“Thank you, God, for bringing Mom and Dad home safely,” my mother would always say as we drove past the hospital. Both her parents had been in a patient there a number of times, and we praised God for them returning home safe and healthy.
That hospital has held many joyful and sad memories for us. Hopefully me being born there was one of the joyful ones.
My father also worked in the lab, and my mom would walk me over to have lunch with him from time to time.
So, what does all that have to do with comic books, and super heroes? Quite a lot, actually, at least for me.
The hospital had a small gift shop where visitors could purchase flowers, snacks, or stuffed animals for the patients they were coming to see. They also had a small magazine display rack, and upon it were a few (very few) small comic books.
These were digest size books that were reprints of other already published books. Most of these digests were done by Archie Comics, about Archie, his two girls Betty and Veronica, Jughead, and the rest.
But every so often there were other digest comics. These were mostly from DC Comics (actually, I don’t remember Marvel publishing Digests like these).
I wasn’t really interested in Archie and his friends. Then one time I was there I saw a comic with a whole lot of super heroes on the cover. 33 In All. I recognized several of them: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and others that I knew from the Super Friends, but there were a whole lot more on this cover. I just had to have it.
Suddenly I was in love with the entire DC Universe in one single issue. (Or a single digest reprint of Justice League of America #100, #101, and #102). Here was my first exposure to so many different super heroes, and to the concept of Parallel Worlds. This was long before I ever heard the term ‘multiverse.’
Not only was there a Justice League of America, but also a Justice Society of America from an entirely different. Similar heroes to ones I was familiar with and others that were all new to me.
I was in love with absolutely every one of them.
Many years later I would become friends with the writer and editor of the book, Len Wein, and we chatted about what stories were decided to put in these digests. “Editor’s Choice,” was his answer. Gail Simone would say that Justice League of America #100 and this story would be a major impact on her becoming comic book writer as well.
So, to get introduced to the DC Universe this clearly was the right place.
I would be in the lobby of the hospital many times over the next months and years, as my grandparents slowly reached the end of their stories. Sitting quietly there, sometimes doing my homework, sometimes not, I really didn’t have much to do. This lonely boy fell into the eyes of the hospital’s chaplain one Father Francis ‘Frank’ Smith.
Father Smith felt sorry for this boy sitting there and went back to his own office down the hall. When he returned, he came over to me and handed me two comic books: one was an issue Superman and the other was of The Flash.
At one point in my life as I began contemplating a career in comic books and writing and drawing super heroes, I began to wonder if God would approve of me enjoying creating stories about people with god-like powers. I would be reminded of Father Smith giving me these two super hero comics out of his own collection, and I knew it was okay and that God approved of my goals.
This would be the true beginning of my love of comic books and super heroes.
There would be many more to follow.
Being in that hospital lobby so often would result in purchasing other Digest comics and discovering other heroes, none so great as the doctors and staff who help my parents and grandparents there.