How I became Shuper

I was always Shupe but it took me awhile to become Shuper.

It began to happen in my twelfth year. At that time, I was deep into reading science fiction: War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, anything by Arthur C Clarke, or Isaac Asimov, John Carter Warlord of Mars, the Lensman series by EE doc smith, the most space opera of space operas. (The Lensmen needs to turned into a film franchise right now. It doesn’t matter if you start or end with the Dragon Lensman, he just needs to be there!)

Despite the reading of these amazing things, I still felt quite ordinary, the actions and settings, so far behind my contemplation. But things changed in a moment on the afternoon of July 18, 1974, fifty years ago to the day I write this. During my father’s vacation on that afternoon we walked into an ordinary convenience store located on a campground near Woodstock New Brunswick. Oh yes, things would change forever that sunny dry July day, 50 years ago. But like a good comic book serial, let’s end for a moment on a cliffhanger shall we?  (If you know me at all that cliff hanger clue should have filled you in on the answer.)

In my younger days, I felt quite ordinary. I did not even associate shupe with shuper, man, or star, or shark. I do recall loving the Batman TV show with Adam West. It is a fond memory of getting to watch it after we returned home from grocery shopping on Thursday, back in the day when the Sobeys grocery store in Halifax only opened late on Thursday and Friday nights. It was always a magical night, because my father would allow me to have an inch of Big 8 ginger ale in a small tumbler, the only time I was allowed to drink soda pop.

It was one of my first encounters with superheros, although my mother had told me I was a huge fan of Popeye and Yogi Bear. And what is Yogi Bear if not a superhero? He’s a bear who talks! And makes philosophical statements. The other benefit of grocery night was the huge paper grocery bags, which were perfect for decorating as a costume and putting over your head to become a superhero. Yes, I was cosplaying before it was in fashion. I was Batman or Batboy, or Mark the Monkey. (I still do not know why I thought that one was a good idea).

I was not limited in my multiple identities. I was Cowboy Joe and later a junior detective the way of the Hardy Boys, with a special coat, I called the detective jacket. (And to be clear, I still have at ready reference, the Hardy Boys Detective Manual).

After this there was the odd encounter with a comic book, usually a tattered Superman related comic book at my grandparent’s house, I’m sure that would be worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars had it not been, well tattered. These Superman books were interesting but they didn’t really fire my attention, and I still hadn’t make the connection between shupe and super.

Oddly enough it took another kind of superhero to slowly make that connection.

Which brings us back to that fateful visit to the Woodstock convenience store, 50 years ago.

On a spindly, gyrating, rotating metal rack, there was arrayed the most garish coloured comic books.

Marvel comic books.

On an impulse I bought five: Spiderman 136, a classic duel with the green goblin; Defenders 15 (the Defenders at that time were at least as cool as the avengers with Doctor Strange, Nighthawk, Valkyrie, the Hulk, and that issue happened to feature a minor villain named Magneto);  Marvel Superheros 45, a Hulk comic reprint; Marvel Tales 55, a Spiderman reprint; and Marvels Greatest Comics 51 with a group, I had never hear of, the Fantastic Four.

I started reading Spiderman 136 immediately, and was hooked by the time we were near another convenience store. I scoured a similar metal rack to the first store to see if there was anything I had missed of interest.

There was one. The mighty Thor 225, my first introduction to the cosmic space being Galactus. Thor would become one of my favorites.

I devoured all six comics and was ready for more.

About a month later I was with my mother in the Halifax shopping center and we went into the United Cigar Store, the best place to buy magazines at that time, and there was that magical rack again, though this time not so tousled, and much shinier. And more packed with inviting coloured comics.

There like magic was Spiderman 137, Defenders 16 and so one. And then it struck me – these comic books came out every month, but were released weekly. I added avengers 127 and others, and from then on in every week I would visit the United Cigar Store.

I have been doing this for 50 years now this day. I now get a monthly shipment and include both DC and Marvel and a spattering of others.

The United Cigar Store now closed, I jumped from supplier to supplier, until comic book shops became the fashion.

There are many that stand out, but none more than amazing fantasy 15, the first appearance of Spider-man. A copy of the cover adorns the wall of my man cave. It’s strange that it would take a spider-man rather than a super man, to make me feel, well shuper. I do not have a copy of that original edition which is worth more than I could afford, but I do have it in several reprint editions, including the paper back book, “Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee." I was mostly familiar with Spider-man as the wisecracking but well-meaning hero, from the 1960’s cartoon series until I started reading his regular series, and saw his great sense of responsibility. Amazing Fantasy 15, with the now well-known story of Uncle Ben and the burglar and the line with great power comes great responsibility and the lesson of taking responsibility seriously. How could anything make you want to feel more Shuper than that?

From the number of times the statement about great power and responsibility has been repeated in pop culture over the last twenty I would say I am not the only one.

You would not want to know how many comic books I now have. My wife would surely not want you to now. I have read almost them all and have them in pretty good storage. The valuable ones and some of the favorite non valuable ones are in special storage, in multiple bank safety deposit boxes. That’s right: multiple safety deposit boxes.

Now if you are reading that many comic books, it is not long with a name like Shupe that you start to feel Shuper, even if your only superpower is to run slightly faster than average, even for people who have had bypass surgery and two heart attacks.*

Not all of those comics have been worth reading, I will admit, not all of them are classic literature, but the good ones, the blending of writing and art are as fun to read as Dante’s Inferno, or Shakespeare’s Henry the Fifth (some of my favourite writing)

I like comic books because of their imagination, their quick pace, the relentless parade of ideas, their sense of drama. Some times plots are repeated. (I must admit I am really tired of the plot where one superhero gets mind controlled and turned on another), but it is amazing how new writers can come up with new ideas or come up with new spims on old ideas. And you don't have to put up with a seven hundred word description of every eating utensil the characters use.

But mostly, I like the sense of the heroic ideal. Of the hero fighting for what is morally right, or struggling to do so. When I find myself facing moral dilemmas, it is when I draw on comics the most and feel the most shuper, knowing I will take the heroic route, even at my own expense.

I feel shuper when I am running, the sense that I am almost flying. (I used to have this recurring dream that I was flying, but I was always flying too to low to the ground, and always scraped my chin on upraised slabs of concrete on sidewalks near my childhood home.) I feel shuper when I need to defend my family, although they are all pretty shuper in their own right, and tend to protect me now more than I ever protected them.

When I was at my lowest, after the bypass surgery, I did not feel shuper, other than it was like I was afflicted with a deadly dose of kryptonite. That was the greatest battle I have ever faced, and it took me a long time to feel strong again. I have always said, as long as I have unread comic books, I will never die, so I always keep a few unread.

And one more thing – did you know that Lana was the first name of Superman’s first girlfriend.

And did you know that the moment I knew my Lana was for me forever, was the day that she bought me a hardcover book called Marvel? (Okay, there were a lot of other moments, but this is a blog about comics!)

And so that is how I became Shuper. 50 years of collecting comic books will do that to an ordinary guy.

To celebrate 50 years of comic collecting, for the next 50 days, I will be posting a short comic book related post. Hope you enjoy.

And yes, I hope to be reading comics for another 50 years. The need to see what happens after the latest cliffhanger will hopefully keep me hanging in there.

Isn’t it funny that the only thing that I am always completely serious about is a thing called comics?

* I have been lobbying the superhero union to have the ability to make clever puns, an official super power, so there is hope that I will have a registered superpower in the near future.

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