What Was The Book That Defined Your Focus?

[Boozad]

I was just chatting with a boardie in PM, and the subject came up about my main focus, Batman. What brought it up was the assumption I'd have trouble buying Marvel, which I found tough to answer for a second until I thought back to my adolescent years.

 

I always used to read Marvel books, X-Men, Hulk, Secret Wars, Punisher, and my favourite series ever, Secret Wars. And then I realised that I actually love Marvel books, these days Iron Man really does it for me, although I've never bought an Iron Man book.

 

But moreso, it made me think of why I collect Batman books now. I was always Marvel, I never read Superman, GL, WW, JLA, I was Marvel through and through.

And it was all down to The Killing Joke. I walked into the newsagents one day when I was 12 and it was there on the rack. I was very impressionable around that age, my dad had left hom the year before, my mom was off rebuilding her own life and I was pretty much left to my own devices to find out about life. Reading comics had always been a huge passtime, and just when I thought I was pushing the boundries, with Punisher LS, TKJ really blew me away.

 

I can say that that was the book. The one that subconsciously defined my core collecting focus in later years when, after ditching comics at around the 14 as they just 'weren't cool', I got back into them in my late teens and gravitated towards Batman.

 

It's not often I think about my past, especially around that age, but it fascinated me that I figured something out that I'd never thought about. So what was your book? The one that shaped your collecting focus, in whatever shape or form that my be?

[Forbush-Man]

I haven't met that book yet, my collection is all over the board.

[DrWatson]

FF 186 defined my focus on Marvel Comics. X-Men 148, 149 defined my focus on X-Men. X-Men 41 defined my focus on The Northlands.

[Karma23]

This book, found, in a three pack, between two Sgt Fury reprints started me on a path away from strictly war books and, ended with a full run of Avengers.

[Comicopolis]

What's a focus

[Boozad]

What's a focus

 

I already knew your answer

[t3quila]

The Dark Knight Returns, but loved batman since I used to watch the 70's cartoon - The New Adventures of Batman (one of my earliest TV memories)

[gaz973]

Good thread topic Gav.

 

Mine were Avengers # 173 & 174. Avengers was already probably my favourite title from a preference going back to early childhood but as an approximately 10 year old, I bought these at a car boot sale and they really caught my imagination and they probably contributed to Hawkeye being one of my favourite characters.

 

When I started collecting properly again, it was Avengers # 273 that started me and that issue always has a great place in my comic memories.

[LloydJBailey]

It's actually a really good question bro!

I can't pick just one - i'd have to say Torment, Secret Wars and Demon In A Bottle, but i'd also say... Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - It's weird, because I love Batman, but I always end up on the other side

[gaz973]

What's a focus

 

You should focus while riding bikes.

[Boozad]

What's a focus

 

You should focus while riding bikes.

 

[PokerKid]

The first comic I picked up in 20 years and was an eBay thrill bid I didn't expect to get. It reignited the comic bug in me I though I had lost completely after my dad sold our great collection 25 years ago.

 

[Drakeprimeone]

I didn't start collecting until maybe about 1992. So the books that gave me inspiration were mostly moderns

 

Harbinger #1 gave me my Valiant fetish

Ultimates #1 turned me on to Iron Man and Cap America

 

[Comicopolis]

What's a focus

 

You should focus while riding bikes.

 

[Currin Comics]

I was always into horror, use to love being able to stay up late on Saturday night to watch "Shock Theater", you had to adjust the antenna on the roof ( we had that dial on top of the TV that moved the antenna) to catch it coming out of High Point NC if memory serves yes.....before cable, but werewolves were always my thing and MSpot 2 just put super-hero books on the back burner.....if I had enough dimes left after my horror comics, candy and slurpee, then a Hulk, Spidey or Avengers would get purchased. This lead me to TOD, Ghost Rider, Man-Thing as well as the Living Mummy issues in SNT. Then I got Power Records # 32 which combined MSpot 2, WBN 15 and TOD 18 into a killer story for me, so MSpot 2-4 and the WBN run was what set me down the collecting path. It also laid down the foundation for my opinion that Mike Ploog is numero uno....no one else is even close for me.

[Comicopolis]

What's a focus

 

You should focus while riding bikes.

 

 

[Boozad]

What's a focus

 

You should focus while riding bikes.

 

 

 

 

 

[Silver]

This book was so influential on my collecting focus. It made me aware that Superman and Superboy were the same character, Introduced me to the Legion of Super-Heroes, and put in motion the idea to collect the back issues that were reprinted inside and on the covers:

 

 

 

The madness hasn't stopped since then

 

 

 

[HouseofComics.Com]

I haven't met that book yet, my collection is all over the board.

 

Yeah, you could almost say the book that defines the focus for me is Overstreet!

[etanick]

here is my first book and focus

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=4&Number=3507287&Searchpage=10&Main=173217&Words=etanick&topic=0&Search=true#Post3507287

 

funny thing is most of my friends that I met in those early days in middle school was pure DC kids but they collected X-men because that was the only Marvel title they felt was "cool".... so that created my curiousity in that title and eventually my favorite for years. I was reading their DC books and they were reading my Iron Man and FF.