Your Fondest Comic Book (Reading) Memory

[shadroch]

I loved Warlock as a guest star. His appearences in FF, Thor and his death in the Incredible Hulk were some of my favorites. For some reason He just did not hit the spot in either his first series or in the Starlin run. Except for the issues with the clowns tossing the diamonds so they dont interfere with the garbage,I just did not care for the storyline. I didn't read Starlins later run with th InfinityWatchGuantletWhatever so I can't comment on those. If you have not read his 6 page story from Star Reach 1, you are missing a treasure. I really liked the start of the Dreadstar epic(esp. The Price) but he seemed to lose interest in it and really cut the scope.

[joe_collector]

Actually, I thought the Thanos Quest books (and the Silver Surfer comics) were far better than the Infinity Gauntlet ones that followed. IG was still good, but too many characters and not enough story.

 

Thanos hunting down the gems one-by-one was classic, and an excellent riff off that same thing in Avengers Annual #7, except it took place in a single-page. Starlin likely went back and thought "Hey, there's a story here" and the results were spectacular.

 

For those with short memories, check the attachment for the page in question.

[Joanna]

Being a girl, many of my fondest memories were of the more romantic storylines.

 

 

I remember loving my Lois Lane comics and can't remember the first one I read. But I remember a lot of great stories. LL71 had the second part of the first SA Catwoman in it, but I never had the first part, so that story was kind of confusing. But the second story in it "Hush Hush Sweet Lois" or something like that, had Lois being blackmailed because someone showed her film of Superman killing an entire ship full of people. To keep the world from seeing it, she was paying huge sums to blackmailers, selling all her most prized possessions to get money, etc. In the end, she found out that the ship was full of aliens, and it wasn't Superman who killed them, or something. Anyway, I remember being so impressed with that story because it wasn't just about Lois chasing superpowers, but really showing how much Superman and his reputation meant to her.

 

There was another one where Clark Kent pretended to commit suicide, then came back as a mysterious swami to win Lois's heart. (I thought Superman as a swami was soooo handsome) And although she fell for the swami, she couldn't get Clark out of her mind, very grief-stricken. In the end, Clark comes back (saved by Aquaman, or something, was his story) and He's wearing a 'hip' new suit and Lois throws herself in his arms. Sigh, very romantic.

 

I also loved Supergirl, and was very fond of all those stories at Stanhope college where Linda Danvers fell in love with another boy every week, usually messed up somewhere using her powers, but then thought her way out of the troubles. There was one where Superman's old robot teacher from Krypton 'tested' Supergirl, and she outsmarted everyone.

 

Superman was obviously a favorite as well, and a real heartbreaker for me has a chilling footnote. Superman runs into red K and loses both his memory and his powers. He becomes a ranch hand and falls in love with the rancher's daughter, and they get engaged. Her ex-boyfriend gets jealous, and one day, when Clark is out riding, the ex gets him thrown from his horse. Superman breaks his neck and is paralyzed. (footnote: parallel this to Christopher Reeve) Feeling that he's "half a man" he refuses to get married. She still desperately loves him. Clark goes off to think, the ex loosens a boulder and it knocks Clark's wheelchair off a cliff into the ocean. He's saved by Lori Lemaris and the red K wears off. He has no memory of what happened and doesn't know that the rancher's daughter still loves and mourns for him -- not for his super powers, but for himself.

 

I also liked the Legion. My favorite was a take-off of The Most Dangerous Game, where the Legion is hunted and knocked out of the contest, one by one. Invisible Kid saves the day through guts and willpower, not powers, and I just loved the tension and climax of this story.

 

There are so many more, but I thought this thread needed a good dose of DC silver age.

 

-- Joanna

[joe_collector]

Her ex-boyfriend gets jealous, and one day, when Clark is out riding, the ex gets him thrown from his horse. Superman breaks his neck and is paralyzed. (footnote: parallel this to Christopher Reeve) Feeling that he's "half a man" he refuses to get married. She still desperately loves him. Clark goes off to think, the ex loosens a boulder and it knocks Clark's wheelchair off a cliff into the ocean.

 

Is it just me, or does this jealous boyfriend seem a bit deranged and potentially psychotic?

 

"Hands off my girl city slicker!"

[Joanna]

Her ex-boyfriend gets jealous, and one day, when Clark is out riding, the ex gets him thrown from his horse. Superman breaks his neck and is paralyzed. (footnote: parallel this to Christopher Reeve) Feeling that he's "half a man" he refuses to get married. She still desperately loves him. Clark goes off to think, the ex loosens a boulder and it knocks Clark's wheelchair off a cliff into the ocean.

 

Is it just me, or does this jealous boyfriend seem a bit deranged and potentially psychotic?

 

"Hands off my girl city slicker!"

 

Oh, he was a villain, all right. Completely psychotic. I think Superman's name was Jim White (a combo of Jimmy Olsen and Perry White, dredged up from his addled memory) and the ex was always shown steaming about "Jim" and planning his demise. Sally (I think that was the rancher's daughter -- not an LL!) barely paid attention to ex, and didn't think he would harm anyone.

 

I had this story in a reprint when I was a kid, but I later bought the original. Sold it on ebay, but am rather wishing I hadn't. I must've read my 80 page giant version of it a hundred times.

 

-- Joanna

[Foolkiller]

i never grew up with these stories... but when I've picked up the supergirl archive I got a kick out of those stories... and the lois lane issues I bought (because in VG they were a steal and I figured what the heck) were entertaining in a little bit of a hokey way... but there was a complete innocence and charm I found appealing about those characters...

