Adventures in Back Issue Hunting --Or-- "Ghost Rider works for God."

So, yesterday I was at the flea market that I go to on occasion, looking for back issues. There's a dealer there who's got an account with Diamond, so he's got new stuff coming in, but he also has an endless supply of just about every back issue of just about every book that Marvel or DC have ever published, and he sells them all for either cover price or below. It's pretty great.

Anyway, while I was looking through a long box of Uncanny X-Men issues, this dude walks in with two of his friends, one I'm assuming, is his girlfriend. He starts looking through one of the Hulk long boxes and begins to give his opinions about comics in general. And my, what opinions he has.

- "Yeah, I'm jus' 'bout the biggest Hulk fan there ever wuz. You know that Chinese piece of **** what directed that Hulk movie a couple years back? Yeah, he's a Chinese piece of ****. They need to get an Uh-merican to make movies of the Hulk. He's a national icon, the Hulk."

- "Oh, lookie here. Here's the newest Captain Uh-merica. Brubaker writes this ****. Marvel oughtta be ashamed of themselves, letting this f****t turn Captain Uh-merica into some communist f****t. That's why I read them other Ultimate books. They got the real Captain Uh-merica in there; kickin' ass and takin' names, you know what I'm sayin'?"

- "Check this out, it's the new Silver Surfer book. "In Thy Name." I like that. Sounds like the Bible, you know? This one's got art by Michael Turner*. I love that guy. He draws the best ****in' Silver Surfer ever."

- "You ever read that Ghost Rider? I love that guy. They never say it, but he's workin' for God, takin' out all them demons. He's jus' an honest Christian man like myself, that the Devil done made ugly. But he killed the Devil and now he's lookin' to clean up all them leftover demons. That's what this book is about."

It took every bit of will power in me not to turn to him and correct his every incorrect statement or baseless opinion. Is this the average comic book fan, or is this the average American? I can't decide. I think it's both. I finally got so fed up, I left to go to the record dealer to kill some time before it was safe to go back.



* It doesn't.

 

And I wanted to make a thread about my encounter with Memphis Slim, outside the Hype.

 

Score one for Hunter Rider.

Cap's not the President's lap dog. There's a certain viewpoint that certain people hold that goes along the lines of "If you don't support the President, you're against America."

That's probably similar to that guy's opinion of Cap.

 

Well, I don't know then. It's not my lame opinion to try and defend, anyway. I was just trying to understand it.

 

At the risk of sounding ignorant...Are there people with these kinds of thought processes in England? I mean, I'm sure there are, but do you think it's as rampant as it is here?

 

That's true. But people's ******edness can come in many different forms. That's why I was specifically asking about the typical, American redneck mentality being prevalent in the UK.

 

You know what I mean, *****ebag.

 

I always think of Brits as having taste and culture. It must be the accent.

 

That's true. But then I think of guys like Friar Tuck. Drunk, fat, dirty and loudmouthed, yes. But, he also had a strong sense of justice and equality.

 

And speaking of which, I wonder if Marvel has plans to do a Robin Hood story to go along with their Marvel Illustrated line. I'd totally buy that.