Baby pictures of Superman. Not something you see everyday. So it was with great excitement that I recovered this diamond from the dustbin of my personal history. Exhibit A: The young men of Camp Mendocino’s Cheyenne Cabin, Second Session, Summer 1986. Also pictured: Young Grip in a b-boy stance. Further proof that I was hip-hop when you were still in diapers.

For those who don’t know (and I’m assuming that’s everyone who isn’t in this picture), Camp Mendocino is a summer camp run by the Boy’s Club (now the Boy’s & Girl’s Club) of San Francisco. The camp had a lot of low-cost/no-cost programs for “disadvantaged” youth (much like PAL, or the Police Athletic League, a kiddie-sports gang of which I was also a member), and (in what I’m sure is a giant coincidence and not some kind of socioeconomic statistic) many of the campers were future Juvenile Hall alumni. Camp Mendocino is the last place I got punched in the face.

Somewhere in this picture is the kid who hit me. I think his name was Zane. Or Zan. Something like that. He was a twin. You know how sometimes there’s like a good twin and an evil twin? I think both these twins were evil. Our fight started, as so many do at that tender age, when douche-in-training Zane insulted my mom. So I did what any good son of a single working mother would do–I socked him in the gut.

Now, I’m far from a violent person, and that was probably the first (and certainly the last) time I ever hit anyone. The “fight” ended seconds later, when Zane broke the rules of schoolyard scrapping (at least as I understood them at that time) and went straight for the face. I think I just gave up at that point, because I’m not that dude. Sorry, Mom. I did what I could.

Anyway, enough reminiscing. I came here about some comics. I missed last week’s installment because I was recording. Or something similar. So here are the books on this week’s list, and I apologize for my brevity. But my typewriter is running out of ink, so I better make this short.

Captain America #46

New Avengers #49

Punisher War Zone #6

Dark Tower: Treachery #5

The Stand #5

Final Crisis #7

Alright, pals. That’s it for now. I’ll be back again next week, probably with less photos and more funny books. Oh, and by the way, if you still can’t pick out baby-me in the above picture (not the above picture…that’s Superman. You know which picture I mean), here’s a zoom zoom zoom.

That’s me on the left, just behind Officer Poncherello. Note the hand. Priceless.

‘Til the next…keep it bagged and boarded,

Grip Grand