A Comic Book Summer

Ah, summer! Our favorite time of the year in Vancouver. Gelato ice cream, prettty girls in shorts, eating in restaurant patios, walking around in T-shirt and jeans and best of all, lots of sunlight - pretty much the only time of the year when we don't have days of overcast skies or rain.

For Zexiv, childhood summers bring back pleasant memories of burgers, chocolate milkshakes, exploring the village in his red racer bike, and memorable trips to Dagupan City where his maternal grandparents lived. The best part about those trips to Dagupan, he thought, were eating steamed oysters, swimming in the beach, playing with his many cousins and spending hours poring over their huge collection of ladybird books and comic books. He remembers staying up late at night reading comics such as Unknown Soldier, Sgt. Rock, Justice League, Superman, Haunted Tank, Jonah Hex, House of Secrets, House of Mystery and the Witching Hour. His cousins, thought Zexiv, had impeccable taste in books and comic books, although he would often be too scared to sleep after spending hours reading those horror comics. In the provinces, the nights seemed somewhat longer, darker, and more mysterious and the sound of dogs howling from far off would make Zexiv shiver, pull the sheets over his eyes, pray for daylight ... and resolve to himself not to read any more horror story comics. Of course this would all change when it was morning again ...

About a year ago, on a trip to New York, Zexiv discovered the DC Showcase Presents editions of comic books in his favorite comic book store, Forbidden Planet. These are comic book collections of notable silver age comics - the era Zexiv and Inverbras grew up in - and are softbound, printed in newsprint in black and white and run more than 500 pages long. Did I say black and white? Yes, they are not colored unlike the original comics but this allows DC to keep each volume at a very reasonable price (below CAD 20 in the local Vancouver stores), instead of running up to hundreds or over a thousand dollars, which is what it would cost if you were to to collect every original single comic book in the collection nowadays. The lack of color does not take away from the brilliant artwork and great storytelling. Zexiv particularly loves the war and horror comics of DC Showcase Presents. During the past year he has added more volumes to his collection such as House of Mystery 1 & 2, Haunted Tank, Sgt. Rock, Unknown Soldier, and just yesterday, Jonah Hex (thanks, Puff!).

Being of the silver age era does not make them at all "campy" in our opinion. We much prefer the way comics were written and drawn back in the "good old days" to the many so called "graphic novels" being churned out today which seem quite boring and pretentious and seem to lack great storytelling. We look forward to acquiring even more of these editions, such as House of Secrets, Enemy Ace, Batman, and the individual stories of the Justice League members.

I was pleased to discover a good likeness of myself - and Mademoiselle Marie - deep inside the pages of Sgt Rock while Zexiv was excited to find that the Unknown Soldier had his roots in the home country, where his brother Harry lost his life in the grenade explosion that also took away his face.

To Zexiv, these comic book collections bring back fond childhood memories of those long and hot summers in Dagupan. Except that now there are no dogs howling at night over here to keep him awake, just the rocket like sound of the Skytrain and police sirens ....