Comics Everywhere!

What, with the Avengers and Spidy at the cinema again, comic Super Heroes and Villains are everywhere nowadays, but when I was a wee Superboy you had to go to the newsagents for a dose of your favourite characters. Fortunately I had brothers [still have!] who read comics too, so the house was full of 'em. To be honest it was some of the less obvious US titles, which I loved to lie down with on the floor and read [why did we do that and not get on the settee?].

I particularly loved 'Sad Sack', about a dopey soldier in the army. I also loved 'Casper the Friendly Ghost' as well as 'Archie'. British comics I liked where anything with monsters in like Grimly Fiendish, but I forget the title. 'Fantastic' was a British marvel issue and often came with free gifts like an elastic band pistol. I remember there was always a cool poster on the back of 'Namor' or 'Thor' or some other fabulous person.

The distinction between a comic and a magazine is a fine one, but 'bigger' comics were in the house to be enjoyed too: the brilliant Creepy and Eerie by Warren, Psycho and Nightmare by Skywald [remember their Horror Mood!] and some truly gruesome- covered ones called Terror or Witches Tales [my Dad once threw some of these out all because of the covers!]. For light relief I read 'MAD', courtesy of my brothers too. I loved to fold the back cover, as shown by the arrows on it, to make a new crazy picture!

Later fare lying around the house got cerebral and manly and were definitely magazines: OMNI, Inside King Fu, Easy Riders [big shiny motorbikes], Disc and Sounds [music papers] and with access restricted to only big brothers [they thought!], Men Only and Mayfair.

And so, as our thoughts turned from Lady Penelope and Wonder Woman to the girls in the Sixth Form, as quick as a slick of grease through the hair, the comics, sadly, were well and truly gone!

What were your experiences with comics?