What got you to collect....?

[batman_fan]

I would say it has to be an unhappy childhood. That is definitely what got me started. I loved the artwork and stories and found it a great escape.

[Comicopolis]

These boards got me into collecting GA - great looking books that I'd never heard of and then migrating into early Supes and Mary Marvel issues.

 

And then on to pulps, of which I must have 2-3 hundred by now, 90% of which came from great members of this site.

[BB-Gun]

I think I first got intertested in the team comics, first the Challengers and then the Fantastic Four. When I found out about the JSA and all of those guys fighting in WW II I was hooked. I wanted to learn more. Blame it on Jerry I always say. Growing up at the start of the Marvel Age was also a factor. Yeah there was a lot of hype about those old superhero guys and how great it used to be and it was but Spiderman was a character that was today and had the same problems as other teens trying to grow up. I didn't read Salinger until after I finished college but the idea was the same. Alienation, hope, new opportunities and comics also had the art that just kept getting better. I regret my decision to collect comics every now and then but it has been interesting. And a lot of fun.

bb

[ciorac]

I can't remember a time when I didn't collect GA, SA etc. It goes waaaaaay back. If I press, I think it must have been around 5th grade. I bought a collection from my math teacher, Mrs. Ferguson. And it had some GA in it. There may have been an earlier event, but I can't really recall. The first big GA I saw was at the 1973 Phoenix Con. It blew me away. I spent all of my floor money in the first hour of the first day. Spent the rest of the weekend at the panel discussions and on line to meet the Star Trek cast. Robert Heinlein was the guest of honor. It was thrilling to hear him speak

[Ameri]

Around 1970, my 16 year old friend Michael discovered a used bookstore called My Friend's Bookstore on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. They were somehow affiliated with the Passaic Book Shop in Jersey. He comes to my house one day with two books he bought. I remember them vividly. It was an All Winners 12 (always remembered Cap on that motorcycle) and a Captain America 38. They were in almost perfect condition. Because they were so nice he was charged the premium of $20 a piece! So, Marvel silver age took the back seat that day and it's been GA for me ever since I was 12 when this nirvana occurred.

[innocuous]

These boards got me into collecting GA - great looking books that I'd never heard of and then migrating into early Supes and Mary Marvel issues.

I agree here. I really got into collecting GA after wandering into the GA forum one night. I think my wife was watching a cooking show on tv, the kids were in bed and I read everything over in General.

 

However, I do remember my first GA purchase. It was a Flash Comics 21 that I bought at SDCC in 1982 or 1983. My next GA purchase didn't happen until roughly 2005 or 2006.

[JvR11]

When I was 12, my LCS had just put out a 'Life With Archie' #2. They showed it to my dad and I (terrible idea) when we got there one Wed. night. The asking price was $50, which my dad scoffed at. Of course being 12 and wanting the book, I urged my dad to try and work out a deal. His reasoning was "You're 12 and will destroy the book." However, I insisted I wouldn't do any harm to the comic. He just had to trust me.

 

So, we got the book for $25! I promptly read it when we got home, put it back into it's mylar and board bag, stuck it on a long box, and didn't touch it for 11 years. I had decided, at 12 years of age, when I was older and could afford to do so, I would collect GA Archie books (or, "much older comics" as I out it). Well, I am older and can afford it and I do collect GA Archie books, as well as GA DC books.

 

This is the LWA #2. Not the best condition book, but I was thrilled to have it.

 

Very sweet story. It's nice you still have the book.

[Larryw7]

Long story short: the Batman TV show, then the comics, and then reprint books like The Great Comic Book Heroes(a first Communion gift) and Batman:From the Thirties to the Seventies(Ia Christmas gift). I've been hooked ever since.

[Scrooge]

I've been thinking about what my answer would be since the OP posted and ... I still do not have a concrete answer.

 

I do not believe that I have ever stopped collecting comics since I first started to read them in kindergarden. Comics have always been part of my life in one form or another from illustrated books to monthly french US reprints to french bandes dessinées to US imported comics to my finally "coming to America" and having a true LCS and finally jumping to collecting vintage comics.

 

As for what drove me to collect what I collect today, it's quite simply the mags Comic Book Artist / Alter Ego and Comic Book Marketplace. I received a stack of issues of CBM right before my comps exams and probably spent more time reading those than studying but thankfully still passed The reason I gravitated to the Golden Age is that exploring the past pop culture of this country is fascinating for a non-US born collector. I now probably know more about obscure such characters than your average citizen but, hey, I can talk to older folks more easily! These books are from a past that is not so distant you can't reach back to it. Heck, just yesterday, I realized that one of the members of the online pulp mailing list had a letter printed in an 1949 issue of a pulp and he is still a fan! Some GA artists are still with us.

 

Finally, whereas I won't deny I had a period during which I thought McFarlane was the mess, my taste has changed over time and I do appreciate a simple line more than I appreciate a worked line right now. I've come full circle back to the classic Belgian "clear line" of my youth.

[adamstrange]

The reason I gravitated to the Golden Age is that exploring the past pop culture of this country is fascinating for a non-US born collector as well as for US born collectors.

Fixed that for you.