I’ve been a collector and reader of Comics and SF most of my life.  My start as a comic collector was in what is now called the Silver Age of  Comics.  It was during this time, thanks to reprints, I found out about some of the wonderful  heroes of the 40’s. My two favorites were Captain Marvel and Green Lantern.

In the mid 70’s I started hitting a lot of the one day Comic and Star Trek mini-cons in South Florida.  During this time I was able to add some Golden Age Comics to my collection. C.C. Beck, the creator of Captain Marvel was living in Miami at this time.  Because of this I was able to get a couple of my Comics autographed.  Also go to go to Becks house and he was doing covers of old comics as large painting. He was doing one of the 1940’s Capt. America number one.  Here in his house sitting on an easel was this wonderful painting and next to it was an original Capt. America number one... WOW

Years latter after I was married, my wife and I go to a party and one of the people I meet is Marty Nodell - the creator of the Golden Age Green Lantern.  WOW! Again I am able to get some of my Golden Age Comics autographed.

Comics at one time were made for readers, today they are made for collectors. You can’t go into a store today and pickup a comic and get a story...you get part of a story. When I was a kid you got two to three stories per issue.  Then it became just one, then stories became serials.  Lasting six or more issues.  To me they lost something when that happened. The fun was gone... You couldn’t just read a single comic anymore.  You had to get several or wait until a Graphic Novel would come out giving you the complete story.  Because of this I no longer buy comics, I will pick up a graphic novel form time to time.  And DC Comics with their new 52 in my option is one of the worse things that has happen to comics...  I’ve tried to read a couple, and, well lets say this is the worse change they have ever done.  Maybe they feel that now that the old fans are senior citizens, they can create something new using old names... What a shame. And it seems that the new Superman movie is going to based on the New Superman, not the one we all know and love.  Oh well I still have a lot of my old comics and many hardback collections....