Often when we read or watch something it jogs memories of some kind. Has this ever happened to you while reading comics?

Recently I read an English translation of some of the "You're Under Arrest" manga. It's the comedy-adventure story about Tokyo traffic cops that's kind of like a Japanese version of the old "CHiPs" TV series. In one story officers Ken and Natsumi were both injured in encounters with a dangerous wild driver. Ken got a broken leg, and Natsumi had a fractured wrist. This left both of them unable to ride their motorcycles, since on a standard motorcycle control layout you need to use both hands and both feet. But they didn't let it stop them. At the climax of the story it shows a full-page view of them running down the road on a Yamaha beside the bad guy, riding two-up with little Natsumi scrunched up in front and big Ken on back looking over her. They're sharing the controls!

My first thoughts were along the lines of "This is not a good idea. Wonder if anybody could ever actually get away with that?" Then suddenly the scene brought back memories of my first ever motorcycle riding lesson. Dad--who oddly enough is also named Ken--sat on back directing, while scrawny thirteen-year-old me was up front trying to pilot the bike. We weren't on the highway, of course, just puttering around on a vacant access road at the local industrial park. I hadn't thought about that in years. But that kind of far-out comic book scene brought it all back.

So--anybody else have any comic book memories?

I can sometimes be reading a comic and suddenly remember, really vividly, where I was when I first read it. This has happened with several Adam Warlock comics (I was at my Mum's Uncle's house, and I recall sitting on the floor, looking out the window at a particular tree while I was reading it; it's the bit where Warlock's disciples first find him and take him for a drive in the back of a jeep).

It also happens a lot with Werewolf By Night and Morbius comics, and with issues of Spectacular Spider-Man and Creatures On The Loose - I'm suddenly in my bedroom as a kid, and I can clearly recall the bedclothes, what I could smell cooking in the kitchen, what was on TV that night that I was looking forward to watching, what my Dad had yelled at me about just prior to my reading the comic, etc. It's like a psychological time-capsule for me. It's weird, and it hasn't happened for a while, but it happened a few years ago while I was reading the Devil Dinosaur Omnibus - I could remember being on a bus with my Grandmother, reading about Moon Boy's escape from the alien 'garden of Eden' for the first time. Weird.

It usually happens to me with Richie Rich comics. I see a story I read, or even an ad (Don't give plaque a ghost of a chance!), and I'm back in my little reading "cubby" in my old room at my mom's house, 9 or 10 years old.

Old comics often bring back memories if there are any memories there to bring back.It's probably the main reason I keep my old comics.

I will share a couple.

1) In the small town where I grew up, there were only two places that sold comics: the grocery store and the drug store. Any non-Spider-Man Marvel comic from that era (roughly 1982-1987) always evokes that grocery store and memories of browsing the comics rack under the glorious cool air conditioning on sweltering hot summer days.

Spider-Man and DC comics from the same time period, though, always remind me of the old drug store, which did not have air conditioning and was a pretty much unbearable place to be on those same hot summer days. Not sure why there's a difference, because I bought plenty of comics at both places, but still, for some reason there's a separation of memories in my mind.

2) I've never read too many Captain America comics in my life, but when I do, it always makes me subconsciously taste/smell Cookie Crisp cereal. A weird memory to be sure, but I read an old book of Cap stories from the library over breakfast as a kid, and it's stuck with me.l

The part about the "glorious air conditioning" reminds me of reading comic books at the old public library in our home town. They had a big pile of miscellaneous comics in the children's room. These were kept on a lower shelf underneath the room's window AC unit. I can recall feeling rather chilled while sitting on the floor reading comics, even when it wasn't a ghost story comic.

One of the comics was that old DC science fiction comic with the cover showing the gorilla stealing books from a library. Many years later I found a copy of that one. Now I'll have to dig it out and read it.

The gorilla demanding the three books at gunpoint? That one's a classic!

I have specific memories for specific comics... remembering exactly where I was when I first saw them. A few very strong memories of buying comics at Summer camp (because Summer camp occurred during my personal Golden Age of buying comics, and because I had some stress over missing out on buying certain issues because I was away at camp. I can remember vividly seeing the second issue of the Jimmy Olsen/Don Rickles two-parter sitting on the camp canteen counter. Also the wrap-up of the Daughter of the Demon O'Neil/Adams Batman run.

Something else is memories that associate certain songs with certain comics. The Bee Gees' How Can You Mend a Broken Heart was number one on the radio when the JLA/JSA Solomon Grundy second parter came out in the Summer of '71. I remember Gilbert O'Sullivan singing Alone Again Naturally on American Bandstand on the Saturday that I bought the Flash comic with the five Flashes arguing on the cover (and the cover blurb announcing that Green Lantern/Green Arrow were now the secondary feature in Flash). The Eagles' Best of My Love makes me think of the Marvel comics of the Fall of 1974.