. Unfortunately, I didn't send it to him, and he never invited me to renew my subscription. I felt bad about it at the time, him seeming a nice old fella. Ah well...It's a wonder I never joined the Nomads of the Time Streams, too (as regards Moorcock). That's back when I had the motivation!
M.P. - Maybe the worms contain the spice melange in them, like Sperm whales contain spermaceti. To me, melange sounded too much like a dessert - like blancmange, in fact!
Phillip
I've never thought of myself as being into ERB, Phillip, mainly because the couple of times I gave his books a go they seemed like hard work for not much return.
But as a kid I did like Tarzan - that Hogarth book, the Joe Kubert DC version, and the cartoon you mentioned - and the Gil Kane John Carter from Marvel. And that whole pulp-era sf/fantasy-type stuff does hold some appeal when revisited (eg some of Michael Moorcock, Phillip Jose Farmer).
Its like Robert E Howard really - loved the Barry Smith and Buscema/Alcala Conan comics, but the books... Crom, what a load of bollocks they were.
-sean
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