DOuG pRATt

Take A Comic Book, Any Comic Book

September 22nd, 2007

In the documentary I just posted, In Search of Steve Ditko, there’s a scene where host Jonathan Ross pulls a comic book out of his collection to show to his guests. It’s House of Secrets #92, a DC title that introduced the character Swamp Thing, illustrated by Berni Wrightson. This elicited a huge laugh from me.

As I explained in my post about the Ditko program, being a comics fan at 15 was tough. Due to social pressure I almost gave up the hobby, and would have if not for my friend Morris, who had placed a small ad in the local free weekly “penny seller,” saying he wanted to start a comic book club. My mother gave me permission to meet Morris, despite his being ten years older than myself. I suppose the fact that he was a married father helped.

Meeting Morris was an event with enormous implications, beyond keeping me from quitting my comic book habit. He was a lean and bearded hippie, with wire rim glasses. Shortly after we met, Morris, who is Jewish, bought what he once called a Nazimobile — a new VW Bug (Volkswagen Beetle). Kids who saw Morris picking me up and dropping me off from our trips to buy comic books thought Morris was very cool indeed. The improvement in my social standing at school, and the changes in my life resulting from that, were profound to say the least.

Anyway, during my first visit with Morris, the very first comic book he pulled out of his collection to show me was the then-recent comic House of Secrets #92, which I hadn’t seen because the drug store where I bought comics hadn’t carried it. Having several copies of the issue, Morris let me keep the comic as an introductory present, and I still have it.

Filed under: All Posts, In Search of Steve Ditko, Life with Pratts