posted May 01, 2003 06:58 PM               

I began reading comics in the early to mid 70s. Some of my earliest (and most fondly remembered comics) were Defenders 7, "The Joker's 5 Way Revenge", Marvel Triple Action reprint of Avengers 15, death of Gwen Stacy. I also remember winning 4 older comics at an amusement park: FF 102 (last Kirby), Tales to Astonish 78, Cap America 105? (vs. Swordsman, Batroc, Living Laser), and FF 98. Some early epics that I remember oh so fondly include Avengers-Defenders Clash (I'll always call it Clash rather than War), the Avengers Celestial Madonna Epic, the Goodwin-Simonson Manhunter series, and the Fleischer-Aparo Spectres. My favorite series from that time was Brave and the Bold by Haney-Aparo and Marvel Two-in-One. Two of my favorite books were the Conan Treasury Edition (reprinting Conan 11 and 'Red Nails') and the first Tarzan Treasury (reprinting the earliest Kubert Tarzans).

I also bought and read every book about comic books being published, including the Steranko Histories, All in Color for a Dime, The Comic Book Book, Fleischer's Encyclopedia of Batman, WW, Superman (never did finish the Superman book). Unfortunately, in a moment of utter insanity, I found those last three books a few years ago buried in a closet at my parent's house and then THREW THEM AWAY! What the HELL was I thinking!! I also owned the Superman, Batman, Shazam 30s to 70s books, the WW book with the Gloria Steinem intro, all of Lee's Origins books, the DC Origins book, the Jules Feiffer book, etc. I wrote my high school research paper on the History of the American Comic Book.

I buy Masterworks and Archives to relive my childhood even though they reprint stuff from before my time. But I'm familiar with the stuff in Masterworks and Archives through childhood reprints (DC Super Spectaculars and Marvel Tales, Greatest Comics, Triple Action, etc.) Most of the comics I bought were with the cover torn off for 10 cents a piece. I never collected. Even if I buy a full cover comic, I would just trade it for another one to read. I accumulated some comics, but never bagged nor cared for them. The most valuable I ever owned would've been GS X-Men 1 which I've long since lost.

I've bought all the Masterworks and Archives from day 1 and was heartbroken when they discontinued the Masterworks in 93. I've always wondered where we'd be right now if Marvel had continued its Masterworks instead of DC. I'm a much bigger fan of Silver Age Marvel than DC.

posted May 02, 2003 09:25 AM            

From there I got into "Avengers" (# 141 being the first comic I remember having).

Other favorites of those days include "All-Star Comics," "Legion of Super-Heroes," and other stuff from that era.

I had a bunch of DC and Marvel Treasury Edition comcs with all those -- to my young eyes -- weird old stuff from the Silver Age).

Good days.

Later,

posted May 02, 2003 12:33 PM            

Although I loved Casper and would have read every issue, there wasn't really that many places to buy comics in the 70s. I doubt I read more than 25-30 comics in the first ten years of my life. Then when I was about 10, for no apparent reason, my grandfather brought me a huge stack of Marvels and DCs. I didn't even like Marvels or DCs or super-heroes in general. They didn't seem to be "for me." However, I read them anyway, and kinda got hooked, but not quite.

In 1975, I suddenly started buying LOTS of Richie Rich comics, as did every other little kid back then. This continued for about four years. That's pretty much all I bought, tho' I certainly got my hands on quite a few Uncle $crooge reprints in those handy Whitman 3-packs. I had a few Supermans from those same packs, but didn't like 'em. So I mostly read Harveys, with the occasional Dennis the Menace, Little Lulus, Archies and whatever Disney books I came across. I probably had at least one issue of all the kids' comics from the day.

Suddenly, in about 1977, the local 5 and 10 closed down. There was no place to buy comics for, what seemed, forever. (Actually I was probably without an outlet for about a year). I was very much denied the pleasure or privilege of buying and reading comics in the 70s. However, I still could follow Star Wars because every issue was reprinted many, many times and easily available in chain stores in those 3-packs. I also, around this time, was given copies of Stan Lee's tpbs so I was then familiar with pretty much all the Marvel heroes, although it didn't make me run out and buy 'em all.

