"SEE YOU IN YESTERDAY..."

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

I've just returned from the mid-'70s after accomplishing

something I should've done forty years ago.  I finally read all

31 issues of HOWARD The DUCK's monthly full-colour comic-

book, something I never managed to do at the time.  You see, back

then, I purchased the first five issues (which I still have), and for

some reason, never got the rest.  In the late '80s or early '90s, I

acquired #s 6-12 from a back issue dealer, but I can't recall

whether I actually read them or not.  Well, I have now!

When I obtained the two volume set of The COMPLETE

COLLECTION of the famous fowl's '70s adventures, I sat

down and read them all in their entirety, several issues at a time.

There's something so quintessentially '70s about these stories, and

so strongly do I associate Howard with that era, that it was almost as
if I'd returned to the period to complete a task I'd begun back then.
It was like long-gone neighbours still inhabited their former homes,
long-vanished shops still thrived, and the long-shrivelled sense
of optimism and eternity still inhabited my once-youthful
soul.  I felt as if I was only 16 or 17 again.

That feeling passed when I finished the last story and

reluctantly returned to the here-and-now.  The illusion was

nice while it lasted, but reality always stalks such brief excur-

sions into the past, waiting to reclaim you for its own once again.

However, don't let that deter you.  If you'd like to feel young and

vital once more, I suggest you revisit a comicbook series that you
associate with a dearly missed time in your life and plunge right in.
The water's lovely, so make the most of it before it evaporates
and you find yourself beached on the dry sands of the pres-
ent.  It's a bitter-sweet experience to be sure, but no
 less worth it for all that.  See you in yesterday.

Posted in: Cartoons