The boys in the late 1930s and early 40s were all nuts about comic books. The big one of course was Superman. Then Batman and Robin, Green Arrow, Captain America, Captain Marvel, The Flash, and more. Of course, a new comic, Wonder Woman, came out later but was not a favorite in our circle. (Girl hero? No Way.) The books came out monthly and cost ten cents. Later, a 'quarterly', much larger issue of Superman came out periodically for 25 cents. In our immediate circle each boy bought one or two each month and then we swapped them around. Remember, we weren't rich. Still, over time Jack and I had collected a stack of old comics which just lay in the closet. One day, however, I discovered a treasure trove in them. In the middle of every comic there was a two-page section filled with text... no pictures? So, we all skipped immediately to the next page of adventure drawings. I belatedly discovered that these skipped pages had short stories in them, not great literature surely but stories, and I was an avid reader so I went back and read all those many epics. I didn't need the pictures.
Our imaginations were fired up by those super-heroes. One that caught on when we were out playing was the Billy Batson character. He was just a boy but when needed he would say the magic "SHAZAM!" and immediately became Captain Marvel who could save the day. In the middle of a game someone was sure to suddenly shout "Shazam!" and run around pretending to have metamorphosed into the hero. Sure, Clark Kent could slip into a phone booth and shed his clothes to reveal himself as Superman but how could we imitate that? By the way, who did pick up the discarded clothes and return them? Surely not Lois Lane.
One outshoot of the comic book craze was a stroke of genius ... Classic Illustrated comics. Oh, I don't know how successful they were over time but they did combine comic book attraction with good literature. Picture it... comic book presentations of Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, War of the Worlds, Crime and Punishment. At the very worst these could substitute for having to actually read the book for a book report.
You will be amazed to find out what those old comic books are selling for Google "comic books" for laughs.
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