12 November 2007

I Used To Burn Comics...For Fun!

I remember this one time back in the early 1990s when I used to burn the comics that I didn't want anymore. I don't know why. Must have been going through a pyromaniac phase, but yeah, for a few months in my life about 15 years ago, I set a pyre in the back lawn and looked on with glee as the comics I deemed unworthy to be included in my collection were destroyed by the cleansing blue flames. Yes, the flames had a blue tint to it. Must have been the acid in the paper or something.

I really don't remember anymore the titles that I destroyed. The Detroit Justice League was one of them I think. You know the one. It had Gypsy and
Vibe. If you ever read that period of Justice League, you'll agree that hot flames of purity were its only deserved fate.



Had no problems getting rid of those issues. Others were the "Crossroads" issues of The Incredible Hulk. It was the one where Hulk was banished into this limbo world where he could wander in peace which was what he always wanted. I don't remember much about it except at one point he teamed up with a big giant yellow puffy ball who was also banished there for some reason.

Those issues of Hulk? Ash.

Sure, looking back it was pretty darn silly of me to do what I did. I'm glad to say that I never did it again but there were some bad (in my opinion) comics that got culled back then that I wished I had kept instead, if only for the purposes of making fun of them.

Another comic that I fed to the ever hungry flames was this:



Wasteland was a horror anthology comic. It had several short stories in each issue and they were for the most part good and creepy. It sometimes had a twist ending akin to the old E.C. Tales from the Crypt comics but Wasteland's horror were less supernatural and more psychological. I like one story where a dad and his son was talking in the school gym and right there on the floor was the mutilated body of the gym teacher. His eyes were plucked out of their sockets, his chest cavity was torn open and I think his tongue was cut out as well. Turned out the dad came in and did all that because his son complained about being bullied by the gym teacher. But all the reader saw were just the two sitting in the bleachers, having a calm father and son chat right after killing the teacher. To a teenage Khairul H. that story was all sorts of cool. Pyromania and reading stories about casual murder. I'm surprised I didn't turn all Jeffrey Dahmer on the populace.

So why did I burn this book? I really don't know and man, do I regret it. It lasted 18 issues and I'm pretty sure I had most if not all of them. But I succumbed to the seductive whispers of Mistress Fire and she wanted to eat books with pictures in them so off Wasteland went into her embrace. I guess I had issues back then, huh?




My favourite Wasteland cover.

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