I’ve loved comics since before I could read them on my own. Growing up, I had a filing cabinet full of comics.
One of the drawbacks of having comics as a kid is that kids aren’t good at taking care of things and I read my comics until many of them fell apart. But just because they were ripped and cover-less doesn’t mean that I didn’t love those books. When my family moved from the Bronx to Miami, I threw many of my old beat up comics away and only a handful survived the move.
Since, that move I’ve established a new collection, long boxes full of comics are piled up in my home-office and dozens of trade paperbacks line the shelves. Nowadays, I find myself reading each comic and filing it away and maybe reading it once or twice more, if I’m particularly wowed by it. But the comics from that filing cabinet the Bronx, I read over-and-over again, the panels are burned into my brain. Where they better comics than what currently comes out or do I remember them fondly the same way a girl in her late 20’s remembers the Backstreet Boys, not because they were good but because they were popular during her formative years?
I’m determined to find the answer. None of my comics were particularly special, most were single issues, not worth much money. I decided to find as many as I can on Amazon, Ebay and conventions and pick them up, not to send them away to get graded but to read them and see if they hold up to my childhood memories.
I am Matt Masdeu and I am the Re-Collector!
This book takes place in the early days of Spider-Man’s career, but unlike Ultimate Spider-Man, this took place in the 616-universe, the main Marvel Universe. There are references to the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko books but I don’t remember feeling like I had to find 35-year-old comics to follow them.
Early Peter Parker is loser high school student, I was a loser junior high school student. He lived in Queens, I lived in the Bronx. Peter inexplicably went to school in Manhattan while wearing a shirt and tie. I inexplicably went to school in Manhattan while wearing a shirt and tie. He was terrible with girls, I was terrible with girls. I identified with Peter Parker in a way that I had never before. He quickly became my favorite superhero and still is now that I’m in my early 30’s and it’s because I had access to the early Lee/Ditko books.