As a child, I had no interest in comic books. Certainly, I was familiar with most of the big-name superheroes from coloring books, cartoons, television shows, and the few movies that existed in the 1970s. However, comic books just didn't appeal to me. Back then, I was obsessed with Bruce Lee, martial arts, eastern philosophy, minibikes, motorcycles, and computers.
It was the summer of 1985. We were traveling from Illinois to visit family in Merrill, Wisconsin. On the way, my parents stopped at an outdoor flea market. It was set up in the parking lot of some long-closed and abandoned building, located at the edge of a tiny no-name town in the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin.
That's when I first discovered Master of Kung Fu. Issues 76, 79, and 97 were lying on one of those old folding cafeteria tables. The title and cover art immediately seized my attention. The guy only wanted fifty cents each for them!
I had to have them! So, I bought them and read each one on the remainder of that ride to Merrill. After reading them, I was impressed, intrigued, and a little confused.
Certainly, these comic books were written for adult readers, not for young kids. Each adventure was self-contained and complete. However, something more was going on. Clearly, there was a much broader and overarching personal story happening with Shang-Chi. I didn't know exactly what that personal story was, but I wanted to find out!
Shang-Chi was introspective and philosophical. That was certainly appealing to me. Of course, the martial arts gimmick was right up my alley. Being a connoisseur of all things kung fu, how did I not know this comic book series existed?
The next day in Antigo, we stopped at a tiny, dingy, hole-in-the-wall, used bookstore. Places like that tend to be rather interesting. You never know what you might stumble upon.
This one turned out to be filled, almost exclusively, with old back-issues of adult men's magazines. Mountains of Playboy, Penthouse, Huslter, Swank, Oui, High Society, and similar magazines were everywhere. Piles of pudenda filled that cramped little space. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly what my parents expected to find.
You should have seen the expression on that proprietor's face when my parents walked in with their daughter and two sons! My sister was twenty-one. However, I was twelve and my brother was ten.
Mother was shocked and mortified. Father was completely unfazed and unaffected. Of course, I thought the situation was absolutely hilarious.
Would you believe that I found nine MOKF issues secretly stashed among those salacious stacks of smut? Well, it's true! In fact, I immediately snatched them up and bought them.
I don't recall exactly what they cost. However, they were very inexpensive and then I possessed twelve issues of the series. I read them all. I loved them all. I kept them all.
Fast forward to 1994 and Rockford, Illinois. I'm at this fantastic old establishment called "Toad Hall". What do I find in the long boxes?
Nearly the entire ten-year run of MOKF in "Fine/Very Fine" condition! I purchased one copy of every issue they had in stock, except for the twelve issues which I already possessed. Would you believe they only cost $2.75 per issue? Of course, we're talking over one-hundred issues. So that was more than $275.00.
Next, I proceeded to "Tomorrow is Yesterday", the local comic book store in Loves Park, hoping to find some of those issues missing from my collection. I purchased a copy of Master of Kung Fu: Bleeding Black. I also purchased the only in-stock copy of Special Marvel Edition #15.
That was a bit overpriced at $15.00. It was in rough shape and had some scotch tape along the spine. On the grading scale used back then, it was "Good", which is a 2.0 on the modern scale. Regardless, I was pretty damned excited to have found that issue!
While going through their magazine long boxes, I was surprised to discover some Deadly Hands of Kung Fu issues. At that time, I didn't possess even one issue of those. Back then, I didn't think I'd ever find any! As you can probably guess, I cleaned out their entire stock.
You must understand, at the time, almost nobody in northwest Illinois had internet service, certainly nobody in rural areas. The internet was relatively new, a pretty small place, and definitely wasn't as commercial as it is now! In fact, you couldn't purchase anything online or through the internet before 1995.
At that time, you had to purchase back-issues from a local comic book store or through some mail-order business. There were very few back-issue mail-order businesses and they were not widely known. If they didn't advertise in the Overstreet Price Guide, chances are you'd never know they existed!
Throughout 1994, I used mail-order businesses to complete my collection of MOKF and DHOKF, including all the "extras". In 2000, I managed to obtain a "Near Mint" copy of SME #15 for the going rate of $45.00 and sold my "Good" copy for $15.00. While I'm no grading expert, I suspect my "Near Mint" copy of SME #15 is either a 9.6 or 9.4 and is one of my most prized possessions!
So that's my story. What's yours? How did you first discover Shang-Chi? Did you ever manage to collect the complete MOKF or DHOKF series? What about all the "extras", giant-size, annuals, etcetera? I'd sincerely love to learn about your experience!
'Nuff said!
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