Hidden Treasures!

While out on my bicycle today with my wife and fellow comic book geek, we happened to pass by an antique store in town by the name of Shady Lawn Antiques. This antique store was a dairy and creamery for Walla Walla once upon a time, but has since been transformed into an incredible antique store with some unique treasures and amazing blasts from the past, any past. I am a junk hunter and love going through antique stores, but when I find an antique store with comic books, then I am in heaven! I don't care what the book is, somebody outside the four color field has acknowledged that these illustrated magazines are a valuable piece of our American history.

I found a small box of comic books and rummaged through each and every book (as I typically do). I passed beyond the stacks of Archie comics (not my thing) and hacked through the Conan books. Every book was gently used and slightly worn, which is common for shops that don't fully understand the world of comic books. Some books had slight tears or minor folds, some were discolored with rolled spines, and most had been slumped and bent enough to have soft spines.

I am a bad collector in the sense that I don't require my books be sharp and crisp, I can almost be considered a comic book shelter. I will take in the book no matter the condition. I just love comics, not their price tag.

With that said, there were seven books I felt that I had to have above the others and they were Whitman Comics' Flash Gordon #31 and 31 (the movie adaptation issues); The Bionic Woman #4 from 1978; the first series of New Mutants #9 which sees the New Mutants in Nova Roma; Iron Man #102, which chronicles the gold and crimson Avenger and his battle with The Dreadknight; All-Star Comics #63 where the Justice Society take on the Injustice Society with a great cover of Solomon Grundy thumping the JSA; and finally, Battle Of The Planets #3 from 1979! I didn't even know that BotP was that old, much less, printed by Gold Key Comics!


Find some treasures of your own!