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What's the first comic you ever purchased?

Started by thanos_oftitan,

66 posts in this topic

WillFury

WillFury

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Posted

Amazing Spider-Man #221 was the first book I ever had purchased for me. I still have the entire story memorized from having read it so many times. Lonesome Pinky Ruled!

 

The first book I remember buying for myself was Transformers (1st series) #4.

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Smokinghawk

Smokinghawk

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I got hooked on Conan from the local Tenneco gas station that we used to ride our bikes to. We would all buy a bunch of Mountain Dew and candy and then ride home, feeling really independent and big.

 

One day I grabbed up a copy of Conan. They didn't have a comics rack; comics were just mixed in with the gas station magazines (I even remember the spot on the shelf it was in!).

 

It was such a cool comic book. Now, I was starting to get interested in D&D so this comic just took off in my mind. Here was this tough, slightly sad, loner who could find himself in snowstorms, deserts, caves, forests, monster's lairs, or ancient temples.

 

Conan got me hooked. I started buying it every month, and then I realized that Kee-Rex Drugs around the corner had a more "adult" title called "Savage Sword." It hooked me even more, and Ernie Chan's inks mystified me (they still do. I'd love to know more about Chan, or own an original).

 

The ads alerted me to the reality of a comic book industry. I found the local comic book store, Tattooed Lady Comics (Huntsville, Alabama) by accident, and decided to make the trek.

 

It seems like half a state away, by bike. In the sweltering Alabama summer, I would set out on my bike and ride through the sunshine, smelling cut grass and listening ti cicadas all the way.

 

Inside was the most magical place in town. TLC had the stereotypical "comic book guy" working there, nammed Allen: a big fat guy with stringy longish hair and a scruffy beard, who probably never got dates and lived at home, but to us he was a god. This guy knew ALL about comics!

 

For some reason, I got hooked on Peter Parker but never really liked ASM.

 

I subscribed to CBG and that was it--I was hopelessly addicted after that. My two best friends and I traded those newpapers until they were falling apart every week, yearning for the stuff we could never afford and talkig for hours about predictions about what would be "hot" next (example: "Shatter is gonna be HOT, man! It's the first computer-illustrated comic book! I'm reserving five copies!")

 

 

I had a canvas pouch under my bike that I'd load up with new comics and take home, bragging about how valuable my stuff was ("I have a copy of Spider Man that's worth FIVE BUCKS!")

 

My big break came when I realized that there was still one silver-age superhero that was actually still affordable to us kids: Daredevil. Me and my best friend saved for weeks to buy a F copy of #1 for $100 (each) and had it shipped to his house. I remember the excitement when he called to tell me it had arrived, and would bring it to school the next day.

 

That friend was later killed by a driver just after we both graduated high school. I still have the book and will never sell it.

 

Sometimes I still get "flashes" of that past, like when I mow the grass and start thinking about comics. Too often I get distracted by the business/economics of it ("should I spring for the Hulk 181 9.2 I can afford? Or go for the 9.4 as an investment? Or get a raw copy and take a chance? Or just buy a F copy just to say I have it and spend the rest on ASM 23?")

 

But somehow the scent of cut grass, the sound of the lawnmower, the feeling of "Saturday", or the sound of cicadas makes me feel like that 13 year old again.

 

 

 

 

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garthgantu

garthgantu

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Great story, 'Hawk, and sorry to hear about your friend. I spoke to Ernie Chan at a WonderCon show a number of years ago... as you probably know, he at one point started signing his stuff "Ernie Chua." Don't remember all the details, but this was done either for tax purposes, or immigration purposes, or some combo thereof...

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Arty

Arty

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First comic I bough was a Finnish Donald Duck, I was 4 years old at the time in 1977.

 

I bought my first US comic in 1984.

It was Uncle Scrooge 208

 

Bought it from a newsstand here in Finland. It featured a Carl Barks story "Land of the Pygmy Indians".

I had never seen that story before and just had to have it, regardless of the fact that my English was very poor back then.

 

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awe4one

awe4one

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First I remember paying for myself would have to be either MTU #9 or FF #134.

 

Jim

Mine were FF #134 & then MTU #10. 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

Yep...bought MTU #10 as well. Had to have the conclusion of the Kang/Tomorrow Man storyline...... smile.gif

 

Not to mention, FF #135, the conclusion of the Gregory Gideon storyline. There's something to be said about reading comics as kids. That "something" is slowly lost as we get older.... frown.gif

 

Jim

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PUNYHUMAN

PUNYHUMAN

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Hawk, cool post! I can relate to the memories also, that comics bring. Isn't that part of collecting for us,it would seem. Sorry about your friend though. My first comic I ever received was from my older cousin a Batman # 143 last 10 issue. But the 1st comic I ever bought was Fantastic Four # 16. I could just barely read ,but when I saw that cover on the magazine rack of Johnny's Market grocery store it was magic.It still is today,when I look at my copy 40 years later,the memories come back of my childhood and I smile to myself . cloud9.gif

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realitytrip

realitytrip

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Hmmm... first book purchased for me was a Star Wars Whitman Three pack 10-12.

Don't remember the first book I purchased for myself. I had been picking out books for my parents/grandparents to buy for me since I was three. What book I first chose when the money was mine, as opposed to my parents is lost to the fogs of time, but surely something I was already collecting (eg Star Wars, X-men, Transformers, etc)

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Aces

Aces

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Lets see...

It takes awhile for old guys to remember that far back! 27_laughing.gif

 

It was a 15center Marvel.

Swords and Sorcery or something like that...

I do recall my first Superhero book:

ASM 103 (first 20center)

 

It had a dinosaur and a blonde in a bikini on the cover so how could I pass that one up?

 

wink.gif

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Smokinghawk

Smokinghawk

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Great story, 'Hawk, and sorry to hear about your friend. I spoke to Ernie Chan at a WonderCon show a number of years ago... as you probably know, he at one point started signing his stuff "Ernie Chua." Don't remember all the details, but this was done either for tax purposes, or immigration purposes, or some combo thereof...

 

Yeah, whatever happened to him? Does he still do ink work?

 

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mr_highgrade

mr_highgrade

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My first comics were all Harveys around 1975. My favorites were Sad Sack, Richie Rich, Spooky, Casper & Wendy the Witch.

Soon after I bought some Marvels. Including Amazing Spider-man # 137, Avengers & and a couple of FF's.

But, the one that got me hooked for life was Marvel Tales # 98 the reprint issue of Amazing Spider-man # 121.

sumo.gif

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ross

ross

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Well, I read a bunch of them at Greg Horn's house (Avengers 170 and up, X-men 112 and up) before I bought one...

 

But when we started riding our bikes down Oakland Park Blvd. (man was it far)the first one that I bought that I can remember was...

X-men 137

 

Talk about starting with a bang, I was hooked.

 

Then came the Thors.......... foreheadslap.gif

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