'The musings and ramblings of an aged comics fan'.

Okay, firstly, I'll explain the title. I'm old, not Methuselah or Stan Lee old, but outside the Marvel/DC demographic old. Yet for some strange reason I still love comics. Where did this love affair begin? Well my first flirtation with comics probably began when I was about five. Every Friday night my dad would come in from work and each of us five kids would get sweets and a comic. My sisters got 'Bunty', 'Mandy' and 'Twinkle'. Us boys got 'TV21' for my brother and I received 'The Valiant'. Part of the joy of having so many brothers and sisters is that you get to share, so I have no qualms in admitting that I followed the adventures of 'The Four Mary's' avidly, It was only two to three years later, when my sister stopped getting 'The Bunty' that my enquiring mind began to ponder why the Mary's had been in the fourth form all this time. I put it down to the fact that they were excellent detectives, but crap students and then moved on. I do vaguely remember sitting in a Doctors waiting room around that time and seeing a copy of Uncanny X-Men, but being totally ignorant of what all that was about opted for 'The Peoples Friend'. I kind of went off comics around that time, discovering the fineries of 'Knock Down Ginger' as an outlet for my enquiring mind. What happens when you knock on someone's door and run away, only to be caught by the occupant a few minutes later? Was soon answered. It was more than a little painful.

My next dalliance with the sequential art form must have been around 1975. While wandering around one of the bigger newsagents I caught a glimpse of a book that immediately caught my attention. No it wasn't Uncanny X #94, it was Marvel UK presents 'Planet of the Apes' #1. As soon as I saw that #1, I was at the counter, the rabid collector in me awakened. It didn't stay awake long, about a year, having collected up to #58, (I'm sure it was a weekly release. Imagine that, a comic you like coming out every week), granted it was in black & white, but that just added to it. I could be mistaken about the frequency of the comic, bi-weekly would seem more believable, but I'm sure I didn't collect it for nearly two years, I was fourteen going on fifteen and playing the air guitar and trying to get served in pubs took up all my concentration.

While on the subject, lets discuss Marvel UK. Bit of a strange entity this, nowadays it reprints stories from the MU. They're always worth a look though. I've picked up a few Alpha Flight appearances by perusing 'Wolverine Unleashed'. I've also recently managed to get a hold of a reprint of a Miller Daredevil story that I first read many years ago. That story has stuck in my head to this day and I always use it as an example of how powerful comics can be. When I first started to read Marvel comics seriously, Marvel UK also re-printed old stories, but then, instead of the three reprinted issues you get now in full color, we got digest versions, pocket versions in black and white. Still it was interesting to see early stories of the Hulk, that you knew you would never see original issues of.

After my brief teen dalliance with comics, it wouldn't be until I was twenty one that I became re-associated with comics. While living in a nurses home, I became acquainted with a young lady, who's boyfriend was heavily into comics and through one of those twists of fate, we ended up spending many a drunken afternoon and evening reading his collection. All his collection was Marvel, apart from one DC title he collected. I think it was called 'Manhunter'. I don't remember much about the title, but it was an excellent read. I also read about the exploits of the mainstays of the MU, but the story that I mention a lot is the Proteus arc in Uncanny X-Men. I love that arc. I know it had to have been produced by the team of Claremont and Byrne. Oh and now that boyfriend is my brother in law. The power of comics eh?

Eventually this fella and me ended up flat sharing, that's where the drunken afternoon and evenings came to pass. It was around this time that I decided I wanted to collect my own comics in a serious way. The first time I went to the comic shop with him (a shop I still use to this day) I saw a comic on the shelf, which just had a character on it, but with no other decal apart from the title Alpha Flight #6. I left it there, who's gonna start collecting a series, on the strength of some speech bubbles? I came away from the shop that day with 'The Phoenix Saga' and 'The Uncanny X-Men v The Teen Titans'. Four months later I saw Alpha Flight #10 on the shelf, which had a big orange, Red eyed monster on the cover. This was my chance that old collector in me was reawakened and I picked up copies of Alpha Flight #1-10. I was now a collector in my own right. That night, drunk again (a lot of drinking seems to be involved in comics reading, or maybe that's just me), I read the stories that Byrne had laid out in those issues and I was hooked. Being a fan of Alpha Flight carries it's own rewards and pitfalls, but I shall save them for another day.