In the summer of '83, aged eleven and lacking much money, I found the complete 24-issue run of this 70s Marvel comic at Cobb Stamp & Coin for $12. I rushed home to beg my parents for cash and was given my first lesson in earning money with a goal in mind. They said that if I mowed the lawn, they'd pay me $15. So I followed instructions and cut the grass and went back the next day for what would prove to be the first complete set of any comic I'd ever collected, and was pleased and thrilled with my purchase for a few years, before I dumped them at Titan for a quarter apiece in store credit.
But the real pain came immediately, as I'd foolishly played into my parents' hands. Oh, they paid me $15 a time, but I was nevertheless conscripted into cutting the grass for years afterwards. Even after the Godzilla comics I'd bought in '83 were long gone.
Had you told me then that I would one day buy these mediocre Marvel Godzilla stories again for my own son, I'd have thought you were crazy. But time makes liars of us all, and I take some solace in knowing he turns eleven in a couple of months, and his butt'll be cutting the grass before Memorial Day. Except I'm no tyrant; I'll pay him $20. Recommended for nostalgists and under-15s only.
(Originally posted January 30, 2008 at hipsterdad's LJ.)
No comments:
Post a Comment