First Comic(s) You Read Before Collecting?

[jimjum12]

My older brother (who is 7 years my senior) was an avid Superman fan and had several Superman comics and a few other DC titles. By the time I was 5 years old I began to take notice of his comics. For some reason a Metal Men #14 really caught my eye. I couldn't quite read yet and my mother was fond of reading books to me, so I took this book and had my mother read it to me. I was hooked on the Metal Men and comics from then on. I had my Mom order me a subscription to the Metal Men and the first book that came was issue #22. I have been reading and collecting comic books since.

 

 

.....DC had some really bizarre material coming out back then ...... Metamorpho, Challengers, etc...... Action Comics 344 (I think)....with the dream cover and the diamond dude is forever etched in my mind.... GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

I've always had a soft spot for the oddball DC SA stuff. Even when I was a kid in the early 70s and was mostly interested in picking up SA Marvel at cons, I would buy stuff like Metal Men, Metamorpho and The Geek. Of course first appearances were about a dollar and later issues maybe a quarter for much of that stuff, so it was cheap to do so.

 

...I remember as a kid being equally wowed and repulsed by several types of DC covers.... especially any that featured half human/ half insect characters..... but today they just don't "bug" me like they did then. GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[Cat-Man_America]

I think the first comic I ever read goes part and parcel with the very moment I started collecting

 

I started reading & collecting MAD Magazine before I was fully aware of regularly published comics, but through the MAD Reader and other paperbacks reprinting MAD Comics my curiosity was piqued about EC and the GA in general.

 

My first exposure to actual comic books was when my dad was running an errand for my mom and took me along to the local drugstore. That's where I discovered spinner-racks. Shortly thereafter I figured out that every Tuesday and Thursday new shipments arrived. From that point on I was hooked. Once I had the route down I'd make a twice weekly trek and return home with more treasure than allowance.

 

DC's Strange Adventures and Mystery In Space (Adam Strange) were great reads, but I loved Marvel's monster comics (Strange Tales, Tales To Astonish, Tales of Suspense, Amazing Adventures/Adult Fantasy & Journey Into Mystery) which I referred to as IND. comics 'cuz of the small indicia in the upper left-hand corner. Note: IND. probably stood for Independent Distributors or some such (I've never taken the time to research this, but that's my presumption).

 

At that point in time, I had no clue that my faves were published by Marvel, much less aware that Marvel's history dated back to 1939 (vis-a-vis Timely). I loved reading comics from several publishers, but it was the bi-monthly monster books with Ditko back-up stories that were special. When Marvel's superhero lines started I snagged most of the classic first appearances for 10/12 cents right off the spinner racks, but FF#1 caught my eye specifically because it was a monster book.

 

Truth be told, to this day I still miss the Kirby/Ayers monster books. (I Am Groot!)

 

By around 1966, Howard & Gail Rogofsky's sales ads for old comics were popping-up in Marvel's back-pages fueling my interest in the GA and EC lines in particular. Send a SASE and the current price list came back by return mail. My first GA purchase from Rogofsky's catalog was a copy of Quality's Plastic Man #10, undoubtably influenced by the MAD Ballentine paperback that reprinted Russ Heath's send-up of the character. That brings us full circle.

 

So, yes, I was reading reprints of comics, not knowing that they were from comic books, before collecting 'em.

 

There are 8 million stories in the naked city, and this ain't one of 'em.

[porcupine48]

First comics I distinctly remember reading were my Papas DC war he bought from the stands,along with some Charlton Dr Graves books he got at a yard sale(also..Gold.Key..Tragg blew my mind!).I remember there was that pile,and then his Savage Sword of Conan and Heavy Metal magazine pile.I was VERY interested in the later,as even as a young fellow,I really liked the nudity in these.I just remembered there was some Weird War Tales in there also.

The first comics I ever saw that made me want to collect? I can still.remember the smell of the plastic seats.On the school bus one morning,one of the older cooler kids was in the back seat with a pile.of.comics...BIG comics!He had the Treasury Editions of Spiderman vs Superman(the later print) and Batman vs the Hulk.I was astonished...i new the difference between DC and Marvel bh then...how could this be? The size of them!And the artwork for the cover of Supes vs Spidey?Was it a painting?!Look at Spiderman webs...holh...holy wowI.can still remember staring at spiders hands,fingers,and those webs!Wow..and if that was not enough,Dennis,I remember his name,pulled out Secret Wars...I saw the cover for issue 4 with the Hulk holding up.like a bizzilion tonnes of rock and I had to have these,to read and love.That weekend I had my Papa take me to the used mag and comic store downtown to spend my allowance forever more.

[porcupine48]

Let's hear some more stories gang!