What was the one comic that brought you back to collecting?

[makeminemego]

Sold off everything in one of those "I can't be owned by the things I own" moments out 12 years ago.

 

@2012 in an "out of the blue" kind of moment, I thought about putting together an early FF run. Since then I've been buying books on ebay and small collections here and there to build early runs of all the Marvel titles.

 

Kind of weird, it just sort of happened. But if there was one book I was excited about in particular it was FF 10. Just always liked the story, so if there's a gateway comic to my current collection, I'd say it was that one.

 

 

[lizards2]

I never really left.

[Comic Consortium]

JTHM 1

[Number 6]

I stopped reading/collecting comics shortly after I graduated high school in 1991.

 

Sometime late in the late 90's I belonged to a science fiction book club and they were starting to offer a couple of comic TPBs every once in awhile. They offered one that had art by an artist who I somehow heard was kind of the new thing in comics.

 

I needed to order a couple of books to fulfill my commitment to the club so I thought 'what the heck, give it a shot' and ordered it.

 

 

Kingdom Come is what pulled me back.

[NewWorldOrder]

TMNT 1 brought me back into collecting key issues (slabs).

 

 

 

What a shock

 

(thumbs u

[ebtorres]

After an approximate 14 year hiatus, the book that brought me back to collecting was TWD.

[joe_collector]

Amazing Spider-man 261.

 

I dropped comics after X-Men 142 (missed 143, puked when I saw 144) but years later I was walking by a spinner rack at 7-11 and saw this cover. It reminded me of why I loved comics as a kid, so I picked it up and was hooked again.

 

 

Then later, when the Valiant Chromium, Image idiocy and Marvel junk in the early 90's started up, I dropped comics again (I think it was the day Bloodshot 1 was released) and I've not picked up a new comic since. I'll never be back, especially at today's insane cover prices.

[Tivo32]

I've always been a fan of superheroes since I was a young kid. When I was 10 or 11, my family and I went to Universal Studios - Island of Adventures and I rode the Spiderman ride a million times. My souvenir for the trip was a Spiderman TPB. I wish I could remember what TPB it was. That was the only comic I had for a long time. In college, I had a close friend who was reading anything and everything. I took a trip with him to the LCS and while he was chatting up with the owner I picked up Dark Avengers, Batman and Robin, and Red Robin (both from the Reborn era). After a year or so, life got crazy and I had a longbox of books I just gave him. I moved away and lost touch with my friend.

 

Fast forward about 4 years. My wife and I had just returned from our honey moon and were in an antique shop (another hobby of ours) and I was going through a stack of beat up comics when a copy of Darkhawk 7 caught my eye. I thought it was a cool cover and a unique character I've never heard of. Picked it up for 50 cents and the rest is history. My wife hopped in collecting the first trip we took to a LCS.

[MintyMint]

It wasnt a comic. I had a happy and content life and larger bank account until that fateful day back in the spring of 2010. My girlfriend wanted to buy me a gift and knew I was into superheroes. She surprised me with an Amazing Spiderman pint glass. It was a great gift but had I known what would follow I would never have asked her where she had found it. She told me about a shop not too far from my house that sold comics, figures, books and cards. I was intrigued and would pass by it but business kept me from following up on locating it.

A few weeks later I was back in town and we were having lunch at a nearby restaurant. When we leaving I noticed a busy crowd gathered around outside a nearby storefront. when I wondered out loud what was going on over there my girlfriend told me that's the same place she bought my pint glass from. Curious we drove closer and as soon as my eyes recognized the unmistakable size and shape of comic longboxes, my heart skipped a beat and memories flooded in of countless hours of joy and anticipation digging through comics at shows and shops as a kid. I could even smell that wonderful distinctive musty odor of aging recycled newsprint, paper and ink. Then I felt it. That old familiar flame burning in the pit of my chest. And it wasn't just burrito heartburn.

I tried to fight it and told myself no, I'm too old for this stuff, but internally I knew I would lose this struggle. Fighting the urge to run ahead leaving my girlfriend barely exiting the car and dive into the nearest long box I faked my casual interest until I began to see old and new comics from the last 30 years. For a while I reassured my girlfriend I was just browsing but it wasn't long before I was elbow deep into long box after long box walking down memory lane. I didn't realize when I had completely forgotten all about my girlfriend as nostalgia overcame me but about an hour and a stack of comics later I recognized the irritation in her voice: are you done yet? It was Free Comic Book day and i was hooked. I knew I was from that day on.

 

A month later I had a pull list, was raiding yard and estate sales and acquiring and selling collections off craigslist. Soon I was buying off ebay, heritage and comic link spending thousands. By the end of 2010 I had nearly a full run of ASM and UXM in decent grade and a part time ebay and shipping operation run out of my basement.

In 2011 and 2012 I had to pull back and refocus. My hobby had turned into a part time business and was eating up too much time. 5 years later I'm still recovering from the hangover of my binge collecting but snagged some great deals back then. All because of a damn ed spider pint glass.

 

Great story! Rings so true.

