Comics of your childhood questions and cooincidences

[Firespitter]

I've only been collecting a few years and pretty strictly confined to a few comics that I was drawn to as an adult. (I am in my 40's now, FYI, so towards the end of Bronze).

And recently I've been contemplating all of the comics that I lost as a kid.

Flash back to 25 years ago: I remember the day when I first realized that there was this thing called WOMEN in the world. And a little switch flicked on and at that moment, I realized that I didn't care about comics any longer and people were actually paying big money for key issues. So I got my mom to drive me to the local comic shop with a couple of long boxes in tow. And asked the proprietor if he bought comic books, to which he said "yes. If they are in good condition." He took one look in my long boxes noticed there were no bags or boards and said "Not interested, kid."

I was incredulous; "Don't you even want to look?" I asked. "There's nothing there I want. It's all garbage." he replied.

Well I immediately stormed out and found the nearest dumpster and hefted the boxes with all the force I could muster("For Asgard!" I seem to remember yelling as I slung it unheroicly into the garbage). DRECK!! ARGH!! After a few days I realized not only was I broke and no money to take a girl out, but now I no longer even had comic books to read and console myself.

 

(Anyhow, looking back...it was all garbage except for a few Captain Americas but there's no point in crying over spilt vibranium shields.)

Flash forward 25+ years and I am waxing poetically about the series of (mostly) dreck, which now in my adult income I could purchase with little impact on my wallet. And as I look up the issues and I see the covers, and I am immediately in an ocean of feelings carrying me back to my childhood.

The first question is; anyone else get that feeling of 'wow! I remember having that comic' and instantly getting a warm feeling wash over you like the smell of your mother's home cooking? (I think of that scene in Ratatouille where the critique bites into the ratatouille he's served.)

 

The other thing is that as a kid, I didn't know an artist name from another. I collected the comics because I loved the stories and the superheroes, but now that I look back at the comics of my youth, and read the publishing information; I notice that the comics I collected as a tween, more-often then not were drawn by the same artists that I've now collected as an adult! Have any of you noticed unintentionally that you tend to collect one or two artists' styles of artwork without even realizing it?

I'm sort of blown away by the coincidence that even though the studio/label and hero are different, I'm still reading comics from that same artist as I was as a kid!

Anyhow, I want to hear some more people chime in with memories of how comics have tied their adult life back to their childhood. Maybe you got/held a key issue, that reminds you of a momentous event in your child age/teenage life.

 

Let's hear your testimony!

-Terry

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kidcolt]

I find myself buying Archie titles (esp Digest) Richie Rich, Mad Magazines and Duck titles (Scooge and Donald) as well as some Mickey Mouse stuff as that was what I collected. I also went out and bought some of the old Whitman's that I pulled from 3 packs as a Kid. I had the rare Popeye and a few of the Battle of the Planet issues that were scarce. I repurchased them all .

[Dr. Balls]

When I first got back into collecting in 2008, I was targeting books that I couldn't afford or find when I was younger. Then I had a massive selloff of those books and started focusing on the books and things I liked when I owned my comic shop in the 90s and when I was younger. Now, I'm focused on OA, but I'm ready to undertake another nostalgic collection from when I was 9-10 years old: Creepy Magazines.

 

For me, it's definitely about the nostalgia now - I used to like collecting keys and semi-keys, but now I'm going for rare and high grade stuff from my past. Nostalgia collecting is huge.

 

That's probably why ROM #1 in 9.8 is getting hot - that book arguably got me into reading comics when I was a kid, and I'm not alone in that. My mom actually bought it off the newsstand for me, and kept buying me ROM issues when she went to the grocery store. ROM was my first 'run'

[FineCollector]

Not so strange that you gravitate towards the same artists, you like what you like. When I was a kid, I got a printed box of remainder books out of the Sears Christmas catalogue with an Overstreet guide to collecting. I didn't like Mike Mignola or Bill Sienkiewicz then, and I still don't now. Meanwhile, I bought a Captain America 122 at a used book store, and I've been a Gene Colan fan ever since.

[lizards2]

So, what do you smell like?

[Garf]

For me that flashback feeling was strongest when I became the owner of a couple of the Badger - Hexbreaker OGN pages and one from the prelude story / arc. http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1097052

 

Holding those pages for the first time was such a wierd feeling, can't really describe it well... total disbelief even though I was physically holding the damn things. I have two copies of that OGN. The first one simply fell apart at the spine because it had been read so many times. I was such a fanboy back in the day that I even made a Badger transfer for the back of my jeans *sigh*

[CAMPER49]

My very first comic book that I can recall my mom buying for me was ARCHIE COMICS DIGEST #2 right off the newsstand.

I was a wee lad at the time.

I can still recall some of the stories in it.

