What got you started

[Guest crandamaniac]

What got everybody started reading comics?

 

Me personally, i was about 8 years old, in a YMCA summer camp. I noticed that a lot of the older (and in my opinion at the time) cooler kids would sit around and trade comic books.  Well wanting to be more cool, i decided to give them a try.  I was instantly hooked.  Great stories, great art, great everything.

 

What about y'all?

[Guest gthureson]

Two things:

 

1) When I was 5, my brother had a copy of Avengers.   I forget the number, but Sassquatch could probably tell me what it is.   It's the one where Wonder Man and Beast get attacked by the Mansion security precautions, and find out that Gyrich has orders to pare the active roster down to six.   I read that thing through so many times, it wasn't funny.   And if I remember correctly, the six Avenger squad was: Cap, Iron Man, Wasp, Vision, Beast and Falcon.

 

2) When my aunt was on her deathbed dying of cancer, I wasn't allowed on the floor because I was too young.   I had to wait down in the lobby.   My uncle (a really nice man), realizing I probably didn't really understand what was going on, and would be there a while, bought me three novel sized collections.   One was a Silver Age Superman collection of stories.   The really goofy ones.   I still remember the one about gold kryptonite.   He also bought me a Dr. Strange collection.   The entire Mordo/Dormammu sage, culminating in the Ancient One dying and Doc going from Master of the Mystic Arts to Sorceror Surpreme.  And it was in colour.   That started my love of Doc Strange.   The other was a collection of Batman stories, one from each decade he had been in existence.  That cemented my interest in Batman.

 

As far as the first comics I bought, that'd be X-Men 199, and a Secret Wars II cross-over in Fantastic Four.

[Guest areacode212]

I don't remember my earliest encounter with comic books. I vaguely recall reading stuff at my aunt's house like an issue of Superman where he fights Dracula & Frankenstein's Monster (anyone know what I'm talking about?), and an issue of Daredevil which ends with him getting his ass kicked by the Hulk and being stuffed in a garbage can (this might be a Miller story; it wasn't in Visionaries 2 or 3, so I'm not sure). I didn't start seriously collecting until around the time Crisis ended--I collected Marvels only, until I hit 6th grade, and started buying some of the Byrne Superman stuff and the Giffen/Maguire Justice League.

[Guest starvenger]

I think my first comic was the X-Men: Heroes for Hope special.  Somehow that creator "jam" comic managed to hook me.

[Guest Sassquatch]

First gthureson:

 

The issue of Avengers that you are referring to is #181.  In that issue, Gyrich demands that the roster be cut down to 7 members.  The members that stayed on the Avengers after the cuts were:

 

Captain America

Iron Man

Vision

Falcon

Beast

Ms.Marvel

Wasp

 

Gold Kryptonite was introduced in Superman #140 and is worth about $165-175 today in mint condition.

 

Now 212:

 

The issue of Superman with Frankenstein and Dracula that you are referring to is Action Comics #531.

 

The Daredevil issue that you are talking about with the Hulk in it is #163 which Frank Miller wrote and drew.

 

Hope that helped.

[Guest areacode212]

Cool, thanks Sassquatch. I always wanted to track down that Action Comics issue because I always thought it was weird that Superman would fight Dracula and Frankenstein, and I was never sure whether or not I was remembering some kind of hallucination. Hopefully it isn't worth $165-175.

[Guest pochorenella]

My memories are really vague but I'm positive my first comics were DC, maybe a Superman or Batman comic. I seem to remember the Superman vs Flash race (which I think Flash won), Batman vs a vampire that didn't have his heart on his chest but on a clock (help, Sassquatch?), the Justice League vs Amazo, a Flash story where he was recruited by the New Gods to help them with a giant Orion, and the like. Great times. Later I discovered Marvel (I think it was a John Romita drawn Spider-Man) and I've been hooked ever since. Peace.

[Guest muzanisa]

I think Scarlet Witch was in the original seven of the Gyrich Avengers but left after being possesed by Ctthonn (sp) and was replaced by Ms Marvel.

Jocasta was also hanging around as she was a machine not an Avenger.

