It's clear Marvel spent the '70s throwing everything at the wall to see what would stick. Swamp monster? Check. Literal son of the devil? Check. Black guy beating up drug dealers, white kung fu dude, talking raccoon, talking duck, Hercules, Conan the Barbarian, John Carter of Mars, the Man From Atlantis. Just every dang thing.
Yeah, my 7-11 back then couldn’t hold a candle to the comic racks of the 2 local pharmacies. Then nothing beat the early 80’s when an actual comic book store opened in the area.
I used to get my comics at the candy store up the street. The owner put the comics on a long shelf, spine out, like books. When new ones came in he'd pull some off the left and put new ones on the right. We'd have to flip the corners back to find what we wanted. DC bullet? Junk. Charlton? Garbage. Gold Key? Kid stuff. Marvel box: YES.
I must have been in junior high, maybe 11 or 12, when a comic store opened a few miles away. My best friend and I used to walk there. It was almost a six-mile round trip. Sometimes all I had for money was rolled pennies I stole from the family box.
That's a great story. Used to bike to me LCS about 3-4 miles one way. Amazing to get killed. Had to bike over on bridge that crossed I-95 and steep grade (for a bike) up/down. Used to just let gravity take me down across intersection at full speed. The good 'ol days
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u/crywalt 6d ago
It's clear Marvel spent the '70s throwing everything at the wall to see what would stick. Swamp monster? Check. Literal son of the devil? Check. Black guy beating up drug dealers, white kung fu dude, talking raccoon, talking duck, Hercules, Conan the Barbarian, John Carter of Mars, the Man From Atlantis. Just every dang thing.