ARSENIO'S FEEDBACK

Here is my entry, a feedback on your comic books article. Thank you!

I had those kinds of comic books when I was a kid, maybe different titles, but imported from America.. I got them from my mom's relative in Manila when we visited her aunt (she was married to a brother of Leroy Salvador of the Salvador Family; ) the only sister from her late father. I was 7 years old then and it was my first time to see Manila. This is how I got those comic books...

I found them in my aunt's garage and every time they were trying to find me, I was always in the garage reading them. I was in love with those characters and heroes although I did not understand the language (of course, it's English!) and I was still young then. I also loved and tried to draw the characters.. I think that started me to be interested in drawing and the Arts. I was so happy and surprised me a lot when my grand mother handed me some of those comic books when we were preparing to go back to Asingan. She said to me, "I will give you some of these comic books if you can help your mom in carrying the luggage, but next time, when you come back you can have it all!. "

Too bad, when I came back the comic books weren't there anymore. I blamed my self because when I went back, it was 16 years later and I was in College that time taking B.S. in Electronics and Engineering. I have to met the owner of those comic books (she is my aunt) to ask her for an Engineering job in Channel 4 Television, the government channel. She was the producer and Director of the T.V. series called Tele-Aralan a TV program for the kids and the noon time variety show starring Chique Hollman. I'd been surprised when she asked me if I am the nephew who stole her comic books. She said, "Did you keep it? You should keep those. I was mad at my mom before because those books are classics.!" In my mind, so what if they were classics! But the fact is, I did NOT steal them!

 It seemed like the comic books were very important to her and I didn't know why..I was then too shy to ask her questions. (I said to myself, those were old and why she did she still remember them?) That big question stayed in my mind for a long time until I learned of the comic book culture here in America. If I knew then I should have kept those comic books...

At that time when we were vacationing in Manila, and my grandma gave me those comic books, my aunt was here in America, studying with her fiancee.

I got the job just (click) like that. I worked there for just a week because that complicated my schedule in school. I did n't care because I was then waiting for my US visa.....

Arsenio

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That was quite a story! I just hope my printing of your e-mail won't put you in trouble with your Aunt..Anyways..

I saw  one time an early copy of CAPTAIN MARVEL maybe printed in the '50s..It cost 100$..Cover price? 10 cents! Some of them for sale in the internet go as high as 1000$!..I still buy the original Classic Illustrated copies if I see them in Toronto comic book shops: there are quite a few of them..I only buy them if they are 3 or 5$..I also buy the Classics Illustrated Junior, for my grandkids..They feature the Fairy Tales told in the same format ( and number of pages ) as the regular ones..Those old ones are really something..When I lost interest in them, I saw them used for kindling the stove. We used the 3-"headed" clay stoves then ( 2 or 3 ) using firewood, clay pots and other old cooking utensils..The walls of our old kitchen were black with soot. No gas or electrical stoves then..I remember that sometimes, they cook rice in a clay pot lined with banana leaves, and it tasted so much better!( that's what they say!)..That was a world, to use some words of Margaret O. Mitchell, which is now GONE WITH THE WIND....