Comic Books! Somewhere down the line there, somewhere, I guess I picked up one of those old colorful 32 page treasures and got hooked. I remember reading all kind of classic comics in the early 60's, like Richie Rich and Little Lulu and those incredible Archie Comics. Hey they were only a dime and the entertainment value was priceless. And soon, it was Turok, Man of Stone!??!, I think???, and Sgt. Rock and the wonders of DC. Superman,Boy,Girl, whatever super, and the Legion of Superheroes, Action and Adventure comics, and Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane and blah, blah blah... And sometime around 1965, while attending Kemble School in good old Cornhill, Joe Fulmer pointed me in the direction of this new comic book company printed under the name of Marvel Comics. WOW!!! I was 13 years old and mesmerized by the mind- boggling realism and fantasy masterfully manipulated by Stan Lee and Associates. Spiderman! Fantastic Four! Hulk! X-men! Daredevil! Avengers! I could not believe it! This stuff put Superman and DC in the trashbin! Holidays on Genesee St. I remember buying Strange Tales 142 and being STUNNED! Nothing in the world could compare to the awesome artistry of these pen-pushing wizards and the written word of Stan Lee, scripter extraordinaire. Needless to say, the next day I was at Nugents on Oswego St. buying the entire Marvel Comic catalog! Umm, sorry, no Millie the Model and Kid Colt. And that was that. Throughout the rest of my high school days I was nothing short of a full-fledged MMMS'er. Uh, no, I did not join the club. Among those cherished first batch of comics, absolute classics! Needless to say FF 48 with the first appearance of Galactus and the Silver Surfer!! Incredible Spiderman 34- first appearance of Gwen Stacey and X-Men 17 with a dynamic last page of "I am Power" MAGNETO! WoW! These comics were like nothing I had read before! I was so smitten I had to find all the older issues: no mean fete for a teen-ager in Utica in the 60's. And search we did as my brother and I took up the cause by hunting down all these little stores from James St. to Columbia St. to Genesee St. And quite a few we found as the wonders of Marvel Mania swept Tracy Street(our humble abode).And after 5 years of collecting, for some reason in the early 70's I stopped buying. Maybe money was tight or the departure of Stan Lee led to the demise of my comic buying days, I do not remember. But for some other unexplained reason, a few years later, I picked up a Spidey in the mid-130's, and it began anew. The stories had become interesting again and all though I did not get the entire Marvel line-up, I was back in the fold with Spiderman and the FF. I purchased the issues I had missed and sorta disregarded DD, X-Men, Thor, Hulk, Avengers, Cap, Iron Man and whatever. And would not ya know it, in the mid 80's I started frequenting this little comic store instead of searching chewed up comics on grocery store racks. Place called RAVENSWOOD founded by John Julian comic booker extraordinaire. With the colorful cast of comic book buyers and his co-workers, Joe Hiatt of 60's James Street fame, sister Janine and the ever- incredible Mo, Ravenswood became my raving fave comic emporium. Unfortunately, John passed away in 1989 so a moment of silence. His vision and perserverence established the comic shop in good old Utica. After moving to Genesee St. next to The Stanley, Janine took this place and with Mr. Julian made it THE SPOT TO BE IN CENTRAL NY!!! And a big thank-you to Brad and Keith and Eric The Red and Brian T and Joe Z and Andy(Go Pens!) and all those awesome comic addicts! A coupla Jeffs, LT, Mike, Paul, Bob, Frank...well those are the ones I know anyway. I am sure there are a cast of gazillions! So a couple of these Ravenswood half-price sales stocked up my comics and filled in the holes of a coupla faves that I began to read again. And to this very day, new comics are out on Wednesday and let's get a few. OK so Marvel has gotten under my skin lately. Oh well, you can't beat the company and friendship of this enchanting place and hey, SURF"S UP!