The Eternal Dorothy; An Origin Story

Gold Key was lurid as hell

I've mentioned in the personal project posts that I want to make a collage about a candy store I frequented as a kid. That probably sounds weird. Let me elaborate (though it will still sound weird).

I switched banks recently and got to talking to the personal banker about our childhoods. To my surprise, he grew up in the same small town, in the same neighborhood - and before I could say anything about it, he said, "Do you remember Dorothy's Sundries?" My jaw dropped.

We were three towns, 56 miles, and 45 years away from the store's location in space/time, and he brought it up independently. It felt like a sign.

When I was little in the mid-70s, there was a little shop across the street that all of the neighborhood kids spent a lot of time in. The older lady who owned it was named Dorothy, and Dorothy had a stellar candy and soda pop stock as well as a rack of magazines, comic books, and activity books, all of which I constantly mulled over buying (at a length of time that exasperated Dorothy, I'm sure). Wacky Packages or Star Wars bubble gum cards? Coke or grape soda? A Marathon bar or a Snickers? The Gold Key Ripley's Believe it Or Not comic or the Teen Titans? The one shown to the left above really, really captured my imagination as a kid. As you can see, I still remember it! (Gold Key was lurid as hell as a matter of policy and I loved it.)

Star Wars cards from Dorothy's

I saw a lot of the old '70s Star Trek & Dr. Strange comics too. While I know that my love of the magical and mystical, the psychedelic and wild colors, come from the Dr. Strange books (and the '70s society I grew up in), I'm wondering now if my lifelong love of Star Trek was kicked off by Dorothy's comic book stock as well. Both Trek & Dr. Strange opened up my young mind to the fantastical and unusual. (To this day, I love the wilder, most high-concept science fiction the best and a lot of that came out in the '70s.)

I bought a lot of bubble gum cards there - Happy Days, KISS, Star Wars, and the above-mentioned Wacky Packages. If there was a whole set to collect, I was in. I still have all of my Star Wars/Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi cards, and a few Wacky Packages and Happy Days cards.

The point of all of this reminiscing is twofold.

Direct From Dorothy's

First, this is a great big part of my origin story, as a person and an artist. Bright colors, candy and soda pop, comics and wild art all take me back to a soothing, exciting time in my life and for me, stand as symbols of a lighter-hearted, freer time, not just in my own life, but in our culture. (I really cannot wait for the next 1970s to roll around.)

Second, lately the memory of Dorothy and her shop have been front of mind for me. It keeps coming to mind over and over, even popping out in conversation with someone I just met! As I take signs like this seriously enough to investigate, I think it's time to create something in memory of her.

So I will remember her and her influence on me with my work. I want a picture of the exterior to be the center of the work, but there does not exist a single picture on the internet, so I may have to paint it from memory instead.

Stay tuned. It will be a very personal work, so it won't go up for sale (probably) as a download, but I will show it as it goes along. And don't think that comic above won't be on it! :D

Why Not: find a comic book - in your childhood stash, online somewhere, in a shop - and read it. For extra childhood versimilitude, crack open a cold bottle of pop to drink while you read.