An Admission

Hi. My name is John and I'm a book and record addict. I've been one since fifth grade, when I got my SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN LP. I listened to it constantly. I took it to Show and Tell. I still have it. It's been supplanted by a copy I bought later in life--the old one's about worn out.

I mention this because I just got a disc in the mail with the THOR and SPIDER-MAN Golden Records on it. These were full-cast recordings where they just read straight out of the comic. They even read the covers aloud. They're also the hardest superhero records to get short of some obscure 78, I guess. These are gems because they came out in the mid-60s and included special reprints of the issues. The only difference I can tell from the original books is that they don't have a cover price. Reprints of comics tend not to be nearly as valuable as the first printing, but we're talking about Amazing Spider-Man #1, Journey Into Mystery #83, Fantastic Four #1 and Avengers #4--"not nearly as valuable" doesn't mean cheap. Even without the comics, the records have been pretty pricey. Still, I was able to nab the Avengers record without the comics for a mere ten bucks at last year's Wizard World Chicago, and now with the recordings of ASM and JIM, I'm feeling pretty good about quieting my record jones until I hear of some forgotten spandex audio.

Fun realization: comics sound bizarre read aloud. Read one out loud to yourself and see how it goes. Better yet, tape it.