• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

My First Comic
0

13 posts in this topic

Do you remember yours?

 

It was the 70's and I had to be like 10 years old or less. My parents divorced when I was even younger and I remember going to visit my dad in the summers. He would usually end up taking me to grandma's house in French Camp, CA where I hung out with my cousins most of the time. My aunt lived there with grandma and kind of looked out for me.

 

One of the fun things I liked to do at that age was take a magnifying glass and use the condensed light beam like a pencil to burn images into a piece of wood. I don't know all of the images I made, but I remember very clearly making a big ant...he was like a foot long on a thin peace of soft wood and he looked awesome. Sorry, took a trip down memory lane there. Anyway, one day after I was bored of playing with fire and driving my aunt crazy she busted out some Marvel comics and was like, here look at these. I loved looking at those books. There were so many words and at that age they just interfered with the pictures...I didn't read any of them and when my aunt tried to read them to me I usually fell asleep from boredom. When I got to just flip through them on my own though it was great. Sometimes I would try to piece together the story from the images, and other times I just enjoyed looking at these cool characters.

 

Which books were they? The covers that burned themselves into my memory were Silver Surfer 1 and a bunch of X-men books including issue 2 with the Vanisher, issue 3 with the Blob, issue 22 with Count Nefaria, issue 29 with the Super Adaptoid, issue 31 with the Cobalt Man, issue 32 with Juggernaut, and issue 45 with Quicksilver. I guess that explains why the Silver Surfer and X-men were the comics I gravitated to most when I started collecting comics myself 10 years later. The unbelievable part is about 10 years after that, I told my aunt I has collecting comics now and she sent me her whole collection of about 60 books. Man when those books arrived the memories just came pouring back. I still have most of those books and will treasure them forever, along with the great memories.

 

Til next time...

 

***

16790.jpg

 

See more journals by surfer99

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great post :applause:

 

My story is somewhat similar. When I was 5 years old in 1978, my granddad picked up two books (he just found them, someone had lost them, he did not really care for such books), one Spider-man and one "Vampire #3" book (the latter including Werewolf by Night #3: The Mystery Of The Mad Monk! (1973); Marvel Spotlight #7 (Ghost Rider): Die, Die My Daughter (1972); and Amazing Adult Fantasy #13: The Unsuspecting (1962)).

 

I was not the only child to read these books when visiting my grandparents, so being in the hands of kids for many years took its toll. Eventually I saved the Spidey book, even tried to trim it to make it look nice, I think I made a great job when I was 9 or 10 years old, when taping and trimming the book :grin::facepalm:

 

 

 

 

3107201554241_zpsbtujsrvo.jpg

 

PS. I later found a nicer copy - but extremely hard to find, here in Denmark not many are left, and the print run was already low in the 70'ties:

 

310720155425_zpsawhiicdz.jpg

 

The book contained Danish versions of:

 

The Amazing Spider-Man # 140 : ...And One Will Fall! (1975)

The Amazing Spider-Man # 141 : The Man's Name Appears to Be...Mysterio! (1975)

The Amazing Spider-Man # 142 : Dead Man's Bluff! (1975)

 

Finally I upgraded to this:

 

https://comics.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/ComicView.aspx?PeopleSetComicID=584866

 

And the "Vampire #3" had this great front cover:

 

9988760014332_large_zpsptm6ih6a.jpg

 

And the back:

 

vamp3-2_zps3o4bdcrc.jpg

 

Guess I'm basically a Ploog and Andru boy hmlol And such great stories to capture and shape the mind of a 5-year-old :cloud9::ohnoez:

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first was Kamandi #29. My Dad gave me some money to buy something to keep me occupied while my parents shopped at the flea market. Still have my original but upgraded to the one shown below so I could display it.

 

James

 

Kamandi29_zpsc325a0e3.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rune, I love your story and what a nice restoration job! Haha. You know I would have been sleeping with the nite lite on after reading those. Glad you were able to keep the Spidey book, and those original copies you picked up later in life...so nice.