 

The old World's Finest... now there were some really fun comics... the 50s world's finest were some of my favorite issues to seek out.

 

By the way... I totally forgot about the Thanos Quest... which WAS I agree, the superior story vs. the Infinity Gauntlet.... and actually, Starlin's run on the surfer resurrecting thanos wasn't too bad either.

 

 

[BestOf7-migration]

A coverless comic I read as a young boy; ripped-off from my older brothers desk. Looked to have been either a golden or silver-age comic. The one story I remember well was about a man who was down on his luck, and while walking through the streets one day, he saw a blind man selling pencils on the sidewalk. These pencils had some voodoo to them, turning even the novice artist into an overnight success. The story goes on to show how this man's fortune goes from rags to riches, and then back to rags because he did something -- possibly unethical, near the end of his life (I can't remember what the spin on the ending of story was, but he screwed-up somehow). This story was superbly drawn (in the EC tradition, but I'm not sure that it was an EC -- likely a Marvel), and the plot was corny enough to keep me glued to this maccabre, horror-fantasy type of medium. Any ideas where this particular story comes from?

[clobberintime]

Sounds like a Lee/Ditko story - probably Strange Tales as it sounds familiar to me also.

[PovertyRow]

Sounds like a Lee/Ditko story - probably Strange Tales as it sounds familiar to me also.

 

Rings a bell with me too and was thinking along the lines of an Atlas pre-hero. But darned if I can think of it.

[blowout]

Rings a bell with me too and was thinking along the lines of an Atlas pre-hero. But darned if I can think of it.

 

The story also sounds familiar to me. Are we sure it wasn't an episode of the twighlight zone or similar?

[PovertyRow]

Rings a bell with me too and was thinking along the lines of an Atlas pre-hero. But darned if I can think of it.

 

The story also sounds familiar to me. Are we sure it wasn't an episode of the twighlight zone or similar?

 

You know? That was interesting because my brain kept flashing between television and comics. Usually when that happens it turns out to be a Tales From The Crypt episode that was nicely lifted from a Vault Of Horror, Tales From The Crypt etc. So maybe?????

[Zonker]

Several reading memories:

 

- Batman 234: First book I remember reading, the O'Neil-Adams Two-Face re-intro. As posted earlier, we picked this one up at the beach when I was a kid, somehow got it wet, and my grandmother logically enough suggested we dry it out in the oven. Whatta mess! (Have since purchased a couple or three better copies). This is the book that got the comics monkey on my back.

 

- House of Secrets 96: Wally Wood's "The Monster." A little kid is running away from the monsters who want to catch him and I guess turn him into one. Finally they catch him and bring him to the hospital to do the evil deed. Last panel, the p.o.v. shifts-- actually he is the monster, everyone else is normal. Brrr... enough to give this 9-year-old The Creeps.

 

- New Gods 7: Picked this one up at my first comicon locally in the late 1970s. Up until then I had only seen the New Gods through the Gerry Conway revivals. Free-basing the pure Kirby stuff blew my little mind!

 

- Jimmy Olsen 134,135,137,138: Shortly after the above, I found these taped-up copies in the bins at the local comics shop. Road my bicycle back home (with the bag full of comics rubber-banded around the central bar of the bike), and read these outside on a warm spring day. A large part of what keeps me in the hobby is about trying to recapture that moment of discovery (and I occasionally still come close!)

 

- Detective 472: Had been reading the Steve Englehart issues new off the stands, but it was only in the 2nd part of the Hugo Strange story that it became clear to me this was one of the all-time great Batman runs. For the next year (they had bi-monthly comics in those days boys & girls!) I got to experience that thrill of picking up a classic run new off the stands (something I missed out on from the true Bronze Age of the early 1970s).

 

There have been other reading high points, such as the TPBs of Dark Phoenix and Born Again, and the later Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman series, but those are just the adult echoes of the original experiences noted above.

 

Cheers,

Z.

[joe_collector]

- Jimmy Olsen 134,135,137,138: Shortly after the above, I found these taped-up copies in the bins at the local comics shop. Road my bicycle back home (with the bag full of comics rubber-banded around the central bar of the bike), and read these outside on a warm spring day.

 

WOW! Now that brings back some nostalgic memories, and this happens to me when I find a long-lost "second part" that I never picked up as a kid. Most of these were the MTU and MTIO issues, but I can still remember finally completing the ASM Clone Sage (old one - 130's-140's ) and sitting down to finally read it in its entirety.

[BestOf7-migration]

The story also sounds familiar to me. Are we sure it wasn't an episode of the twighlight zone or similar?

 

If they made this story into a television/movie, I've never seen it. It might be something from Ditko as clobberintime pointed out, but then again, it could be anyone -- far too long ago to remember; I found a Steve Ditko checklist on the web, but didn't find anything that mentioned a tiltle remotely familiar to the story about the magic pencils... If anyone else has any ideas, I'd love to be able to reread this story... oh BTW: I vaguely remember it being one story in a series (maybe even a horroy story inserted into a super-hero comic) of short stories... they may also have been a story of a gargoyle, but I'm nost sure...

[buena_vista]

Daredevil 169 - At the tender age of 13, I realized there's more to comics than meets the eye in that book. Kept me on my toes looking for nuances -- and interested for years to come. By the time I was 18, I was ready to quit the hobby, then I read "Born Again" and I was hooked for life.