Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Yeah, and since I don't game or buy floppies (especially when traveling), I like the trade selection just for finding something that will last me the trip home.

I remember the Comic Collector's Shop! My friend and I were trying to finish the Avengers-Defenders saga and he found Avengers #118 in one of the random stacks. We didn't live close so it was a treat to go there.

Glad to hear others remember it too. :grouphug:

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

There was a parking lot across the street after they tore down the building that sat there and renovated San Fernando St. It used to be a one way street back in the 70's. The store itself was between 2nd and 3rd; across from SJSU. The city had it all renovated in the 90's. No more pimps, hookers or porn shops. It's all been replaced by restaurants to attract a higher end clientle.

I thought I was the only one besides my friends that remember that store. As kids we use to venture out there on the bus. It was really seedy back in the 70's. There was even a grindhouse theatre around the corner that only played blaxpoitation and kung fu flicks. All the bums were usually in there sleeping it off while we watched a movie. Good times.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Doug passed away?!? Sad. His store was my 1st comic book store I went to loyally at least once per week when I was about 11 or 12. I am proud to say I was his very 1st customer too! Cosmic Comics will always hold a place in my heart.



I remember meeting Doug for the 1st time at Mickey's which was a miniature/hobby shop a couple of blocks away. Mickey had just bought a few moving boxes full of old SA and BA comics. I was eyeballing a FF Annual (Don't recall the issue #) when Doug grabbed it and bought it from Mickey. I was bummed as I was mulling over buying it. I even told Doug that. His reply "You can still buy it. I am opening a comic book shop up the street in a few days. Come see me. I'll hold it for you" He said with a grin.



Needless to say I was there on opening day and bought the comic! I then went on to visit that store over and over for more then a decade. I even played AD&D in the back room with Doug and a couple of my friends. Doug and his wife were both artist as well so I would get them to customize metal figures for me and paint them. BY FAR the best job I have EVER seen to this day! When I sold all my AD&D materials about 5 years ago after they sat on a shelf unused for years, I held on to all my custom ones.



Man....the good ole days.....sigh



Do any of you happen to know any other information about Doug or his wife? Last name perhaps? I wish I remembered myself but, even after knowing them for all of my teen years and into my 20s I don't recall ever even asking for a last name. I would love to talk to his wife again. I would probably mail her one or two of the figures she worked on so she can hold it and remember Doug and good times. Over the years I have done many Internet searches to find any information on them or the store and this is the 1st time I actually found a mention of Cosmic Comics on Google.



I would love to keep looking. Any information would help! Thanks guys!

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

I do remember the comic shop downtown as well. The counter was on the left though and the shelves of comics were on your right as you entered. I didn't recall the name of it though. The owner was a bit of a jerk. Zero customer service skills. I do remember him having a table with raised edges that sat across from the register with 10 cent (?) comics. They were unbagged and just tossed in there but there were some great finds. I remember picking up a LOT of old Barry Windsor-Smith Conan the Barbarians off of that table along with a ton of other SA and BA books. I only went there perhaps a dozen times before his rudeness turned me off from returning. That and the bus ride there was a pain for a kid who wasn't old enough to drive yet, lol. Perhaps after I kept coming in and hitting that table over and over again he started charging random prices. I don't recall paying more then a dime for anything off of that table but, I could be wrong.
I lived in San Jose at that time by the way after moving there with my parents from Sunnyvale.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

It was called 'The Comic Collector Shop' and it was between 2nd and 3rd on San Fernando St. Bob Sidebottom owned the shop and he was a dick but he had the best back issues stock around. He actually drew or wrote underground comics back in the early 70's. He's mentioned in this book.


http://books.google.com/books?id=hQb...bottom&f=false

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

You wouldnt happen to remember the owners full name over at Cosmic Comics would you? Or perhaps the actual address? I have spent hours skip tracing this information with zero luck due to the age. Any help would be huge!

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Anyone? Maybe I need to post a cash reward for information. lol.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

I'll see what I can do. Anyone know what is on the property spot now?

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

I used Yahoo to get a visual but can't jog my memory as to which one it was. I recall them having just one store front window to the left of the door. As you entered Murphy Ave from the train tracks side it would be on your right.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Let me go look it up, last I remember it was some shop; yeah, it's a bookshop now, Leigh's Favorite Books. I believe that is the original location as I remember it being right near Stoddard's.

