2 Warps to Neptune

January 14, 1981. (Photo: Denver Post)

I started going to the comic book store every week and seriously collecting at some point in 1983. I love margarita night these days. I love it a lot, and I look forward to it all week. But it can never compare to the excitement of waking up at age 11 and knowing that new comics were just a few hours away.

I got to know the good-natured misfits who worked and/or hung out there. They saved my books for me and put aside books and posters and other stuff they thought I might like. I worked there for a couple of summers and was paid in comic books. It got damn hot in that little store, and we would all drink ice cold bottles of Coke and Mexican soda and talk about our favorite artists and writers. It was the best job I ever had.

I stopped collecting when I turned 16 and got my license. It happens. I started reading Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Carl Jung, Thomas Jefferson. I was really into punk and post-punk and all my money went to records and concerts. Nothing makes you grow up quite like having to choose between the things you love in the face of limited resources.

In 1999 or 2000, I took a look at the collectibles warehouse by my mom and discovered a number of comic dealers selling the stuff I used to read, and it was cheap. I bought a few Iron Mans, a few Captain Americas, and it was over. I’ve been collecting, extremely selectively, ever since.

(Photo via Lexibell)

March 19, 1977. (Ira Gay Sealy/The Denver Post)

The store was closed at the time, so no nerds were harmed in the accident. But I think it’s safe to say that these comics are no longer in near mint condition.

(Source: Lexibell Vintage Photos)