I was always drawn to comics...to the language they spoke and to the magic they offered...I was passionate about them. I wanted to read every comic I could get my hands on. But I wonder now, how much of my 70s comics-lust was due to the fact that I could hardly ever find the damn things to buy them? Did I really love comics? Or did I love 'em because I couldn't have 'em? I wasn't going to answer that question, but nahhh...I loved them. At least the best ones, with the best art and stories. I still can't keep my eyes off a Carl Barks duck story, a good Warren Kremer Richie Rich or a Joe Sinnott-inked Marvel comic.

Finally in mid-1978, a liquor store just down the street started carrying new comics, so it was easier to find them. In late 1978 I figured I was grown-up enough to try an issue of Avengers, (#181--"Seven of you will remain as Avengers...the rest of you are out!!!") I simply couldn't pass up that cover with all the 30 or so Avengers scowling at Gyrich. I loved that book. Still one of my favorites. I loved meeting all those weirdoes I'd never heard of, like Wonder Man, Jocasta and the Guardians of the Galaxy. I loved all the colors of all the different costumes. I loved being "in the know" about an ongoing, almost revered, Marvel series.

I still didn't read super-hero comics regularly until about early 1979, when I would have been about 13. This was mainly due to the fact that I had been following Star Wars from issue #1 and saw all the Marvel house ads in that book (Marvel wisely printed more house ads than usual in Star Wars, because they KNEW new readers were picking it up; readers who didn't usually buy Marvel Comics). So I had a passing familiarity of the Marvel characters, due to those house ads, the Stan Lee tpbs and the many television incarnations of the Marvel heroes that popped up during the 70s. But it was kind of tough, trying to jump into Marvel comics because most of the popular series were up to #200 by those days. But, also around this time, was when Marvel started releasing those tiny paperback reprints of the old stuff. Now I could understand what was going on, and fill in the blanks of the other missing 180 issues of everything with my imagination and by carefully reading all those pesky editorial footnotes that clued you in to stuff you'd missed.

But a kid wants to start a comic at the beginning with issue number one. As '79 came around, there were lots of Marvel number ones to try, although they were mostly licensed books, like the Micronauts, Shogun Warriors and Rom. Number ones were EXTREMELY rare in those days, and the appearance of ANY new comic was a HUGE event. So I got into those, and by osmosis, started reading much of the rest of the Marvel characters. My first monthly list would have been, besides the five Marvels listed above, Fantastic Four, Peter Parker, Marvel Team-Up, Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man, Daredevil, Captain America, Defenders and probably a few others. I hated Thor and Dr. Strange at first, but got into them a few years later. I never did like other then-popular books like Ghost Rider, Conan, Power Man and Spider-Woman. I REALLY hated X-Men. #120 was the first issue I read and it was incomprehensible to me for some reason. When Amazing Adventures started reprinting the older issues, I finally warmed to the contemporary series and started buying it with #130, the first Dazzler. (I guess I liked it--I kept buying X-Men for 20 years, finally dropping it forever in June, 2000. Now I hate it again. Ugh!)

I still didn't think much of DC comics by 1980, but did indeed read a few JLA's and Legions and Brave and Bolds. I LOVED DC Digests that reprinted old Swan Supermans...I thought they were hilarious! It wasn't until New Teen Titans #1 when I thought that maybe, just maybe, DC's could be kinda sorta cool. (LOTS of people's minds were changed by that one comic!!! People now forget the impact it had on DC).

posted May 02, 2003 12:44 PM               

First comic book I ever owned was a SUPERMAN 100 page super spectacular from 1973, which reprinted the legendary "Superman-Red and Superman-Blue" imaginary story from the 60s. It also had an ATOM story from the Silver Age, "Locked Up in the Lethal Lightbulb," which I thought was the coolest thing in the universe at that time(I was five. Story does still hold up well.).