 

For several years, I drifted from ARCHIE DIGESTS to the vast plethora of RICHIE RICH comics that littered the spinner racks in the 1970's.

I still have pretty much every RICHIE RICH comic from that era.

 

Then some superhero covers caught my eye.

 

I first picked up Superman and Batman titles....ACTION 472, BATMAN 288, DETECTIVE 470, SUPERMAN 312, BRAVE AND BOLD 135, JUSTICE LEAGUE #144 and WORLD'S FINEST #245.

Well I was hooked.

So using my paper route cash, I started buying more titles..AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #171, DAREDEVIL #148, FF #184, MARVEL TEAM-UP #59, IRON FIST #14, AVENGERS #162, X-MEN #105 just to name a few.

 

Hit all of the local back-issue bookstores in the 1970's and picked up tons of older comics for 5 cents each.

Where/when else can you get high grade copies of HULK 181, SURFER #4, X-MEN 94, ASM 121, GL 76, etc. for 5 cents each?

 

I know what you mean by that warm feeling. I still get that when I pick up a drink those first superhero comics I first read.

It's like going back to your old neighbourhood or seeing friends from bygone days or seeing an old TV show you haven't seen since in decades.

 

 

 

[CAHokie]

I kept all of my childhood comics even after not collecting for 15 years. I still get that feeling though when I go back and look at the covers to my 90's Spiderman and Punisher comics. Even if most were drek value wise, they are still my favorite stories of all time.

[Dr. Balls]

I was such a fanboy back in the day that I even made a Badger transfer for the back of my jeans *sigh*

 

I hear ya. I was such a Lobo fanboy of the 90's, I waited years to finally paint up one of these.

 

[vaillant]

(Anyhow, looking back...it was all garbage except for a few Captain Americas but there's no point in crying over spilt vibranium shields.)

Flash forward 25+ years and I am waxing poetically about the series of (mostly) dreck, which now in my adult income I could purchase with little impact on my wallet. And as I look up the issues and I see the covers, and I am immediately in an ocean of feelings carrying me back to my childhood.

The first question is; anyone else get that feeling of 'wow! I remember having that comic' and instantly getting a warm feeling wash over you like the smell of your mother's home cooking? (I think of that scene in Ratatouille where the critique bites into the ratatouille he's served.)

 

Hmm… no, because I have 95% (or more) of the comics I have ever picked, since before school age. (My father more or less taught me to read and write by reading me italian Disney comics and other books).

 

But yes, because I have strong memories associated with a great deal of comics in my collection. For example, most of my italian Marvels are tied with unique moments in my childhood spent at my grandparents' house in the country.

One for all, the italian edition of Man-Wolf first appearance, which I have read in full day on a tree house, as it would have scared me to read it in the evening – I was still scared of Morbius at the time…

[vaillant]

This was the book – yaaaay!

I’m sure this is one of the few books I no longer have (these were magazine sized late reprints). I have the US original books of the story, however.

 

[bronze_rules]

This was the book – yaaaay!

I’m sure this is one of the few books I no longer have (these were magazine sized late reprints). I have the US original books of the story, however.

 

 

Cool and nice condition, still. I remember having the (english) book and record copy of that! I also got a portable record player (battery powered) that I would haul around in the station wagon; I would listen to that and superman all the time and drive the family nuts.

[vaillant]

Right, that was one of the ones they made the Record edition with!

(P.S. That is just a found image, as I said I no longer have this italian reprint edition).

 

The italian reprint is also a bit claustrophobic with the black ceiling et al. – the first italian edition, which came out when I was a little kid and not yet reading them, looked like this:

 

As you see, the layout choices on the reprint make it quite attractive… even the absence of JJ Jameson's word balloon adds some tension.

[Hekla]

Holding those pages for the first time was such a wierd feeling, can't really describe it well... total disbelief even though I was physically holding the damn things.....

 

Similar experience for me; I loved the Marvel Godzilla comic as a kid.In issue 2 where SHIELD springs a trap, an underling told Dum Dum Duncan 'we're in position, just say when' and Duncan responds 'WHEN!' I thought that was a cleaver response as a 10 yo, I would work it in whenever I could. When I came across the OA for that exact page a few years ago, it was an automate 'must buy' and is still one of my favorite comic related purchases to date.

 

Page in question:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=843024&GSub=124342

 

[1950's war comics]

I collected in 1970 to 1975 years everything but romance comics of course Marvel and DC only , Charlton was drek, , but now that I am back in the hobby not for a second do I want those ones of my youth back, I wanted the older stuff as a child and so did all the neighborhood , now that I can afford the older comics I'm sure going to get them not the stuff I already had, just don't understand the mentality of wanting back the stuff you once had when even at the time most everyone wanted the older stuff even then