 

Sasquatch do you know which Iron Man story had him fighting the Hulk, who turned out to be a Robot at the end (I think it might also have had Madame Masque or the Black Widow in it)

?

 

I've been trying to track that one down for years.

[Guest Annoyed Grunt]

When I was a little kid I loved the 60's Spider-man cartoon, so I asked my parents to get me an action figure.  However, the only one they could find was one from the Secret Wars toy line with Spidey in his black costume.  Being a little kid, I was upset that it wasn't the 'real' Spider-man, so my Dad bought me a comic where a burglar broke in to Parker's apartment and stole his costume, forcing him to wear the classic red and blue one while hunting the crook down.  I remember thinking it was the coolest thing ever to see both costumes in a single comic.

 

I still have the figure in question, but I turned it in to a custom Grendel figure a couple years ago.

[Guest]

I can't pin down when I first started reading comics, but I've been able to sing the lyrics to the '60's Spider-Man theme song as long as I could talk.

[Guest Sassquatch]

First Poch:

 

The issues that have the FIRST pre-Crisis race in them are World's Finest #198-199 and Flash #175.

 

The issue of Batman with the clock heart Vampire that you are referring to be I BELIEVE issues #277.  You will have to check that out.  I am not 100% sure.

 

And the issues that the JLoA fought Amazo are as follows:

 

Brave and Bold #30 (1st appearance of Amazo and Professor Ivo)

 

JLoA #27

JLoA #65

JLoA #112

JLoA #191

JLoA #241

JLoA #242

 

I do not know the number of the issue where the New Gods recruit the Flash.

 

Any additional information (was it in Flash or New Gods) would be helpful.

 

Now muzanisa:

 

The issue of Iron Man where he is fighting an android Hulk imposter is in Iron Man #9.  The story was also reprinted in issue #76 of Iron Man.

 

The robot was sent by the Mandarin to attack Iron Man.  Iron Man finds out that the Mandarin sent the android Hulk after him and he goes to settle the score with the Mandarin in issue #10 Iron Man which is the next issue after #9.

 

And Madam Masque made a cameo in there.  She was still known as the Whitney Frost at that point and had been hideously scared in issue #8 of Iron Man when a fight between the Gladiator and Iron Man got out of control and Whitney was injured in the fight.

 

Good stuff.

[Guest muzanisa]

SaSSQUATCH I could kiss you. and maybe I will if I track it down. Has it ever been reprinted in an essential or anything like that?

[Guest raptor]

I started out reading Ninja Turtles, but I would say that my first "real comic" was X-Men (new series) #13. X-Men Blue went up against Hazard, and for some reason, it totally blew my mind. I've been hooked ever since.

[Guest Sassquatch]

The issue has never been reprinted.

 

As has been stated before, Marvel has no desire to publish an Essential Iron Man collection...yet.

[Guest pochorenella]

I do not know the number of the issue where the New Gods recruit the Flash.

 

Any additional information (was it in Flash or New Gods) would be helpful.

 

Sorry, Sass. Not much more info I can give you here. I do remember it not being a New Gods comics, so it must have been a Flash one. If it helps, this story took place before Iris Allen died.

Regarding the Amazo vs. JLA, I'm sure it was a Superman comic and not Amazo's first appearance. In the story it seemed like Amazo turned good and was amazed that the JLA was attacking him because he thought they were his friends. In the end he just like "turned off" or something. If you can place this story could you tell me the name of the artist? He was a regular Superman artist and I never quite dug his style. Thanks in advance, Sass. You the Man. Peace.

[Guest pochorenella]

As has been stated before, Marvel has no desire to publish an Essential Iron Man collection...yet

 

I believe there's a Tales of Suspense Essentials available that covers Iron Man's original run. But if you mean the regular Iron Man series then I hope Marvel issues one soon. I'd buy it for sure. Peace.

[Guest Sassquatch]

Well then that's all I need to know poch.

 

The issues that I think you are talking about are Action Comics #485-486.

 

Supes and the JLoA all fight Amazo in this and Superman also debuts his super KEWL Superman Jet that you might have seen on the back cover of old DC comics from the early to mid 80's that had a bunch of other toy vehicles for the DC action figures.