Mood: celebratory
Topic: Comic Book History
Today's Feature: Blog #3289 For the past several years during this Thanksgiving Holiday time I have had a blog series of "Whom I Am Thankful For"... This year I have been busy setting up my 2nd Annul Black Friday Comics Event, this one titled: Black Friday Comics Sponsored by 'Michael D Hamersky On Comics' (my New Facebook Fan Page), that I haven't blogged a series like that so far! I did find after checking our blog's stats yesterday, that those earlier archived blog posts on "Whom I Am Thankful For" from previous years were once again being viewed by internet searchers! So that I can share those archived posts once again for those that are new to this blog, AND for those looking for my newest addition to this running list, now up to 8 entries already (!), here are the reposts from those archived blog posts combined together in one blog post along with the 2010 entry added. The blog series was originally titled: "Whom I Am Thankful For", and Included the following so far, with some minor updated revisions since the original postings several years ago: Part I - Stan Lee, who will be celebrating his 88th birthday this year! Stan and Jack Kirby were the reasons I started collecting comics, instead of just reading 'funnybooks'. Stan is shown to the left, signing my personal copies of Fantastic Four #1 and Strange Tales Annual #2 for me several years ago. Below is the text from that blog post: Today is the time of year that many Americans stop, reflect and give thanks... I am no exception to this as Tina and I get ready to go to my folks for Thanksgiving Dinner. I was thinking about this as I was getting cleaned up just a few minutes ago... I am thankful for many things, which is why this is but Part I, but one of the earliest things I can remember being thankful for was the early ability to read and comprehend which helped me become an 'A' Student in High School. I have of course my great aunt and uncle who started me off with 'funnybooks', but it was pretty much one writer that moved me to look up new words in our dictionary that he wrote on his pages! Stan Lee also introduced new concepts and other genres of writing besides superheroes to me. Additionally he made me and probably millions of others feel that we were part of a different world, that of 'Marvelmania' via his 'Bullpen Pages' where he wrote to fans like me! His gift was that he never wrote 'down' to his readers, and his writing improved my vocabulary and started my interest in other pop culture items like Movies and TV Shows, etc. I am thankful that he and I have finally seen the fruits of his early labors make it to the 'Big Screen' in the past few years. I am truly thankful that my love of comics in printed format have finally been transformed to good/great comic book movies that I am viewing today 49+ years later!
Part II - Engineer Bill ... who has passed away since this blog was first posted. He had a great afternoon kids show with cartoons in Los Angeles during my childhood there. Below is the text from that post: Yesterday was the time of year that many Americans stopped, reflected and gave thanks... I was no exception to this as Tina and I got ready to go to my folks for Thanksgiving Dinner. I am thankful for many things during my life, which is why this is but Part II, but one of the earliest things I can remember from my childhood was when my dad was stationed in Long Beach. It was then that Engineer Bill (Stulla) hosted a kid's TV show on KHJ Channel 9 in Los Angeles. He was a favorite TV show host during the 1950's and 1960's. His show was broadcast on every week day about when school had been out for a while. What really stuck out in my memory was his 'Red Light - Green Light' portion of the show, where my brother and I would drink, stop, drink, and so on when he would say 'green light' for us kids to drink the milk out of the glass, and 'red light' to stop drinking! Some of the things that stick in your mind don't always make sense years later, but it was here that I found that drinking and eating what's good for you was fun! By the way, other local televised kid's shows of Los Angeles during that time were Sheriff John, Chucko the Clown, and Bozo the Clown. I don't remember many 'National' shows that I watched during that time but one for sure was Captain Kangaroo seen in black and white format.
Part III - Sheriff John ... who also died since this blog post was published, (he passed in 2008). He was another of my favorite kids TV Shows hosts in Los Angeles. Below is the text from that post: Yesterday was the time of year that many Americans stopped, reflected and gave thanks... I was no exception to this as Tina and I got ready to go to my folks for Thanksgiving Dinner. I am thankful for many things during my life, which is why this is but Part III, but one of the earliest things I can remember from my childhood was when my dad was stationed in Long Beach. It was then that 'Sheriff' John (Rovick) hosted a kid's TV show on KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles. He hosted the show from 1952 to 1970! His program would open with Sheriff John entering his office while lip-syncing to the record lyrics of "Laugh and be happy and the world will laugh with you when people see you smiling, they can't help smiling, too..." After that Sheriff John would go on to the check list, the bulletin board for pictures about safety, and then to the US flag for the Pledge of Allegiance. The big thrill for kids with birthdays would be to hear your name called on the show! Plus a birthday cake would be decorated with thick frosting, candy and lollipops. Then while Sheriff John sang the birthday song, the carousel cake spun in a circle while displaying the words "Happy Birthday Brigadiers" on the side of the cake! It may sound cornball by today's standards, but it was fun in those days! Plus it started me on the 'straight and narrow'!
