Mister Bourbon's Bio
I started reading the Legion of Super-Heroes when I was a kid working in my dad's grocery store. He paid me $5 a week to check in the vendors at the back door, knowing that I would spend it all on the comics as soon as they came in.
When we traveled on family vacations, my dad took me to old bookstores so I could sort through the dusty bins for issues I didn't have. We didn't have computers or smartphones, so I kept track of my collection with index cards stored in a recipe box. I still have that box, and have scanned the cards into my gallery.
My father and I bonded over those special trips. He often reminisced about the Golden Age comics he read as a child and kept me enthralled with stories of his first encounters with Superman, the Joker and the Flash.
When my Dad died 25 years ago, my Mom called and told me to pick up grocery bags of old comics before she threw them away. She had long ago tossed my GI Joe collection and other childhood toys, but my dad wouldn't let her throw away my comics.
I immediately felt like a kid again sorting through those old issues. I began to rediscover the LSH and Spider-Man and started piecing together a NM collection of my favorite childhood comics.
This is the result. I still have a ways to go, but I now have three kids of my own and they get just as much of a kick out of the Legion and Spider-Man as I did. They have helped me scan the comics and index cards, and we spend time talking about covers and characters and far-out exploits. One day, I hope they'll cherish this collection and remember how much fun it brought to me and my father. And my wife knows better than to throw them out. Thanks for taking me down this path, Dad. Cheers -