# Nostalgic for old comic books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-books-manga\ **Created:** [July 29, 2026, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999 "2026-07-29T12:43:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/61 "2026-07-30T15:36:11Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > One of the oddest comics that I remember from my childhood was a one-shot from Harvey Comics, starring Casper the Friendly Ghost, Wendy the Witch, and Richie Rich, traveling through time to celebrate the history of baseball. Specifically of the National League. Given my age and the date that the National League was founded (1876), it was most likely a centennial celebration of some kind. It may or may not have been tied in with Bicentennial celebrations. > > Anybody else remember that one? I have that one! It was always one of my favorites, even though I hate baseball (I have no idea why I liked it so much, but I still remember some baseball history facts because I read that thing from cover to cover dozens of times when I was a kid). I recently bought another copy so I’d have it. I collected Harvey comics from the early 70s to around 1977-78. I had every Richie Rich, Little Dot, Little Lotta, and all the Casper ecosystem (Casper, Spooky, Wendy, Nightmare, etc.) I could get my hands on from that period, plus quite a few of the earlier ones I bought at a used-comic shop. We had three local stores that sold new comics, and one a little further away, and in many cases they carried different titles. At its height, Richie Rich had like 20 separate titles, and since that was my favorite, I tried to get them all. My mom would go to the three stores every week and leave the haul on my bed for when I got home from school. It would be a ritual: I’d come home and say “Any little surprises?” and she’d smile and say “Look and see…” It’s one of my fondest childhood memories. I’m still bummed, though, since I had the chance to get Richie Rich #1 for $100, but that was way too much money for the parents to spend on a comic book back then, so I didn’t get it. It’s worth thousands now. I finally stopped collecting Harvey when Marvel started doing a Star Wars adaptation, and by the early 80s I was buying Marvel superhero comics (Doctor Strange and the various X-Men and Spider-Man titles, mostly). Never got into DC. Thanks for bringing back some fun memories! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/62 "2026-07-30T16:33:13Z")
Check it? I’ve already got it. And the other two volumes, on sidekick and villains. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/63 "2026-07-30T18:51:44Z")
I had that and a bunch of other books on weird comics. So many hundreds, maybe thousands, of fly-by-night operations assuming they could make a quick buck because their market was kids too young to do more than pick up a colored object. Pre-superheroes I picked up a lot of Dell kiddy comics. Superheroes killed them but post WWII, when they published the Disney characters, they outsold every other publisher. Disney stars could sell 2-3 million copies a month. But they did competitors too. Anybody remember Warner Bros. cartoon relics [Mary Jane and Sniffles](https://dochermes.livejournal.com/1830483.html)? She shrunk down to the size of her pet squirrel with magic words I can’t stop remembering every time I get the sniffles. > "First I close my eyes real tight / Then I wish with all my might / Magic words of poof poof piffles / Make me just as small as Sniffles! Then I found Uncle Scrooge. Do not mention Don Rosa to me. He tarnished everything wonderful about my memories of Carl Banks. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/64 "2026-07-30T19:34:50Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Anybody remember Warner Bros. cartoon relics [Mary Jane and Sniffles](https://dochermes.livejournal.com/1830483.html)? I do, but I don’t remember them being in comics. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/65 "2026-07-30T19:51:49Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > If you don’t have your old comics (I don’t) and want a trip down memory lane or a glimpse of things you’d never seen before, I can’t recommend spending some time at [misterkitty.net](http://misterkitty.net)’s Stupid Comics enough. There’s a rabbit hole that I’ll spend hours exploring. Thanks for the link! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/66 "2026-07-30T20:01:05Z")
Yikes. Sniffles was a mouse, not a squirrel. Sorry, little guy. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/67 "2026-07-30T22:22:23Z")