I too remember the one window on the left and the thing is they've remodeled that section several times since that place closed.

As far as the downtown SJ shop, did the counter on the left go all the way to the back? or was there like a counter that went from the left side of the door to the left wall? For some reason I have a memory of a shop with both configurations. I may also be getting it confused with a weird toy shop that was further in downtown.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

It's hard to remember what the storefront of Cosmic Comics looked like. I always drove there from 237 to Matilda, took that left between the mall and Town and Country; parked in the rear of the complex and used the back entrance. I do recall the Biker bar and Chinese or Mexican restaurant that was on either side but that's about it.

The original configuration of the store in SJ had the counter at the back wall. This was in the mid 70's when it first opened. Then in the 80's it was moved to the left side of store. The right hand side always had the new issues on the wall and piles with current back issues on the floor. In the middle it always had the tables with the SA and later BA books. When you first entered the store there were also a few of those rotating racks full of comics. Usually Key, Archie, or some other low volume publisher.

There was also a used bookstore next door called Woodruff and Thrush. If you drive by it today the sign is still there but it's now a coffee shop. The comic store is just a vacant front now. I remember me and my friends would go in there because they had some seriously old SA and BA books in the back next to the porn. We would check out the porn and buy the old comics. The owner didn't know what the books would go for and sell the comics to us anywhere from a quarter to no more than 50 cents. He was always saying they were taking up space because no one was buying them and he said the comic store didn't want them, either.

Are you referring to Space Cat on Bascom Ave? I think it's still there.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Yup, looking at it now from Google Maps, it's got to be the place as I think that PF Chang's spot might have been empty or was a parking lot at the time I went. It fits the area of where we were in Downtown during that day. I'm sure the whole counter bit is from a jumbled memory but you guys helped me figure it out for sure. Sucks that it's no longer there though.

I've never been to the Space Cat on Bascom; by the time I found out about it, I had stopped going to buy comics from any old place as opposed to calling in ahead of time, which was a real lifesaver as my Dad hated to take me to these places and then when I came out empty-handed, he'd get annoyed.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

I'm looking at Google Maps right now. If you scroll to the right of PF Chang's; it's the spot right next to the Chevy Cavalier in the pic. The one with the 'Grill and Bar' sign. The last time I passed by there it was vacant. The address is 73 San Fernando St. If you go a bit more to the right you can still see the hanging sign of the old book store with comics I referred to in my previous post.

If your looking for back issues; Space Cat has a decent selection. They even have an online store.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Sorry IgMan36. I asked about in my comic shop connection to those that knew Doug and they all said after he died she sold everything went AWOL and never touched base since with anyone of Doug's old crew.

It is sorta understandable when someone dies to cut out as much of that life as you can.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

I think we need a thread called "SoCal comic shops...where are they now?"

Unless, of course, none of those guys were impressed with 1960's Marvel Comics, either.

I was trying to be light-hearted there, folks, but, c'mon....over 25% of this thread (the most recent 25%) has nothing to do with the subject. Not trying to be rude, but I think a different thread for this is warranted.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

But this discussion would still be off-topic since we're talking about Northern California ;)

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Comics Toons and Toys in Tustin is having financial issues :(

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Sorry for going off topic here guys. The OP topic had pretty much died off since most the comic regulars had given their two bits on the topic (people could have chimed in with Marvel comics from the 1960s views technically). But yeah, this should have gotten it's own thread or moved to PMs so that this thread could die off naturally.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Well, crap.

:D

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

I think what it is we grew up,I even read Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns a few months back and even they were bitter dissapointments and not as good as I remember them, give me Mark Twain or Charles Dickens any day over Alan Moore or Frank Miller.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

You sir, are banned from Comic Book Talk.
;)

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Yes... but how does the illustrated Mark Twain stories hold up against The Dark Knight Returns?

