[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by gmku

While in Daydream Comics, I found a number of old comic books that had published a "letter to the editor" (think, Letters to the Bat-Cave, etc.) by me, written at the age of around 13-15 or so. This was back in what I think was probably the tail end of what is called the Silver Age of comics, late '60s, early 70s. It was such a thrill, back then, to run down to the drug store, pick up a new copy of one of my favorite comic books, and find MY NAME printed in its pages. The first time it happened felt almost literally orgasmic. I remember standing in front of the display of comic books and magazines, staring down at my name in print in a DC comic book (I think it was an issue of DETECTIVE COMICS, the one with Batman stories) and feeling so elated that I couldn't move.

I was so tempted to grab the bunch today and slap them on the credit card. Then I remembered that my grownup middle name is Restraint.

I kept those comic books through my teen years until we moved to a new house where the sewer backed up into the basement, and crept all over my neat stacks of DC and Marvel comic books. Crap. Literally. It's something I never quite got over.

Hard to imagine now, but this was back in the day when it was not "cool" to like comic books. It was only nerdy. Maybe worse than nerdy. I remember the feeling of elation ebbing and then feeling overwhelmed by embarrassment. What have I done!? This is going to get out all over school! I'll never get a date with a real girl again! And then I found that nobody knew. Nobody. Because nobody else at school was so uncool or nerdy as to read comic books. Or, if they were, they were not about to let on that they were by letting me know they'd read my letter. And so, I kept writing these letters to the editor and they kept getting publsihed. Sometimes they'd be detailed critiques of storylines and artwork. Sometimes they'd just gush how "great" a particular issue was. It didn't seem to matter.

The internet ruined things like this. Damn the internet!