I thought of another set of comics that bring back memories. A company called Power Records had a series of comics that came with an accompanying 45 record so that you could read and listen to the story at the same time. We had ones with Batman (vs. the Joker), Spider-Man (vs. the Man-Wolf) and Superman (vs. some alien golden bullets). I can still remember some of the voice lines to this day. > **[Who Remembers? “Power Records” – The Comic Book with a Record!](https://thesplintering.com/2021/06/03/who-remembers-power-records-the-comic-book-with-a-record/)** > > The 1970’s was definitely the grooviest decade in history.  After all, how many decades can lay claim to disco, bell-bottom pants, and Bi-Centennial fever?  The 1970’s also had a unique a… The one that really had an impact on me was the Star Trek story “Passage to Mouav”; the crew gets influenced by a frightened telepathic alien cat. All of the yowling and growling freaked me out as a kid (although it sounds kind of corny now). Judge for yourself! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Cw6t-ZuTLy4/maxresdefault.jpg "Star Trek- Passage To Moauv") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw6t-ZuTLy4) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/68 "2026-07-30T23:08:18Z")
So Sulu is black, Uhura is a gorgeous blonde, and M’Ress has a humanoid face and no tail? Somebody didn’t do their homework! 😏 ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/69 "2026-07-30T23:31:33Z")
A sadly long-defunct site showcasing a plethora of classic one-panel Marvel awesomeness. > **[EXCELSIOR! (@marvel-pop-art) on Tumblr](https://marvel-pop-art.tumblr.com/)** > > Celebrating the wondrous comic art of silver and bronze age Marvel. Face Front True Believer! I discovered _Tragg and the Sky Gods_ relatively late in life. Cavemen, scantly-clad cavewomen, dinosaurs, aliens, etc. A medley of elements from Tarzan, Flash Gordon, maybe even some L.Ron Hubbard. Mr. Markstein’s description captures moral nuances of the comic that might well have escaped younger readers. “Into this milieu came human-like aliens from the benevolent, altruistic planet Yargon. Being benevolent and altruistic, they had the approval of their own consciences and thus, like many real-life benevolent and altruistic intruders into “primitive” societies, felt free to commit whatever atrocity they pleased. They captured a couple of young women and, without worrying their benevolent, altruistic minds about permission, performed the most thorough personal invasion imaginable, mucking with their DNA. Then they abandoned their guinea pigs, resolving to check back a generation later to see what they’d wrought. All this was presented to the reader in benevolent, altruistic terms.” - [Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Tragg and the Sky Gods](https://www.toonopedia.com/tragg.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/70 "2026-07-31T00:03:35Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > So Sulu is black, Uhura is a gorgeous blonde, and M’Ress has a humanoid face and no tail? Somebody didn’t do their homework They only had likeness license for Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley. It’s weird that they didn’t just change the names of the characters. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/71 "2026-07-31T00:23:16Z")
How old do you have to be to remember how big a deal it was when Marvel stopped calling it Comics and became Pop Art Productions for about a week and a half? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/72 "2026-07-31T22:52:20Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > In Joliet, my dad had an assistant who would sometimes take me to the supermarket to buy comics. Wow, that’s an extreme case of “And other duties not specified in your job description, if deemed necessary by your supervisor.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/73 "2026-07-31T22:57:31Z")
Yeah, Don wasn’t much more than a glorified gofer. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/74 "2026-07-31T23:08:00Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > We had ones with Batman (vs. the Joker), Spider-Man (vs. the Man-Wolf) and Superman (vs. some alien golden bullets). I can still remember some of the voice lines to this day. Memory unlocked! As a wee lad I remember Spider-Man vs. Man-Wolf! ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/75 "2026-07-31T23:12:59Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Memory unlocked! As a wee lad I remember Spider-Man vs. Man-Wolf! “That monster…is my SON!” - J. Jonah Jameson ---
**Author:** ![bmoak1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@bmoak1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak1)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/76 "2026-08-01T03:25:35Z")
My prime comics reading years were a few years in the mid/late 70s followed by a 3 year gap until the early 80s, with the 80s being my most prolific reading/collecting years. I’ve read comics since then, with some gaps here-and-there, but not nearly as much as I did then. My comics reading started with my uncle’s hand-me-down collection from the early 60s. He was a big Marvel fan. At Our block ended at one of our town’s shopping districts and on the corner was a lunch counter/newsstand/sundries store where I would walk with loose change in my pocket to buy comics. With it’s art-deco metal sign and it’s senior-citizen lunch counter customers, Aignello’s was already an anachronism in the mid-70s (and would be replaced by a fried chicken joint in a few years). It’s also the place where I first heard the phrase “Hey, kid! This isn’t a library!” To be fair. My mom didn’t let me spend much on comics, so