I wAS four when Mom bought me my first comic book, when they were Still Only Thirty-Five Cents. Spider-Man? Doctor Octopus? Oh, yes, make it happen, please! So on that walk one summer day, up Spring Circle, she made it mine. Years later, I found out where the story originated, and then realized what must've been on sale up on Old Lindale Road. Marvel Tales, I discovered. I didn't get anymore for quite some time. But wow. Big scary explosion at the end, suspense in the snow, helicopters, and some strange business between some pretty friends at a party Peter's missing. "My Uncle...My Enemy?" is sheer ridiculous fun. Aunt May inherits a nuclear reactor? She thinks Doc Ock really wants to be her loving companion? It made her seem such a doddering ol' dupe! But I was four, so it worked just fine. I didn't know then, but one day I'd find out Gerry Conway was a big fan of the same cartoon I loved back then, too: SPIDER-MAN! Reruns of the ABC ...

My recent date at Putt Putt made me remember my visits there in 1981. Thinking of those times has taken me back to a special day that year. Dad asked if I'd like to go somewhere, just me and him. Off we went that afternoon to Riverbend Mall, during a spell his sister and her three kids – four, there was a baby!- had moved in with us. Mom thought I might be lonely to get a bit of Dad’s attention- I probably said as much, knowing me. I cried over garbage when I was three, because the things in the rubbish bin would no longer be part of our life, and wouldn't they be sad, to not be wanted anymore? > Here's the original page that inspired most of the Reel B battle, set up with Doc's tragic origin and Spidey's mysterious, almost sinister peep into the facility before the battle at the end of Reel A. I clicked through the story, bereft of Stan Lee’s script and captions, funky and quirky drawings so different than the usual commercial way I saw Spidey represe...