About Me

Because, what 47-year-old man doesn't go
out in public hearing his Superman PJs?

A lifelong collector of comic books, the first issue I can vividly recall is Justice League of America #115, cover-dated February 1975. The first book I remember buying with my own money, albeit an allowance, was Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #218, from July, 1976, which launched my obsession with those super-teens of the far-flung future. So, it's fair to say I've been into comic books for a really long time — longer, probably, than most of you reading this have been alive.

My name is William Duke Harrington. But just Duke will do, thank you. I only answer to William on pay day.

Today, my comic book collection stands at just over 15,000 issues – enough that I seriously worry about my house collapsing. There's nothing terribly valuable in those long boxes I'm afraid, as I buy the back issues I can afford, which means condition levels that'd make Bob Overstreet blanch. And as we all know, Bob's Bible is the only place post-1980 comics have any value at all, with very few exceptions. Of course, "value" in this sense only counts if you collect comics as an investment, which is a silly-ass thing to do, in my humble opinion. The great tragedy of my collection – and really, let's be honest, I'm more accumulator that collector – is the house fire we had in Sept. 1980. I lost about 2,000 books then and, so far as "value" goes, what I wouldn't give for those early New X-Men and all the other comics I bought off the stands in the days before the birth of direct distribution!

In my civilian identity, I'm kind of a Clark Kent, working as a reporter for Mainely Media, where I write for two weekly newspapers: The Sentry, which covers Maine's fourth-largest municipality (South Portland), its richest community (Cape Elizazbeth), and The Post, which covers the towns of Arundel, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, the latter of which you may have heard associated with former President George H. W. Bush.

Of course, when I say I am a reporter for these two papers, I mean to say I am the reporter on each. I fill the entire papers each week, averaging between seven and 12 news articles, plus assorted news briefs, notebook items and cop logs. Generally, it comes to about 10,000 words every 60 hours. Consequently, updates to Shanghalla may not come as often as I'd hope, but my love of the comic book industry — well, the product and its history, if not so much the current industry — is such that you can count on posts to come here on at least a semi-regular basis.

If you happen to live in Maine and want to send me a news tip, I can be reached via:

• eMail: news@kennebunkpost.com, or news@inthesentry.com
• Office phone: (207) 282-4337, ext. 233

The personal email is duke.harrington@gmail.com

However, the best way to reach me is on Twitter:

• Personal account: @DirigoDuke
• Work account: @MainelyDuke
• Comics account: @Shanghalla.