Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I was in the small town of Pocahontas, Arkansas. It’s a town I visited a lot as a kid because my parents grew up there and also I spent a week with my cousin there each summer. It’s a classic small southern town like Mayberry from the Andy Griffith Show. It had a town square with an old courthouse in the middle, a laid back pace with friendly people and it also had a “five and dime” variety store, namely Peter’s Variety Store, also known as “Joe Pete’s” because Joe Peters ran it.
Whenever I would find myself in Pocahontas, no matter the reason, the one goal I had in my head was a visit to the greatness that was Joe Pete’s. Why you ask? Because, in addition to the tools, candy, combs, shoe polish, umbrellas and other odds and ends, Joe Pete’s had a WALL of comic books. Not only did they the newest issue of Justice League, they had last month’s and the month’s before. This proved invaluable to me, as I myself lived in a small town and got my comics at places like the JR Food Mart, Safeway and Leaks Quick Mart. I wasn’t afforded the luxury of a comic book store back in the day, so I’d often miss issues of my favorite books.
Joe Pete’s was a gold mine for me. There was nothing better than getting a stack of comics (with the price written in grease pencil so you could know how much they were with tax, see image to the left) and catching up on any adventures I might have missed. The place seemed like it was in a time warp. I would visit in the late 70s and early 80s but it felt like it was a store from the 50s and 60s.
Unfortunately Joe Pete’s closed years ago, so every time I go by the empty store front I feel a bit sad, but the memories of the place also make me smile. My wife Heather snapped the picture above of me outside the old shop. When I showed it to my mom (who had to endured my many requests to stop by there growing up), she said it looked like I was waiting for the store to open. Maybe she was right.
Well, my comic book past anyway. Some of may know, but most of you probably don't, that I used to draw a comic book series called "Shades of Blue". It was created and written by Jim Harris and I worked on 13 of the 15 issues of the series. It was about a teenage girl named Heidi, who woke up one day to find that not only had her hair turned blue, but she had electrical powers as well. Long story short, villains started popping up in her town with powers and her two best friends talk her into becoming a super hero if only so they could be side kicks. 
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I was in the small town of Pocahontas, Arkansas. It’s a town I visited a lot as a kid because my parents grew up there and also I spent a week with my cousin there each summer. It’s a classic small southern town like Mayberry from the Andy Griffith Show. It had a town square with an old courthouse in the middle, a laid back pace with friendly people and it also had a “five and dime” variety store, namely Peter’s Variety Store, also known as “Joe Pete’s” because Joe Peters ran it.
Joe Pete’s was a gold mine for me. There was nothing better than getting a stack of comics (with the price written in grease pencil so you could know how much they were with tax, see image to the left) and catching up on any adventures I might have missed. The place seemed like it was in a time warp. I would visit in the late 70s and early 80s but it felt like it was a store from the 50s and 60s.
Have you ever gotten to meet someone that inspired you as a kid? Obviously not a family member, but a musician, writer, politician or someone like that? Well, I recently had the pleasure of doing just that. I met a comic book artist who I was a huge fan of growing up, Mike Grell. He was the first artist whose work I recognized from book to book. I own every issue he drew of Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes, Warlord and Starslayer. I used to copy his style (and even signature). Back in 1980, I actually wrote to "Ask the Answer Man" in DC Comics and naively asked, "How can I learn to draw like Mike Grell?" Unfortunately, they printed my question wrong... "Could I learn to draw like Mike Grell". Either way, I'm sure I would've gotten the same answer. (See image below, note my amazing crossword abilities too).
Considering that I draw comic books, I don’t consider myself super-geeky. And my wife, although exposed to my world, is not geeky at all. But with that being said, together we are Patch Geeks. We love the outdoors. State parks, hiking, caves, animals, etc. And when we go to certain destinations, we always try to find a patch to commemorate the experience. The photo above is our collection so far. I’m only posting this so I can look back in a few years and see how much the collection has grown and to admit, in public, that we indeed have a problem.
Another year has passed and not only have I’ve been lucky enough to see it come and go, I got a lot of cool stuff. I think I’ve got my reading materials set for the next couple of months. I scored U2 by U2 (very cool book), The Art of Cars (awesome looking), Blankets (I know, I know, everyone else read it three years ago), Batman: Hush Volume 1 and 2 (some artist don’t like Jim Lee but it looks fun), Welcome to Jasorassic Park (an older Fox Trot book that I was missing). And The Complete Peanuts 1955-1956 (always greatness). I also got the new live acoustic Foo Fighters cd, the new Audioslave cd, Cars dvd and a Bluetooth adapter for my Mac.
