A news item about the first Superman comic selling for $317,000 caught my attention today, especially when I saw that the original owner had bought it in a second-hand bookstore back in the 1950s when he was just nine years old. The story triggered memories of my own childhood experience, which unfortunately didn't end as profitably.
To get myself into the right frame of mind for dredging up old memories, I also decided to listen to a very good song called "Comic Book Collector," by the Trashmen, a group that hit it big in the 1960s with "Surfin' Bird." But more later about the Trashmen — let's talk about the comics themselves for a while.
Like most kids, I loved comics while I was growing up. I often had one in my hand during the day, read them under the covers with a flashlight at night, and even tried to get away with reading during meals. My dad loved to read too and usually didn't say much — after all, he regularly read the newspaper at the breakfast table — but it drove my mom bananas.
My favorites were just about anything from Walt Disney, but especially the irascible Donald Duck and his tightwad Uncle Scrooge. Donald was so much more appealing than that wimpy Mickey Mouse, and as for Uncle Scrooge — 
how could you not be fascinated by someone so rich that he kept his money in a huge bin and regularly swam in it?
Of course, it wasn't easy to buy comics on my limited allowance. A dime was a lot of money in the early 1950s, and the task became even tougher when the higher-priced but irresistible giant Christmas issue came along. However, I did find a way to make my comic-buying funds stretch a little further.
As I said before, my dad loved to read too and he had a favorite used book store. It wasn't long before I discovered that they also had used comics. You could not only buy them for half price, but you could even trade in your own comics for different ones. Of course, you had to give two to get one, but I don't remember that slowing me down too much — and in a larger sense, maybe it was just preparing me for life as an adult.
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