Many of our regular customers might have noticed I was absent a few days last week. Unfortunately, my grandmother Gwen Scorfina passed away and I took some time to be with my family. She was 84.
In reflecting on her death, I thought I would share with you one of the memories I have of reading comics at her house when I was a kid. Without trying to be ironic, the one comic I specifically remember reading at my grandparents’ house was the landmark “Death of Superman” issue. My dad collected the whole series for me, and on the weekend of the release of Superman #75 in November of 1992 we picked up two copies of the polybagged memorial issue from the old St. Charles Fantasy Shop on Main Street. To this day, I still have one copy opened to read, and one sealed in the memorial black bag.
After picking up the comics, we returned to my grandparents’ house in a well-to-do neighborhood in St. Peters called the bluffs. My dad read the issue with me in the guest bedroom, which doubled as my Uncle Christopher’s room when he was in town from San Francisco. Regardless how I feel about the issue and series now, the final panels of Superman dying in Lois Lane’s arms were commanding images that stick in my memory.
After reading the issue, I put on a coat and went outside in the cold weather to my grandmother’s stone fountain, where I submerged a Ninja Turtle action figure in the water and watched it begin to freeze over the plastic toy. I chipped it out of the ice before I left their house at the end of the weekend. When I returned to my 5th grade class that Monday morning I brought the black Superman armband with me and talked about the comic on the playground before school.
I still don’t think the Doomsday story was very good, but it’s undeniable a major part of comic history. Even non-comic readers can reflect and think, “Where was I win Superman died?” That’s one of the magical aspects of reading comics, or any print medium for that matter, the tactile sensation that triggers memories of where we’ve been when we read certain things. I was at my grandmothers when I read the “Death of Superman,” and it is a pleasant memory.
-Jon
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One of my favorite bookstores in St. Louis. Star Clipper offers not only the best selection of comic books and graphic novels in the city, but also a cornucopia of art, design and pop-culture related books and magazines. 
Sorry for you loss, Jon. It’s great that you have a memory like that, though. I find memories like those make tragic times like this slightly easier to bear.