Scenes from an Amatuer Comic Collector's Life (2)--Sunday Funnies

Today is new comic book day, so I go into Forbidden Planet to check out the new goods. DC Comics has come out with an entirely new series I absolutely love which is in the form of a Sunday newspaper comic section like what we used to call the funnies. Remember those? This features epic 14 X 20 inch story pages of Superman, Batman, Kamandi (I have almost all of the Jack Kirby originals), Hawkman, Deadman, Green Lantern, Metamorpho, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Metal Men, Flash, Sgt. Rock, Teen Titans, Adam Strange, and the Demon teamed with Catwoman. Best of all, Metamorpho the Elemental Man is drawn by my absolute favorite artist Mike Allred--who has a cool retro sensibility--he's the guy who does Madman, which will conclude its current series next month from Image Comics. And this Metamorpho strip is written by Neil Gaiman (Geeky enough for yez?)

This will be a weekly series from DC for 12 weeks. Wow! I can collect them all! I remember the funnies used to be my favorite part of the newspaper. Saturday nights my dad used to drive us to this general store-sort of Wawa place to get the Sunday paper. We would go after dinner and get ice cream and pick up the Sunday edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. It was a weekly ritual, I remember sitting with him in the front seat and my sister in the back. We'd go in the store and pick up this enormous newspaper with the colorful funnies wrapped around the front. Sometimes if I had enough allowance money left--I got 25 cents a week--I would buy the latest Action Comics with Superman AND the Legion of Super-Heroes. So it had to be the early 70s, when the Legion was no longer the only feature in Adventure Comics, but had been relegated to second-class status behind the Man of Steel in Action.

I haven't read all of the comics yet, but I love the Green Lantern which has a real cool early 60s vibe like The New Frontier, a graphic novel series I've been meaning to read.

I also picked up issue 5 of the Marvel adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for my friend Lydia who is a Jane Austen fan.