MY LIFE IN COMICS: PART 1
January 27th 2007 18:25
I've been gabbling on about comic books for a good few months now, without ever really providing a background for how I came to love what I love, why I love it, and what it is exactly that I do love. So here is part one of a series, pretty much explaining how I got into comics and what titles did the trick. It's almost my life story, which could be depressing.
OK, so I can't remember the exact first comic that I bought. But I do remember this: whenever Mum would take me shopping with her when I was but a wee lad, she'd buy me a comic book. And a Star Wars figure too! Thanks Mum, you were awesome! I usually picked what comic I wanted based on whatever cover I thought was cool at the time. I wasn't following characters, or series, I was just going with my gut. As it turns out my gut was pretty good, and sometimes pretty odd. (And no, jokes about fat comic nerds don't apply - I'm at the other end of the stereotype!)
I don't have most of those books anymore, but a bit of detective work on the good old internet was able to refresh my memory. As regular readers of this blog might have figured out already, my collection was almost entirely Marvel. I had a few old Superman and Batman comics, but just about everything else was from their competition. I must have had a massive thing for Spider-Man, because he's the hero I had the most of, with the Hulk a distant second.
Looking back, I had a lot of issues from what are now considered classic runs. I had a couple of Amazing Spider-Mans by Roger Stern, a Daredevil by Frank Miller, a John Byrne Fantastic Four, an Iron Man by Bob Layton and Dave Michelinie, a Chris Claremont X-Men. But this was in the era of about 1982, when Marvel were cranking out a lot of good books - I'd rate it their best era ever. I also got some oddball things, like a couple of issues of Spider-Woman (god knows why) and an issue of Power Man and Iron Fist guest-starring Moon Knight which sounds like the height of awesome, but I can't remember it much now.
THE HIGHLIGHTS:
Spidey Super-Stories #32: I'm guessing as to whether this is the correct comic, as this one seems to be cover-dated 1978, but it seems like the right one. All I remember is that Spidey meets Spider-Woman for the first time ever, and Doc Ock enters himself in Wimbledon. Of course it all ends in a big tennis match, with Dock Ock holding a racquet in each of his mechanical arms, and Spidey making his out of webs. Crazy.
Amazing Spider-Man #232: Man, this one was classic. Mr. Hyde is trying to kill his former partner the Cobra, and Spidey's trying to stop him. Carnage ensues, and some of the outright funniest Spidey banter ever. When I found out that Roger Stern's run was so well regarded, I wasn't surprised to discover he wrote this one. I really must track down the rest of that run some day.
Uncanny X-Men #163: This is right in the middle of the classic Brood Saga, with the X-Men on an alien world fighting for their lives, not knowing that alien eggs are about to hatch inside them. I only understood about half of what was going on in this thing at the time, but something about it really grabbed me. It was all so serious and desperate and adult and complicated, and it always stuck with me. In terms of my later buying habits, this was probably the most significant of these early purchases. It also had a great cliffhanger, one that took me fifteen years to track down the resolution of!
But now we come to the pick of the crop, the absolute favorite comic of my childhood:
Incredible Hulk Annual #11: The Day the Earth Turned Green! Hulk's super-smart enemy the Leader has concocted some formula that will turn everyone into Hulks, and he's dumped it into New York's water supply. Pretty soon people start coming down with the 'green flu', and most of them think that the Hulk is to blame. So the Avengers and Spider-Man go after him, which results in an awesome big fight. Of all the comics I no longer have, I miss this the most.
NEXT: Hasbro conquers my life!
Looking back, I had a lot of issues from what are now considered classic runs. I had a couple of Amazing Spider-Mans by Roger Stern, a Daredevil by Frank Miller, a John Byrne Fantastic Four, an Iron Man by Bob Layton and Dave Michelinie, a Chris Claremont X-Men. But this was in the era of about 1982, when Marvel were cranking out a lot of good books - I'd rate it their best era ever. I also got some oddball things, like a couple of issues of Spider-Woman (god knows why) and an issue of Power Man and Iron Fist guest-starring Moon Knight which sounds like the height of awesome, but I can't remember it much now.
THE HIGHLIGHTS:
Spidey Super-Stories #32: I'm guessing as to whether this is the correct comic, as this one seems to be cover-dated 1978, but it seems like the right one. All I remember is that Spidey meets Spider-Woman for the first time ever, and Doc Ock enters himself in Wimbledon. Of course it all ends in a big tennis match, with Dock Ock holding a racquet in each of his mechanical arms, and Spidey making his out of webs. Crazy.
Amazing Spider-Man #232: Man, this one was classic. Mr. Hyde is trying to kill his former partner the Cobra, and Spidey's trying to stop him. Carnage ensues, and some of the outright funniest Spidey banter ever. When I found out that Roger Stern's run was so well regarded, I wasn't surprised to discover he wrote this one. I really must track down the rest of that run some day.
Uncanny X-Men #163: This is right in the middle of the classic Brood Saga, with the X-Men on an alien world fighting for their lives, not knowing that alien eggs are about to hatch inside them. I only understood about half of what was going on in this thing at the time, but something about it really grabbed me. It was all so serious and desperate and adult and complicated, and it always stuck with me. In terms of my later buying habits, this was probably the most significant of these early purchases. It also had a great cliffhanger, one that took me fifteen years to track down the resolution of!
But now we come to the pick of the crop, the absolute favorite comic of my childhood:
Incredible Hulk Annual #11: The Day the Earth Turned Green! Hulk's super-smart enemy the Leader has concocted some formula that will turn everyone into Hulks, and he's dumped it into New York's water supply. Pretty soon people start coming down with the 'green flu', and most of them think that the Hulk is to blame. So the Avengers and Spider-Man go after him, which results in an awesome big fight. Of all the comics I no longer have, I miss this the most.
NEXT: Hasbro conquers my life!
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