 

James, at a young age you were already ahead of the game hitting flea markets to find comics! I didn't do that until I was a little older...so much fun, and you never know what you might find. Very cool that this book sparked your interest in comics and that you're still going strong today.

 

Thanks for sharing guys!

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man, your aunt had good taste...imagine if all those were 9.2s...we can only dream. But the memories are the important part and it's cool that you held onto them. The comics from my extreme youth 4-12 or so are long gone. At 7-11, I liked picking up Conans, Spider-Man and Iron Man. It's sad that collectors nowadays can't experience the fun of newstand comic shopping at the local drug store or mini-mart like 7-11. Progress?

 

I think I was 4 or 5 and got Frankenstein #1 with the 45 record so you could read along. It was quite dramatic. IT'S ALIVE...I can still hear the tone and tenor. I'd listen/read along to that thing over and over. I also had a Spider-man w/ record, but for the life of me, can't remember the issue. I just remember that Ploog cover of Frankenstein coming off the table in all his gruesome glory. Now I have the complete Frankenstein run (18 copies). That was a crazy hard set to complete, and I couldn't have done it w/o the one and only Doctor Joe. Now if he'll just sell me some of his Werewolf by Nights...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome journal... and a most awesome introduction into the world of comics.

 

I can't remember the very first comic I ever came across or seen. It may have been Superman 295 where on the cover he confronts father time, circa 1976. I believe I saw this on the newsstand rack and I was in awe of it.

 

Another very early one is the Amazing Spider-Man 155 which has an action-packed montage of spidey taking on several threats. The image of villain choking Spidey with the metallic hands always fascinated me. Who was that guy? And why was Spidey always in big trouble? This is got my mom to buy for me.

 

I also remember Magnus the Robot Fighter 42, my first indie comic from Golden Key, which had a cool painted cover by Russ Manning, 1976. I remember that comic being so different from the others... maybe because it was very violent, futuristic and apocalyptic and had an underground feel to it... like a B-movie.

 

And I also recall my father bringing home several DC treasury sized editions... featuring Superman, Batman, JLA... mostly reprints of the Silver Age, but so very cool with those oversized covers and pages. And like you, I barely read them, just stared at the artwork for hours as i tried to piece together the story. I even tried my hand at tracing and drawing.

 

Sadly, I don't own any of these comics any longer... they ended up in the trash or given away.

 

But my first comics I ever bought with my milk money were Fantastic Four 209 with Herbie on the cover, Iron Man 124 with a great cover of Iron Man battling Blizzard, Whiplash, and Melter in Atlantic City, and The Mighty Thor 289 where he battles the Destroyer with the spirit of his beloved Sif trapped inside. Batman 315 and Superman 341 were the first DC titles I ever bought. But Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Thor were the titles high on my pull list and the ones i bought religiously; that was about 1979 and that was when it really began for me.

 

Thanks for sharing and evoking some cherished memories.

 

SW3D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now I have the complete Frankenstein run (18 copies). That was a crazy hard set to complete, and I couldn't have done it w/o the one and only Doctor Joe. Now if he'll just sell me some of his Werewolf by Nights...

 

Joe also sold me his Conan 14 and 18, a great help :cloud9: I would too like a Werewolf by Night set (maybe just the first 10 issues), but I'm starting from scratch, and these books are extremely hard to find in 9.8 (and on top of that I like pure WP and nice centering :frustrated: ). I think the amount of work finding and getting these books is simply too much trouble, for now, sigh...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator

This is the original view of this journal on the Chat Boards. This view is locked, so members can no longer reply here.

This journal is also posted in the new Journals section, which is unlocked. Click the link below to see any other comments about this journal and post new replies.

https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/blogs/entry/4426-my-first-comic/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator

You can also click "My Journal" in the main menu to quickly find your own journal, journal entries, and replies.

07 My Journal CGC.png

 

And you can search all journals by using the search tool.

08 Search Journals CGC.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator

You can find journal entries by a specific author by using the search tool and visiting their profile, and you can follow members to get notifications when they post new content.

09 Members Journals CGC.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

0