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Why because the truth hurts?
I bet you never read a real book and that is why the new comics suck because of current readers and current writers who have never experienced anything but regurgitated retellings of Alan Moore`s Watchmen and Frank Miller`s Dark Knight for the last 25 years, Stan Lee`s favorite writers were Dickens,Twain,H.G. Wells,Jules Verne,Conan Doyle and such,He was influenced by real great writers while the new comic writers all they know is to keep telling the same Dark Knight or Watchmen story over and over again. Modern comics are boring and sales are at a all-time low now with Spidey barely cracking 60,000 comics a month. This industry is kept alive by aging old time fanboys who never want to experience anything but dark violent interpretations of superheroes because hey comics are not for kids but middle aged year old fanboys living in moms basement.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Dude... for a senior member your "take an obvious joke" skills really suck. The "old time fanboys" point you made makes no sense because "old time fanboys" refers to Golden & Silver age comics, NOT the 1980s books you mention.

Stan Lee's favorite authors makes perfect sense if you consider both his age and the little fact that there were very few comic writers of note for him to really admire before him. When Stan was starting out they were still mostly reprinting newspaper comic strips. Superhero books were only just being written and while they were very popular, they were not considered choice writing assignments (Disney animal books aimed a kids were the "choice" writing jobs at the time due to them doubling the sales of even the most popular hero books). It's hard for Stan to pick legendary comic writers as inspirations when they were his friggin' contemporaries.

Your comic book knowledge is astoundingly low and inaccurate considering your defensive tone (yep, you stole bits from wikipedia... congrats!) towards another member here. Stan's kid-friendly tone, which you apparently prefer, was a product of the times and the strict comic-book code that the industry followed. Have you actually read anything by Stan in the last 20 years? Lets just say this is the guy behind "Stripperella" in case you didn't know. Not only that, but his modern reinventions of classic characters (like what he did for DC) and the modern imprint books he wrote or developed were not the same kid-fare he did in the 40s.

He grew up and matured as a writer and, like us, as a fan of comics... while others remain stunted.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Back to the original post. Once again: Cool characters, bad stories. What's one good story from Marvel's 1960 comics?

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

-eek-
:banana:
My original post was the silver age and modern comics are aimed at adolescent teens not the aging fanboys from San Diego comic con who complain about everything new in comics from digital comics to CGC, if your a aging 40 year old fanboy COMPLAINING THAT you can`t relate to Spidey or the X-mens adventures anymore than too bad, Spidey`s and the X-men adventures are aimed at adolescent teen males and not the 35 year old fan boy living in his momma`s basement. That`s my point, these comics are aimed at a younger male teen audience and not the aging fanboy and that the aging fanboy as William Shatner once said should get a life. ;)

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

You are factually incorrect. Comic books are not a non-profit charity industry pumped out with educational guidelines and funded by government subsidiaries. It is a business.

Modern comic books are aimed at people with disposable income. The job of a comic book is to sell the advertisements tucked between pages. The average age of the comic book reader has been between 27-29 since the 1980s. Aging fanboys tend to move onwards as other things cut into their lives and teenage readers stick with the comics as adults because of the broad spectrum of titles and sophisticated stories. Any book series targeted towards 15 year olds (and only 15 year olds) will fail because we are only 15 for one year.

I loved comics at 12, but reading those same books at 32 I get an entirely new appreciation of the same exact issue (Ann Nocenti's Daredevil run). I just turned a 73 year old to the Walking Dead series and he loves them (and he's more well read then anyone I've ever met). Any series that's targeted towards 17-71 year old will make more money then any series just for early teens. That's why the kiddie section is usually only 1 bottom shelf at a comic store.

Silver Age and Modern Age are two very different markets.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

First one that came to mind:

http://www.comicsresearch.org/blog/u..._00-766623.jpg

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

It's a bit pathetic that this is The Thing's only storyline for the past 50+ years. Thing: "Make me human again, Reed. i don't want to be a monster."
Reed: "Trust me, I'm working on a cure for you."

blah blah blah, same story they have had for ages. I did like it when The Thing got spiky and hooked up with that female Thing, but that's still not a good story.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

"Then there is no pleasing you."

http://www.theboxset.com/images/revi...ldmember04.jpg

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Try out Grant Morrison's Fantastic Four tpb. Great art, great story.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

The 80s is still my favorite decade for comics.

Marvel was on fire during the 80s. Actually, comics in general were stellar during this decade.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

That's only because the mid to late 90's were so awful... :)

Also depends on when you grew up. I missed the 60's and most of the 70's so my fondest memories as a kid are from the 80's as well.

