It was was quite the "special lunch" indeed that fine day in the later spring of 1965! But first, a bit of background...
I may have said that I spent my childhood in a neighborhood that was once a thriving county hub that, almost overnight, turned bad and outright dangerous. Summer 1960 until February 1969, to better place it in time.
You could almost say it was a "tale of two cities", with profuse apologies to Charles Dickens! Through 1966, it was, at best, a suburban paradise and, at worst, just an ordinary convenient village. With so many different places to buy comic books, all within reasonable walking distance, it was a great place to spend virtually the entire Silver Age! Those four-colored twelve-cent tickets to Utopia seemed to be just EVERYWHERE, and I was more than happy to reap the benefits of such a bounty!
I still have most of mine, and nearly all of them look better than those in this stock photo!
By 1967, things suddenly took a dramatic change and, by the fall of 1968, it had gotten so bad, so threatening, so dangerous that I refused to go to school out of fear for my safety. Had I possibly known in 1968 what the future's "cyber-bullying" would be, I would have gladly traded it for the torturous reality I faced every day! Regardless of good or bad times, it was a particular quirk of this school that led to some decidedly wonderful lunches for me...
My school abandoned and boarded-up sometime in the "20-teens". Only picture I could find.
One problem I DIDN'T HAVE was getting "beaten-up for my LUNCH MONEY"!
Why? Because I DIDN'T CARRY lunch money! Why? Because my combined elementary and junior high school, built in 1911, per the cornerstone... (as hard as this is to believe) had NO CAFETERIA FACILITIES... and we students were (as hard as THIS is to also believe) were DISMISSED from 12:00 Noon to 1:15 PM... and SENT HOME FOR LUNCH! Yes, really!
Could you imagine this in today's world? Could you imagine mothers being home every day to receive their offspring and serve them lunches in their kitchens? Could you imagine kids having to (and BE ABLE TO, distance-wise) walk (most of us unattended) home and then back to school for an afternoon session? ...If you meet Mom in heaven, don't tell her about all those 1:15 to 3:45 afternoon sessions I resorted to some "creative ways" to avoid attending - once released for lunch!
Now, as things were still good in 1965, there were some distinct advantages to this, for me at least.
For one, I was out of the stifling school building, and would run the three blocks home like a road runner!
For two, there was always a reasonably good lunch waiting for me. Something, alas, not all kids had.
And for three - and best of all - sometimes there were COMICS waiting for me, which I joyously devoured along with lunch!
By then, I had solidly moved from "young casual reader" into "never-miss-an-issue" mode, as discussed in THIS POST and one way to "never-miss-an-issue" was to SUBSCRIBE to as many titles as my meager allowance and generous-to-her-grandson GRANDMA MILLIE would provide!
Our mail would generally arrive by 10:30AM, and so any subscription comics delivered that day, would be waiting for me on the kitchen table when I arrived home for lunch. What a WONDERFUL FEELING THAT WAS!
The day that is the subject of this post provided a particularly memorable yield, so much so that I remember it distinctly to this day. Try to imagine what a Gift-From-The-Gold-Key-Gods this two-issue bonanza was through the wide eyes of eleven-year-old me!
UNCLE SCROOGE #58...
...And THE FLINTSTONES #28!
Each one a prime Silver Age specimen of its respective title!
"The Giant Robot Robbers" was one of the best Uncle Scrooge outings of the (much-unfairly maligned) sixties-period of Carl Barks' incredible - nay, historic - run on the title. Even inspiring an informal, though also effective, adaptation for the TV series DuckTales (1987).
THE FLINTSTONES #28 has my vote for The-Best-Ever-Never-To-Be-Surpassed issue of THE FLINTSTONES that ever was, and very likely ever will be!
Stridently reflective of the FIFTH SEASON of THE FLINTSTONES TV show, which was in summer reruns (...remember "summer reruns"?) at the time of its release, #28 offered "The Pirates of Skull Island", a lead adventure story in keeping with the "adventure plots" that kept the Fifth Season lively and memorable. Think "A Haunted House is Not a Home" (with Uncle Giggles Flintstone), "Dr. Sinister" (with Madame Yes "I'm too important to be captured!"), and, to me, one of the best eps of the entire series "Time Machine" (with its trip to the 1964 New York World's Fair!)
Oddly, to digress, my favorite seasons of THE FLINTSTONES are Season One, and Season Five! Both seasons "did what they did" better than any of the other seasons - especially Season Six!
Harvey Eisenberg did some of his finest art for this story and when you can say THAT, you're really saying something - considering he routinely did stuff like this!
Harvey Eisenberg died in 1965, perhaps even before THE FLINTSTONES #28 was published. At the time of his death, I felt that he even surpassed Carl Barks (though ever slightly) as the best artist of the Western Publishing stable. Take a peek at a page of interior art from "The Pirates of Skull Island" and some panels from "The Giant Robot Robbers", and decide!
For many years, I've said, "IF YOU'RE GONNA GET ONLY ONE ISSUE of THE FLINTSTONES, THIS IS THE ONE TO GET!"
...And get the UNCLE SCROOGE, too! They're two of the best Gold Key Comics of what was an extraordinary creative period for them! (1964-1966).
I read both of these comics during my home lunch break and, as was my custom at the time, read them both AGAIN that evening after my homework! That made for one great day... except for that "homework part", that is!
One great day, with one great lunch, thanks to Gold Key's subscription department and the United States Postal Service!
And so, our "16 Covers -- Number Four" goes to both UNCLE SCROOGE #58 and THE FLINTSTONES #28... as a Two-for-One Lunch Special!
Where will we go tomorrow? Come back and see!
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