 

In my case, I was ultimately brought back by a specific comic but my story has some similarities. I first collected from 1979 to 1985 then stopped cold turkey. I moved to England in 1989 and had to pay off some debts so I sold off my entire collection which at the time included such rare works as X-Men 94-200 and MTIO 1-100 as well as some Avengers, FF, Spider-Woman (I know!), Rom and Silver Surfer reprints. A full eight-year hiatus ensued when a guy joins the small firm I was working for and hears that I used to be into books. So what does he do? He starts dropping off books on my desk on a weekly basis from the local comic shop. I resisted things like X-Men 300 and various Image books until one day he insists I read an issue of X-O Manowar (#19) and sure enough I got hooked. For new issues we'd go to a 2nd story comic shop on Third Avenue at 56th St (Manhattan. Now American Locksmiths) and for back issues we'd go to his local place called Alex's MVP Cards & Comics on East 89th at 2nd (now on York at 83rd). I remember the first time I walked into Alex's and it was the sight of the long boxes and the musty smell of the books that flooded over me and brought back those great memories from my earlier days collecting in Toronto. Well Alex didn't have all the X-O back issues so we went to a comic show at the Javits Center. My boss, who was a serious collector at the time, asked us to pick up a Superboy #1 for him from Jason Ewert. Jason sold me a reasonably high-grade copy of ASM #39 and that was the final nail in the coffin. That was 22 years ago and I have been collecting ever since.

 

P.S. My buddy's name was Peter Kellerman and he came up with "minty-mint" (his term for an older book in pristine condition). Petey became a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald only to lose his life in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11. That was a bad day. May he rest in peace.

 

 

 

 

[solm4st3r]

Star Wars Legacy #1 got me back into the hobby. I'm sorta of Star Wars geek and the whole storyline got me interested in buying comics again. Then I noticed that I could now afford many of the comics I couldn't get as a kid and it went from there. I've slowed down again since I just bought a house recently, but now I'm looking forward to having a man cave/corner for my comics.

[justin]

I've always been a fan of superheroes since I was a young kid. When I was 10 or 11, my family and I went to Universal Studios - Island of Adventures and I rode the Spiderman ride a million times. My souvenir for the trip was a Spiderman TPB. I wish I could remember what TPB it was. That was the only comic I had for a long time. In college, I had a close friend who was reading anything and everything. I took a trip with him to the LCS and while he was chatting up with the owner I picked up Dark Avengers, Batman and Robin, and Red Robin (both from the Reborn era). After a year or so, life got crazy and I had a longbox of books I just gave him. I moved away and lost touch with my friend.

 

Fast forward about 4 years. My wife and I had just returned from our honey moon and were in an antique shop (another hobby of ours) and I was going through a stack of beat up comics when a copy of Darkhawk 7 caught my eye. I thought it was a cool cover and a unique character I've never heard of. Picked it up for 50 cents and the rest is history. My wife hopped in collecting the first trip we took to a LCS.

 

I love that it was Darkhawk that brought you back to collecting! Nice

[Azkaban]

Wasn't really a comic. I had been collecting in the 70's and 80's but I quit collecting after getting married and when my kids came along I just couldn't afford it any longer. That was the early 90's, then about two years ago I came across the article about the Billy Wright collection and it got me to pull out my collection I had put away and I'm back into it again.

[Buzzetta]

I stopped buying monthly books once the original Valiant folded but I continued to pick up each new issue of Amazing Spider-man each month. Around 2001 I completed a full set of Spider-man (?) I stopped reading but would pick up Spider-man each month after that to maintain the set. Around 2004 I sold off my GI Joe set, and Batman (around) 200 to whatever was current at that point. Occasionally I would buy something that was too good a deal to pass up. My Avengers 4 and Hulk 181 were purchased back then in the early 2000's.

 

In 2010 I decided to upgrade my AF15 after I sold off a lot of loot. I don't know why, but I decided that would be a good idea. Then I said that would be it. G.A.tor told me about these boards as I bought an AF15 off of him. The rest of you supplied the crack to the addict and I started a slabbed run of AF15 through ASM 100 and then all the keys in some respectable grades.

 

Then came the Marvel Keys bug like DD1, ST110 and XM1.

 

Then came the GA bug.

 

You people are a bad influence.

[01TheDude]

Wasn't a specific comic for me either. I stopped buying/collecting comic books around 1978 or so after only 3 or 4 years collecting. Mostly because of sports and getting older but also the price hitting 40 cents to me was outrageous for some reason. It was only 25 cents when I started. Anyway...

 

I held on to my entire collection save a few dumb moves along the way like selling my X-Men I bought off the rack (around the 90s-100s) along with my older X-Men and my copy of Kiss (the one with their blood in the ink). That was around 1986. Tried to sell the entire collection around 1987 but thankfully the LCS guy offered me next to nothing for them and I walked out. Time moved along, I rebagged and (finally) boarded my collection around 1992, as well as updating how I stored them. Fresh bags in 2004.

 

Then around 2014, I was about to move across country and started selling everything I could on eBay to lighten my load. That included some comics, which I decided to re-inventory and rebag/board again. It also led me to this forum as I was seeking information and trying to get myself up to date on the hobby. Sold some I wish I hadn't in retrospect but I made out ok (FF 52, ASM 31, etc) and others I was fine letting go (my 7-11 1977 Slurpee cup collection for instance). But kept on reading the forums and getting more and more interested again in the books.

