GI Joe: A Real American Hero #1 (June 1982)
A few months ago, I walked into Midwest Pickers Warehouse in Omaha with my wife. She wanted to look for some retro-ish credenza for our hallway. For those of you who don’t live here or who haven’t been, this business is exactly what it sounds like – – a couple of folks sitting in a warehouse in midtown Omaha, hocking antiques and old crap of every possible variety for “retail prices.”
Example: They had a Show-Biz Pizza glass (WANT), a Metz Beer ice bucket from the 30’s (WANT), and a baseball glove signed by Carl Sabo (not really, but it may as well have been). What I find so interesting about these places is that I used to go to places like this all the time – – thrift stores, garage sales, flea markets – – wherever I thought I could find a “cool” old t-shirt. In those days, everything was so reasonable. A shirt was a quarter or a buck. Shoes were, like, $5. Now, thanks to America’s nostalgia kick, and The History Channel’s “American Pickers,” everything in these places costs more than any sane person would be willing to pay for them. The Metz Beer ice bucket, for example, was $130 – – just so we’re clear about why I don’t own it.
We walked around the warehouse, gawking at some of the bizarre stuff and marveling at some of the others (a card catalog from the old State Capital when it was in Omaha!). Just as we were leaving, my eye caught something – – a stack of old comics, buried under a Star Wars board game (the game was super awesome, but they wanted $70. I’m in the wrong business). I dislodged the comics and carefully fanned them out on the card table. I was stunned by what I was looking at – – a large stack of GI JOE comics from the 1980s, in seemingly great condition (“great” is relative; I’m definitely not qualified to really rate them). The first thing I laid eyes on was this: