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...