Sometime around 1966 or 67, I was getting myself ready to accompany my mother while she visited her parents.
My grandfather never spoke to me. He was a strange, aloof, unhappy old man, who had had to work very hard to support his family which consisted of himself, my grandmother, my three uncles and my mother. My grandmother had had a stroke in 1959, and was unable to walk or talk.
I knew I would be largely ignored while my mother and her youngest brother conversed. He lived at home to care for my grandparents and for my autistic uncle. My third uncle had moved to California years ago. He has since passed on, as has my autistic uncle just this past April.
I always stuffed a couple of large supermarket style bags full of toys to occupy myself there. This time was different, as my mother had thought to bring along several of those huge sheets of paper kids used in school in those days to write and illustrate their stories. The sheets had a space at the bottom for several lines of print, and a huge blank space at the top for drawing a picture.
She gave me the huge sheets of paper and a sharpened
pencil.
I got to work right away! I drew a picture of the Titanic as it was sinking in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. I added several figures on the boat, each using his or her powers to try and save the doomed ocean liner.
I created some heroes of my own that day, as I had grown weary of doodling endless sketches of The Fantastic Four, The Legion Of Super Heroes, Spiderman, Superman, The JLA, and The Avengers.
The first one I created was Lasergirl. She could fire laser beams from her hands. She was my answer to the lame super powers that most girl super heroes had back in 1967. Walking through walls, shrinking, and splitting into two or three seperate bodies were not powerful enough abilities in a world where Galactus, Blastaar, Dr. Doom, Lex Luthor, Brainiac, and The Composite Superman were continually threatening the world on a daily basis.
Lasergirl could punch holes through the strongest steel with her laser blasts. She could temporarily blind a foe with her light powers, and would gain many new wondrous powers in the years to come.
Lasergirl wore a green long sleeve, tight fitting blouse with a large black "L" in a white circle on the left side of her blouse. ( Think Laverne from " Laverne and Shirley", with the big "L" stitched onto all her sweaters and blouses!)
She had a black mini skirt, and high black go go boots. She wore her long black hair in bangs. I had seen a photo of Grace Slick on thecover of the recently released album by Jefferson Airplane called "Surrealistic Pillow", and used Grace as the template for her appearance.
Lasergirl was a strong willed character. She was very determined and a good friend.
Then there was Supergiant Guy. Remember, I was only ten or so, hence the really lame name!
He could grow to giant size, and like Hank Pym, AKA Goliath of the Avengers, could also shrink to ant size.
I changed his name to Goliath in 1982, during a period when I designed new costumes and powers for existing members, and created several new heroes for the group at that time.
Supergiant Guy wore an outfit similar to the early X Men outfits of 1964; you know, those old yellow and dark blue ones.
I created an energy based character. He was called Energy Kid. He was patterned after the Human Torch, but could turn his body into energy instead of a flaming plasma as the Torch did. He could fire energy rays, fly, go into space and underwater without the need of a protective suit.
There was Tiny Girl, my version of The Legion's Shrinking Violet.
There was also a super strong robot, a super strong male human, and a girl who wielded electricity, similar to those of Lightning Lad and Electro.
I never actually drew my own comics, not yet. Back then, I was content to just draw my heroes in battle scenes.
Next Chapter : 1971, where I finally began writing and drawing my own comic books.