Nostalgia is a tricky beast. It means something a little different to everyone.
For my father, nostalgia is a dog-eared copy of CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES that passed through his hands only briefly, reading it once, then selling it at an apple-crate stand outside his own father’s restaurant, to young servicemen sailing off to fight the Nazis in far-off lands. Heroes reading about heroes.
For someone else, nostalgia is that first issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN a kid in Wichita read in 1965, the moment they realized that Marvel comics were a little different, and that Spider-Man was just a kid with girl troubles and money problems, just like him.
For me, nostalgia is that beat-up copy of SUPERMAN: FROM THE THIRTIES TO THE SEVENTIES, a hardcover collection of Superman comics spanning five decades, the book that made me fall in love not just with comic books, but with the notion that comics had a history all their own, a past to be studied and treasured.
There are plenty of places out there that can sell you the newest and the flashiest, and sure, we’ll have some of that, too. We welcome the future, but we treasure the past. We’re much more interested in helping you connect with your own nostalgic sweet spot, finding that comic book from your past that you remember like waking from a vivid dream, but somehow slipped through your fingers on your way to adulthood.
Someone once said that “the Golden Age of comics is seven,” meaning the age a child usually reads their first comic. Nonsense. The Golden Age of comics is right this minute, and it always can be, if you’ve got the right comic in your hands. And we can get it for you.
Welcome to Blastoff.
I’ve been telling everyone who’ll listen about comic books for so many years now, it just seemed like the next logical step to start putting some of these great comics into people’s hands myself. If you look at the Blastoff Online Store, you’ll see just a few of the many classic Golden, Silver and Bronze Age comics we’re offering for sale, as well as rare and out-of-print trade paperbacks and hardcovers, and even a few new things, not to mention a few books written by yours truly, in case you’d like to buy directly from the source.
But Blastoff isn’t just an online store. We’ll also be featuring new columns every week from yours truly talking all about some of these comics and classic characters, in a manner not too dissimilar than you’re used to seeing around these parts. And it won’t be just me holding court, either; longtime readers may recognize a few familiar names appearing on a regular basis.
With me at the controls of Blastoff is longtime retail specialist and former COMICS 101 columnist Jud Meyers. An Eisner-Award-winning retailer, Jud will be making sure that our customers get exactly what they’re looking for, and will also be returning to the keyboard for more installments of his popular column ReTales. Also appearing regularly will be Contributing Writer Amy Ratcliffe, a first-rate pop-culture journalist whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times Hero Complex, Newsarama, GeekGirlsNetwork and Pink Raygun, as well as her own site Geek With Curves. And Blastoff’s Artist-in-Residence is none other than my longtime collaborator Elena Casagrande, most recently of HULK and TRUE BLOOD fame, who will be gracing Blastoff’s homepage with original artwork every month.
Every month at Blastoff we’ll have a different theme, with all kinds of vintage comics and collectibles for sale, and four weeks’ worth of columns all about it. For our inaugural month, it’s the Man Without Fear himself, Daredevil. Check back often for the newest content, and make sure to take look at all the DD comics we’re pleased to offer for sale.
This is just the beginning for Blastoff, with many exciting announcements to come in the weeks and months ahead. But not to worry: COMICS 101 isn’t going anywhere. You’ll still be seeing new columns every Wednesday just like always. You’re not getting rid of me that easily…
Scott Tipton is looking forward to the future. If you have questions about comics, send them here.
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