I had to be selective and was indecisive over what to buy. I also got comics when I went with my mom to the supermarket. My folks picked them up when I was sick or for road trips, or wepicked them up at newsstands on vacation. There was a store in town that sold the coverless three-packs as well. The mid70s to the early 80s is when the newsstand-distributed comics companies other than Marvel and DC went to die. (Archie survived, but mostly because of its small-sized digest editions, which could be displayed and sold at checkout counters). I don’t ever remember seeing Atlas, Gold Key, Dell or most of the other companies mentioned above. There was Harvey and Archie, which is what my parents tended to buy for me. Even as a pretty young kid, I didn’t like Harvey much at all, especially the non-magical titles, which I thought were really lame and one note (Richie Rich is funny because he’s RICH! Little Dot is funny because she’s OBSESSED with DOTS!). Archie was OK, but I didn’t have any strong attachment to those titles.) Charlton, with its cheapjack production values, was limping along. Charlton had one of its brief mini-revivals in the 70s, led by some creators who went on to have careers at Marvel and DC, but that was all gone by 76. Just some lame titles like The Fighting Five (military commandos), Yang (kung-fu), and Baron Weirdwulf’s Haunted Library that I might have picked up once and never tried again. My comic-buying philosophy for this first phase (roughly ages 6-9) was as follows: -If one superhero in a comic was good, then move superheroes in a comic are better -When in doubt, choose the book with the most promising cover. I don’t think I had processed the idea of making sure to buy my favorite titles every month. What do I remember reading? Despite my Marvel headstart via my uncle’s hand-me-downs, I don’t remember reading a lot of Marvel outside of Spiderman, who was in multiple titles by then. Marvel put out these tabloid-sized treasury editions. Some were just reprints of older stuff but I remember film adaptations of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, plus the first Spiderman/Superman crossover. I remember more DC, specifically Superman and Batman titles, Justice League, Legion of Super-Heroes, Teen Titans and Flash. I think I liked DC more because they were experimenting with books with more pages and backup features. I remember reading Superman Family and Batman Family. At the end of third grade, my family moved and Mom took the opportunity to throw away all my old comics, thinking it was time for me to stick with real books. We didn’t move all that far and were still living in the same town, but in a Moore residential area with no newsstand on the corner or stores nearby. Stores that had comics in the past were either closing down or stopped carrying comics, so I was out of comics for a few years until… ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/77 "2026-08-01T11:38:17Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I remember the DC story from the mid-1970’s. In the original, Dennis started arguing with Caroline as to whether her dad was really President, since he’d never seen his picture on dollar bills. Caroline was left uneasy after he departed and asked JFK if he was _sure_ he was President. We couldn’t see Kennedy’s face (just the back of his head 😮 ), but it was clear he didn’t appreciate the question. IIRC, he replied “Well, let me say _this_ about _that_ … !” ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/78 "2026-08-07T19:52:05Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > There’s a rabbit hole that I’ll spend hours exploring. Thanks for the link! May I suggest the links in this article too? > **[Read 20,000+ Golden Age Comic Books Free Online: Superheroes, Westerns,...](https://www.openculture.com/2026/08/read-20000-golden-age-comic-books-free-online.html)** > > For generations of kids in the twentieth century, few pleasures were as intoxicating as a trip to the comic-book shop with the week's allowance fresh in hand. Est. reading time for the article: 3 minutes. For the links, longer. Maybe much, much longer. But wait! There is more! > **[Download Over 22,000 Golden & Silver Age Comic Books from the Comic Book Plus...](https://www.openculture.com/2014/03/download-over-22000-golden-silver-age-comic-books-from-the-comic-book-plus-archive.html)** > > The decade beginning with the late 1930s is known as the Golden Age of comic books. Many of the superheroes from today’s blockbuster franchises, including Batman, Superman, and Captain America, emerged during this period, and the industry grew into a... ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/79 "2026-08-07T20:54:18Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > “Well, let me say _this_ about _that_ … !” Shades of Vaughn Meader! ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999/80 "2026-08-07T22:40:08Z")
I spent most of the 2010s exhausting those archives. It was a sad day when DC demanded all of the Fawcett Captain Marvel stories be expunged. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostalgic-for-old-comic-books/1031999.md?page=5)