I can kinda understand bloopbleep's ( point, but I disagree (obviously) with the aging irrelevant fanboys part. I do think that comics are sometimes hogtied by their adult audience, which almost by nature hates change and wishes that things were more like comics in their youth. I'm not talking about going back to anthologies and single-issue stories, but stuff like 'the Hulk must be green," "the FF should be Reed, Sue, Johnny,and Ben," "Superboy should have been in the Legion of Superheroes," etc. I fall into this all the time. Heck, Quesada falls into this as well, which is kinda why he wanted Peter to not be married, and also why readers who grew up with Peter being married hate Quesada (this is besides the fact that they WAY he did it was idiotic, of course... I really doubt even if it had been handed in an ingenious way that fans would have liked it).

Fans also want tight continuity, which is just not possible with the freelancing nature of comics by the Big 2... and longtime readers don't necessarily want to be hogtied by a writer who killed off their favorite character because he hated them, in some one-off issue designed to show how evil some new bad guy is. But excessive continuity also means that it's really hard for new readers to jump on. This is probably why some of the most revered superhero works are stuff that happens outside of continuity or as one-shots(the aforementioned Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, All Star Superman, Killing Joke, Squadron Supreme, etc.)

All that said, there are some great superhero comics coming out that are far from dark and/or boring. Overpriced/expensive? Yes. I do fear that the comic book crowd is aging and dwindling, but I hope stuff like the animated Batman Brave and the Bold and JLU at least introduces these characters to a younger audience who will someday become comic book fans.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Honestly, the more adult oriented a comic book is the more likely a kid will want to buy it. As a kid I recall picking through a rack of comics at the grocery store where I drifted past the obvious kiddy-fare (Disney, Saturday-morning cartoon comics) towards GI Joe that had several Joes shot and injured on the cover and a Daredevil comic that just had his horned head on the cover surrounded by other hero portraits.

As much as I loved the Joe cartoon the promise of actual violence was just astounding to me. Growing up Catholic Daredevil drew me in because of the good/evil balance. The earliest Daredevil books I read questioned my views on religion, Vietnam War & patriotism and suffering through adversity.

My first major Daredevil series had him beaten down and nearly killed by Typhoid Mary and crew. As Daredevil lay near death (or perhaps even dead) his mentor Stick came to him in a vision urging him to not die and fight for every breath of air... It was dark, it was emotional, it was real. That was the first series of books I read in the hospital after getting out from my two weeks in intensive care when I was 13. With half my body destroyed I read that series and wept after I finished it. I healed as Daredevil did and took from it all the inspiration that I could.

Having read ever issue of Daredevil in the 60s and 70s (as well as hundreds of other in that time period) I can tell you that none of those issues could inspire a boy to live and fight. Yes comics were more innocent back then... but they were also more empty and meaningless. They were fluff pieces meant to pass the time and little more. As such, I can't even imagine living in the mind of someone who needs their fantasy to be so removed from reality that it fails to have a soul. I just can't relate to that now, nor could I do that as a kid.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

I only started reading comics in the late 90s, so it was all back issues. It's just that there was so much good stuff turned out in that decade.

Spider-man was an exciting, dynamic comic with real characters and real consequences.

Same for the Fantastic Four, the X-men family, and the Avengers.

The "satellite era" Justice League.

Wonder Woman was worth reading.

Adams on Batman.

Then there's Miracleman, The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, upstart indie comics, and so many more I can't think of off the top of my head.

Re: Not impressed with Marvel Comics(from the 1960s)
 

Note that, in my post at least, the "adult" part is not a comic book having adult themes... I agree, at a certain age, kids don't want to be coddled; they want stories that have lasting impact, not stuff that just resets to the norm every issue, cardboard cutouts of heroes and villains, etc. I'm saying that catering to the adult collectors market can limit the kid audience. Take the endless crossovers for example. Even if a kid saved his allowance to buy a 3 dollar comic every month, there are very few monthlies from the Big 2 that do not get pulled into some bigger crossover that is almost incomprehensible if you're reading just one monthly. That's great to get money from adults who may have more disposable income (though I'm sure many of us get tired of it as well) but not so great for the kid who can only get one book.