Strange Tales 98

In this issue:

No Human Can Beat Me!
7 pages :: Jack Kirby/Paul Reinman
reprinted in Where Monsters Dwell 38

July 1962.
A month that will live in infamy.
A month that rocked my world to its very core.
The month that comics went from a dime to 12 cents!
No more two comics and candy bar for a quarter.
I bought this comic (STRANGE TALES #98) and HULK #2 and walked to the druggist counter and slapped them all on the counter along with an Almond Joy. The punk kid at the register told me I owed him four more cents. I thought he'd lost his mind! That's when he pointed to the comics' cover price. The world spun around me like a mad amusement ride from Hell. How could this be! I checked the comic to make sure they hadn't added their own sticker. I stammered in protest. I was inarticulate with the injutsice of it all!
So, what did I do?
I put back that damn Almond Joy, that's for sure!
Anyhow, despite this horrifying wake up call to the vagaries of economics and inflation, ST #98 seriously kicked butt. The lead story, where the hero uses the human need for sleep to defeat the obnoxious jock from outer space, was inspired.

GReat story, Chuck. I'm a little younger than you, but I had something of the same feeling when comics went from 12 to 15 cents (I was less affected, tho, since my older borther bought all the comics with HIS money).

I'm glad you went for the comics instead of the Almond Joy. A friend of mine still regrets buying a slice of pizza instead of an early issue of Amazing Spider-Man. It would have traumatized you for LIFE!

Chuck,
How times have changed. I remember walking back home from the corner store and begging my mother for two more cents so I could buy FF#5. She said “No! I already gave you 10 cents”. I know times ar relative, but I wonder what that translates into for todays youth? Maybe only getting $10.00 to go hang at the mall instead of $12.00.

12 cent comics? Wow, such an alien concept for a child of the '80s like myself. Looking at my old '70s Marvels, the 'still 35 cents' message on the cover often amazed me, considering the price of comics over the last few years.
Heck, even during the 80s and early '90s, I could get far more comics for under £10 (I live in Ireland, btw, hence the £ sign) than I could today. Two books, if I'm lucky. Of course we all use euros over here now, but comics are still pretty expensive.

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