Thanks, meh, for one of the nicest moments I've had this year
48I’ve shared before here that my dad died this year. He had dementia, and was in a nursing home for the last few months of his life. Not a good time, and sad.
I was estranged from my dad and my sister for the last few years, for, well, reasons. My sister contacted me when Dad took a turn, and I got some closure. I also got to reacquaint myself with my sister, her kids, and her new fiance. That turned out to be really wonderful- all of the stuff in the past is washed away, and I really enjoy dealing with her and her family now.
I get to play “crazy uncle” to her kids. I bought them the ball-in-cup thingamabob, because kids should have something other than an iPhone screen to stare at all day, right? And when the 25 random comics box came out, I bought them each a box, and opened it up just to check it out.
Man, those boxes are SWEET! I’m a big fan of comics, and have been all my life. I recently sold off all my paper comics because I prefer reading comics on the iPad for a whole bunch of reasons, but I have fond memories of digging through the cheap boxes at local stores to find the diamond in the rough. Anyone can collect comics by buying expensive CGC-graded issues in NM, but it’s a hell of a lot more fun to put together a run of comics by spending a Saturday scanning boxes of quarter bins, IMHO. These boxes were perfect for that. These were pretty good books for the price- a nice collection of Marvel and DC comics from the past thirty years, with a few older books, some #1s, and all in decent shape. All different comics- the only repeat was the oversized Newstime magazine from the Death of Superman story, which is a fun book.
I was surprised that one of my all-time faves, Fantastic Four #352, was in there. That’s a great comic- Reed Richards and Dr. Doom fight in the timestream back and forth, so you have to read that part of the story by flipping back and forth through the comic, while the other part of the story happens sequentially. It’s a classic Walt Simonson comic.
I’m looking forward to giving these to my niece and nephew, and I hope it’s a start for them to a hobby I’ve loved in my life. Easily one of the best meh purchases I’ve made. Nice job, guys!
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This is a great story and a great thing to happen in your life. Glad you told us about it.
Thanks so much for sharing. I’m proud to be the aunt to my nephew and nieces that was the proverbial black sheep of our family. Not for any specific transgression, only because I refused to be the female cookie cutter version of my Type A older brothers.
As it turned out, now that the kids are young adults, we have had many very honest heart to hearts about my life. They appreciate my need to do things my own way, and that I am not ashamed of the mistakes I made along the way. They always came to me when they needed to figure out a mess they were in. They knew I wouldn’t berate them, or even worse-judge them. They love me unconditionally, as I have always loved them. They became my champions and the ones to remind me that I turned pretty freaking great after all.
Continue to be the fun uncle. Buy silly gifts and comic books. Teach them that the simple things in life will bring them much more joy than the material trappings they are being programmed to believe ‘will make them happy’. Enjoy every minute of the gift you have been given!
@ldibble I can’t wait to be the weird queer “aunt” in the big city for all my friends’ kids.
That’s a great story, thank you for letting us know. I’ve passed it on to our buyer and our vendor and it made their day.
I will say, it’s crazy that you recognized a specific comic out of the batch. I really want to read that one now, the back-and-forth flipping sounds awesome.
@dave
https://www.ebay.com/p/Fantastic-Four-352-May-1991-Marvel/85469359
@PlacidPenguin Thanks, I went ahead and bought a couple on either side of that one as well: http://www.ebay.com/itm/122233578643
@wishlish That was a great comic, thanks! My favorite part is at the top of the cover, where it normally says “THE WORLD’S GREATEST COMIC MAGAZINE” they changed it to say “THE WORLD’S MOST CONFUSING COMIC MAGAZINE!”