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I saved my money diligently and made arrangements. I would take the bus to Atlanta, spend one night at the hotel hosting the convention and take the bus to my grandmother's house in Birmingham, Alabama the next day for my usual summer vacation there. For me, waiting for that show for a few weeks was like the proverbial kid waiting for Christmas.
I was overcome with delight when I walked into the dealer's room. It was only a small room in the hotel but of course I had never seen that many old comics in one place before and I was thrilled as I walked among the tables looking at the rare and cool old comics. I wasn't looking hard for Marvel superhero comic books. I had completed my goal of obtaining a complete collection of Marvel superhero comics when I had bought Fantastic Four #1 mail order from Robert Bell back in 1971. I wasn't smart enough in the 1970s to begin upgrading my mostly Very Good condition Marvel collection. In those days, I was satisfied if I had a decent copy of a book and wasn't frantic to upgrade it. (It was nearly impossible to upgrade a book anyway from ordering books from RB&CC or any other fanzine as most books were graded "good to mint" and ended up looking like Bell's Very Good copies anyway when you got it.) So, I spent the 1970s working on collecting EC comics and chasing down my beloved pre-Marvel monster books. That's what I was gunning for at this show.
One dealer had a nice display of EC science fiction comics on his table but I couldn't afford his prices. He had a high grade copy of one of the most desirable EC sci-fi books, Weird Fantasy #21 with the Frazetta / Williamson cover. He wanted $70.00 for it. That may have been the Overstreet Guide price at the time, but I only had a few hundred dollars which had come hard working nights after college as a cook at the Ponderosa steak house and I didn't want to sink that much money in just 1 book.
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One of the dealers, I think it was Irving Bigman, had an interesting book, Buck Rogers #5 from 1952 with a Frank Frazetta cover. I like science fiction comics and was interested in this but his price scared me off. I remember this dealer was talking to another person and he said something like "the first day of a comic show is always the best. If the first day was a Wednesday night that would still be the best day."
I spent a lot of time talking to dealer who had some EC's. I can't remember if I bought any of his comics but he loved EC and especially the EC artist Harvey Kurtzman. He was carrying on so about Kurtzman that I wanted to interject my own preference for Jack Kirby. This guy said he didn't care much for Kirby, because he was "too prolific." I was a little shocked. I had never met anybody that didn't think Jack Kirby was a demigod.
During that first day I gathered with the other fans in a small room that Stan Lee would be speaking in. About 40 fans were in the room. The speaker introduced him and Stan came striding down the aisle to the speaker's podium to applause from the audience. This was the first time I had seen the great man of course and was excited to hear his talk which lasted about 30 minutes. I don't actually remember now much of what he said. He made reference to Marvel comics somehow being related to the "Judaeo-Christian" tradition of art and literature. I figured that was part of Stan's spiel when he was speaking at high falutin' colleges up North somewhere. He also said Marvel had just concluded a new contract with a licensing company to make or promote toys and gimmicks with Marvel characters and Stan was impressed that the company people he spoke with told him "you haven't seen anything yet. We are going to flood the world with Marvel merchandise." Stan seemed pleased at that notion. After Stan finished his talk the audience was allowed to ask questions. Below are the only 3 questions I can remember. Stan's paraphrased answers are in quotes:
Could Marvel get artist Richard Corben to work for them?
"I would love to have Richard Corben work for Marvel but he isn't interested. He only likes to work for small independents, not the big guys."
What did Stan think of EC comics?
"I liked them. They were great but they went to far." Stan was referring to gore and mayhem that got them in trouble.
How come Marvel comics had to feature all those idiotic classified ads with X-ray glasses, Sea Monkeys and other kiddie stuff?
"Yea, I wish we could attract more upscale advertisers like Coca-Cola but the big respectable companies don't advertise in magazines printed on newsprint like comics, only on publications with slick paper."
As he listened to questions and complaints I remember Stan would jot down in a notebook promises he made to follow up on suggestions and complaints about Marvel characters or story lines so he would remember to make changes when got back to the office. Yea, right.
After the talk Stan did not sit at a table and sign autographs. He walked around the con for awhile with his guide. I don't remember anybody trying to get an autograph form him. I did see him stop in for a minute to shake hands and chat briefly with artist Kenneth Smith who talking with a group of fans, and that was the last I saw of Stan at the show.
I was completely broke after the first day with barely enough money for a skimpy dinner and bus fare to Birmingham. So I spent most of the night in the same room where Stan had spoken which had been converted into the all night movie room. I remember watching 2 movies. One was the British classic horror film Dead Of Night from 1945 which was the first time I had seen that film as it never came on TV. I got a copy of it on laserdisc in the 1980s and have a copy on DVD today. The other film was a low budget cult film from 1970 with special effects by Jim Danforth, Equinox. It was pretty good but looked really cheap.
I've been to many much bigger comic books conventions since the Atlanta Fantasy Fair 36 years ago, but as any fan will agree, you always have a special place in your memory for the excitement and thrills of the first one.
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Another dealer had an interesting collection of girlie pinup calendars and artwork of some sort. My bread and butter now in 2012 is selling girlie magazines on ebay and I wish now I had paid more attention to what he had, but in those days I was only interested in comic books and science fiction paperbacks, not girlie stuff.
I remember showing an expensive book I just bought to another dealer. He said it wasn't safe to keep a book like that in the cheap plastic bag it was in and he gave me for free one of those heavy acid free Mylar Snugs that Ernie Gerber had invented but were not yet widely used in those days. I thought that was very generous.
Along with the pre-Marvels, I was still working on my EC collection and I spent some time looking over a few EC's that a particular dealer about my age had. I'm sure he was mostly a fan just selling some books because he needed the money. I remember for sure I bought at least one EC from him, Weird Fantasy #15 from 1952. It was in nice shape and I could tell he didn't want to sell it. After the sale he said with a twinge of seller's remorse, "you sure got the condition on it."
I had a great time and was broke as usual at the end of the day. Back at my grandmother's house the next day my cousin Pete Swindall came over. Pete's mother was my aunt Betty June who was my primary driver on my frequent trips to the used bookstore in downtown Birmingham, the News & Magazine company. Pete wasn't a devoted comic collector but he was eager to see what treasures I had brought back from Atlanta. I showed him the loot and he was pleased.
