An old interview with Alan Moore sent me running back to my old issues of his 12-part Watchmen series, probably the best comic books ever produced. To do this, I had to dig through three cardboard boxes of comics from the early 80s, a dusty, aging booty from my adolescence. In my mid-twenties I nearly threw them all out, not wanting to deal with the hassle of lugging them around as I moved from one apartment to another. Luckily they were stored at my father’s house and he didn’t have the heart to pitch them.So many of the comics I saved have not stood up to the test of time, and much of the comic art that I once admired, studied and plagiarized is revealed to be cheap and immature to me now. All the same, I found myself overcome with affection not only for some of the best written or illustrated comics I had, but also for some of the worst. These are mostly the ones that I bought when I was very, very young and with hard-earned allowance money, when an issue cost just forty cents, and before the medium became preoccupied with so-called adult themes.’ I really adored these cheap periodicals.
Maybe the best treasure I found in my old collection was this postcard, postmarked 19 Oct 1979 when I was just seven years old! It’s a consolation prize, of sorts, sent to thank me for a letter-to-the-editor that I must’ve sent in regarding, surely, an issue of Superman or DC Comics Presents. It’s a completely meaningless bit of ephemera, but I just find it remarkable that I still have it, that it was postmarked before Ronald Reagan took his oath of office, that it was hand-addressed to me and signed in blue ink by Carole Martin I have no idea who that is, but her signature meant a lot to me then. It does now, too. Thanks, Carole!