Part IV - Fess Parker.... Davy Crockett! ... who unfortunately passed away since lst year's annual blog post. One of my best Holiday Seasons was in 2003 when we stayed at his Inn in Los Olivos, California! (See photo of us with him to the left.) Below is the text from that Blog Post: Yesterday was the time of year that many Americans stopped, reflected and gave thanks... I was no exception to this as Tina and I got ready to go to my folks for Thanksgiving Dinner. I am thankful for many things during my life, which is why this is but Part IV, but one of the earliest things I can remember from my childhood was our black and white TV set where I saw several TV Shows including one of my folks' favorites, 'Walt Disney'. I definitely can remember those early years of watching Fess Parker as 'Davy Crockett' and made sure I would re-watch them when they were repeated years later! Tina and I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Fess Parker a few years ago at his Hotel/Restaurant in Los Olivos, California. We had visited his Fess Parker Winery, his Hotel/Spa in Los Olivos, and had a great dinner in his restaurant while visiting 'Wine Country' in the Santa Inez Valley. I appreciated finally meeting the man who had given me so many years of entertainment and was a good role model for me while growing up! Part V - Howard and Marge McIntosh.... My Great Uncle and Aunt who are both responsible for giving me the first comic books to read at their house years ago! Here is the story: Years ago when my folks would drive to Howard and Marge's house in Los Angeles, Howard & Marge would have 'funnybooks' for my brother and I to read in the back patio, so we wouldn't either bother the adults or get bored listening to the adults talk! The 'funnybooks' were a different world for me, and led me to really look forward to our regular visits to their house. Because we could take the 'funnybooks' home with us! We are sharing this year's Thanksgiving Day with Great Uncle Howard with my folks. Howard turned 96 years old this year. Sadly, Marge passed away a few years ago. Definitely Howard and Marge were instrumental in getting me to enjoy reading more via funnybooks, and that in turn led me to read the comic book that Jack Kirby / Dick Ayers illustrated, (mentioned in Part VI), that started me collecting comics! Part VI - Jack Kirby, who 'showed' me that comics were made by real people and didn't all have to be 'funnybooks', as evidenced by the cover of Journey Into Mystery #72, which featured the 'Blob' - a MoNSter that stuck in mind for years! That comic book is what started me 'collecting' comics instead of just reading them.... Definitely that led to my life long fascination with reading and collecting comics, even though my tastes in comics have changed since I first started reading 'funnybooks'. In the photo to the left: Jack is shown at the left, with inker Joe Sinnott shown at the right. Plus it was his artwork that kept going with comics, when I was told that 'comics' were for kids. I knew different as I watched Jack's pencils become more and more illustrative in the late 1960's and into the mid 1970's. Now it's known that comics aren't just for kids! Sadly though, most comics are printed for 'kids' anymore either... Thanks Jack for keeping comics important in my life during those transition years of 'comics are for kids'! Part VII - Tina LoSasso, with whom I celebrated our 9th year of marriage this month! As shown at the photo to the left... we are on quite a journey. It's like I've stepped into a different portal to a new life being with her! It's Tina who has merged my love of comics and her love of books into what we are both doing today; a business built on promoting comics and books, book launches and other publicity, including attending comics conventions, book signings and blogging! Today is the day that I give thanks to Tina for a Great Eight Years, and here's to many more! She would be here blogging too an addendum, but she's been baking pies for two different Thanksgiving Dinners we are attending on Thursday!
Part VIII - Francis and Lois Hamersky, besides being my folks, were instrumental in giving me an 'allowance' during my early childhood, thus 'allowing' me to buy more comics to feed my 'collecting bug'! In the photo to the left, my little brother Frank, and I are shown in the front of the Disneyland car, with Mom and Dad in the back. This is from a 1959 photo of my family when we were chosen 'Navy Family Of The Month' at the Naval Base in Los Alamitos, California, and awarded an all expense paid trip to Disneyland! Today is the time to thank them also for helping form my life. Thanks Mom & Dad! BTW, I must have gotten that 'collecting bug' from my Dad, as he had a great coin collection for many years! Now for this year's entry! It was a 'toss-up' as to which of the two persons I first thought about would be selected and listed here... And then a third person came to mind. Since I only have time to do today's post, instead of a series, I've gone with... Annette Funicello! Here's why! When I was much, much younger, I of course was influenced by the Mickey Mouse Club on TV! Which Annette was first discovered by America and became a major star on this series! Years later being a teenager, I was drawn to the Frankie & Annette Beach Party series of films! Of course, what young guy wouldn't be when there were record albums such as the one pictured here from 1963! And yeah, I did have all of her albums and singles! I also collected the comics that featured Annette on the cover, as well as the Disney films tht she was in and those tht had one-shot comics published. My 'Annette Funicello' collection at one time was stored in five 'perma-pak' boxes, when I was divorced. My later girlfriend, Tina LoSasso, thought it ws a little strange that I would have an 'Annette' collection as well as an Elvis Presley collection, and of course a substantial comic book collection! Tina never had the 'collecting bug'! That was okay though, as when I started selling part of my Annette collection, those items sold paid for Tina's engagement ring! So my personal thanks to Annette, on whom I had an 'early crush on', which I'm sure thousands of other boys developed during her early career on TV and then the film series! Of course I had to see her last film, 'Back to the Beach', when it came out in 1987! Thanks, Annette! And a Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! I am of course also Thankful for a LOT of other people in my life, and they will be mentioned as the year(s) go on in this blog. After all it's not even a 'Top Ten List' yet! Thanks again to all of those named above that have helped form me into the person I am today! AND... Thanks again to all of YOU reading my current and archived blog posts! We do blog daily on comic book creators, comic book reviews, comic cons, and other pop culture news and events including some TV shows and theatrical films as they are shown! PLUS... Be sure to check out my new listings of comics, graphic novels, Comic Con exclusives and more pop culture items for sale in Our online eBay Featured Store that a lot of my blogs are based on! It's due to sales at this online store that keep us going with the ability to post blogs like the one you have read here today! Wishing All of You reading this blog post a Happy Thanksgiving Day! ~ Michael @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com
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