Childhood books have permanent hooks

Also, check out some LAST FLIGHT OUT OF WICHITA variants (and cat cosplay!)...

Jan 14, 2025

I recently had the urge to revisit Jules Verne’s 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, which was a book I loved as a kid. But tied into that urge was the desire to read it in the original version that I’d read in 4th or 5th grade (a Scholastic version, of course). I suppose some part of me wanted to replicate the entire experience, which speaks to how strong a pull books had on me as a kid.

That gave me the idea of tracking down the original versions of my favorite books from childhood, despite constantly purging my shelves due to limited space. I moved around a lot as a kid, and reading was one of those things that I carried with me from old towns to new towns. I suppose it’s one reason comics grabbed me so completely when I landed in Mt. Vernon, Iowa prior to fourth grade. In any event, before embarking on this hobby that might never happen anyway, I went through my shelves to see what original copies I’d managed to hang onto over the years of moves, purges, lifestyle shifts, and personal effects thrown out by an old … roommate.

It turns out I’ve still got a few scattered, dog-eared literary treasures from younger days. Assembled here:

The tattered remains of a childhood reading addiction.

How much does a kid have to love RIBSY to carefully repair a torn dustjacket with Scotch tape? Come on, now.

The Narnia and Three Investigators books highlight my passion for series that featured some degree of continuity. Along with those, Lloyd Alexander’s Black Cauldron/Prydain Chronicles books were absolute favorites. Probably no coincidence that I was drawn to comics, with continuity that stretched back years, and in those innocent days tended not be too muddled by multiple titles and constant reboots.

I’m always curious to hear what books grabbed people as kids. Very often I’ll learn that writers with whom I share sensibilities were reading many of the same books with flashlights under the covers and dodgy bedside lamps that could be flipped off when a mother’s footsteps echoed softly down the hall. My own mother’s trick to see if I’d been up reading past midnight was to check the bare bulb in my shadeless lamp for heat after entering my room. At one point I tried keeping a wet washcloth next to the lamp in a very clever effort to hide the residual heat with the washcloth. (my fourth grade plotting rarely extended far enough to consider how to explain why else I had draped a wet washcloth over a reading lamp)

In any event, I’d love to hear from anyone who’s actually made the effort to track down favorite childhood books, and how that worked out.

Meanwhile, here in the present. DSTLRY has released a handful of variant covers for the first issue LAST FLIGHT OUT OF WICHITA, which will be dropping here in the early part of 2025.

Part of their publishing model includes a number of variants for each book they release, which I think is pretty fun. It gives readers options, and provides something for collectors to drop onto checklists. I know when I was doing work for Valiant, their diehard fans would spend a lot of time and money tracking down variants, which, in one case, included a “cat cosplay” cover for SAVAGE, which was a character I brought into the Valiant universe with the help of Lewis LaRosa and Clayton Henry.