 

Then when I got to Phoenix, I went to a little gathering of locals here that blew my mind. The incredible books I saw that day along with artwork was outstanding. It really fueled me to get back into actively collecting. Threads like garage sale/flea market finds were of special interest. Also learning more about golden age books-- even though I have no intention of going that route (I say that now)-- and the comic collecting world in general. And I found myself wanting books I had wanted when I was too young to afford them -- mostly Thor but pretty much anything Kirby. I knew I was hooked again when I started accumulating the Kirby DC titles as I was always a Marvel guy.

 

anyway- really enjoy the site and the conversations here. Met some nice people along the way. But I need to reign in my spending and try to enjoy what I have picked up over the past year and before.

 

 

[Red84]

I didn't collect or read comics when I was younger, so rather than bring me back to comics, Walking Dead brought me to comics (first the show, which lead to reading the compendiums, which lead to reading individual issues, which lead to collecting bronze age, then silver, and now gold. All within 2+ years).

[oakman29]

I didn't collect or read comics when I was younger, so rather than bring me back to comics, Walking Dead brought me to comics (first the show, which lead to reading the compendiums, which lead to reading individual issues, which lead to collecting bronze age, then silver, and now gold. All within 2+ years).

 

Damn you've got a great set of books for only collecting a short time.

[Red84]

I didn't collect or read comics when I was younger, so rather than bring me back to comics, Walking Dead brought me to comics (first the show, which lead to reading the compendiums, which lead to reading individual issues, which lead to collecting bronze age, then silver, and now gold. All within 2+ years).

 

Damn you've got a great set of books for only collecting a short time.

 

When I get interested in something I go all in.

[Lonzilla]

I started collecting seriously in 1979 (I was 11) and bought X-men #9 for $5 at a comic shop. My reader books were beyond trashed but every weekend when my Dad had me for visitation day, we'd go to the shop. A $5 and $10 bill went a long way back then. *Got a Nolan Ryan rookie card at the same store in 1982 for $3. was in to a bit of everything*

I guess in 83-84 I got an Overstreet and studied it, went over every 1st appearance with a highlighter and sought out those books. ASM 129 was $2-$3 tops. I had to have a copy for Punisher and a copy for The Jackal

 

I got out of it in 93 and sold my collection: FF 48, X-Men 1, Avengers 1. Hulk 181, HOS 92, GL/GA 76-89, full runs of every Marvel bronze horror title and pretty much all of the important bronze books.

 

I hadn't bought a comic for several years and a friend who worked at a LCS showed me Marvels #1 when it came out so I grabbed every issue off the rack and later started buying Brubaker's cap and Bendis's Daredeviil, all of the Marvel Max stuff. Got out of it again for a long time until I needed to supplement my income and went back to what I knew best: key issues. It was business first but the old collector in me couldn't part with certain books. Part nostalgia, part OCD

 

I go by the saying "it's all for sale" at some point, and did part with some gems in the last few years. What I collect now is golden age horror thanks to picking up a random Tales From the Crypt at a LCS last year. had one and I was hooked

 

**Almost forgot what got me into Marvel more than anything. I was 6 and my stepdad's friend gave me his old copy of MSH #1 with the Daredevil #1 reprint story**

[FutureFlash]

I started with Transformers #1-3 in a 3 pack bought in a grocery store in late 84 or early 85. I continued sporadically getting both G.I. Joe and Transformers when I could find them on the newsstand. My first superhero comic purchase was Iron Man #207 at a gas station in 86. Shortly there after I found a comic book store and it was all down hill from there. Collected pretty solidly from there up to end of 99.

 

What brought me back were all the new comic book related movies and tv shows over the last few years. Last year I was reading on the net about the goings on of GL, Flash, Batman and Superman in comics. The one thing that caught my attention was Johns Green Lantern run. Next thing I know I'm downloading Rebirth digitally on my ipad. Within two months I was back to my old LCS and starting a pull list. Madness I tell you.

 

One great thing about collecting this time around is being able to afford GA/SA books, and enjoying them for the first time, as I wasn't really that into the old stuff back in the day.

[rjrjr]

Star Wars Legacy #1 got me back into the hobby. I'm sorta of Star Wars geek and the whole storyline got me interested in buying comics again. Then I noticed that I could now afford many of the comics I couldn't get as a kid and it went from there. I've slowed down again since I just bought a house recently, but now I'm looking forward to having a man cave/corner for my comics.

 

Star Wars titles are definitely gateway titles for new and returning collectors. My first comic that started my collection was a Marvel Comics Star Wars #26. I've been a Star Wars comic collector ever since. Even during the lean years when I bought very few titles (1990s after Valiant folded), I stuck with Star Wars titles. And funny enough, just this year, I decided the only new titles I would be buy are Star Wars titles for the foreseeable future and since January, that is all I've bought. In fact, the only back issues I have bought this year have been Star Wars as well. I have no doubt that will change again someday.