Spinner Rack Dreams

 Have you ever been haunted by a memory? Or rather, the sound of a memory echoing in your dreams? Well, I have. This might sound odd, but if you're intrigued, read on.

I grew up picking comic books off rusty old spinner racks at a Greek-owned corner store while my mom had her hair done at a Salon next door. This is possibly one of the greatest experiences of my life and might never be equaled. How formative were those afternoons, poring for countless hours over Marvel’s Fantastic Four, The Uncanny X-Men, The Avengers, The Hulk, and DC’s Horror titles from the early 1980s? I’m not entirely sure, but I think that flimsy four-color fare indelibly reworked my young mind and taught me much more about friendship, love, ethics, and the larger world than I ever imagined. You might even call it brainwashing by way of the Bronze Age if you're trying to be glib about it. 

And boy, those Spinner Racks' contents drew me in, eagerly opening my mind to their influence. The covers alone were like lodestones. Just feast your eyes on the following: 

The issues above are some of the first titles I bought off the 'spinners', as we used to call 'em in South Africa, where I grew up. That's right, we had tons of comics in SA, folks. Tons.

Looking back on it all now, there was much to be excited about as a kid growing up in the early 1980s. We had Saturday Morning cartoons, action figures out the wazoo, cool tunes pouring from the radio, lazy Saturdays, and friends to swap and talk comics with. It was paradise, Nirvana, Valhalla, all rolled into a perfect place that sadly became imperfectly preserved in my mind. Most of those idyllic moments have probably been distorted by time and age.

Still, there’s one thing I’m sure of and hold on to whenever I struggle to recall the exact details of those long-ago days. It was the creaking of the Spinner Rack as I gently rotated it, searching for my next great love. DC’s Warlord and Arak: Son of Thunder? Found it. The Vision and The Scarlet Witch mini-series? Check. All-Star Squadron? Read it to tatters. The X-Men Versus Dracula? Oh, hell yes.

The sound of the Spinner Rack embedded these moments deep within and changed me. These stories still inhabit me, permeating almost every aspect of my life. Never a day goes by that I don't think of comics. Because of this, I count myself among the lucky few.

And as for my dreams?

They are haunted by the sound of a rusty spinner rack, slowly creaking in an oneiric breeze. And hopefully, they always will be.