lattethunder

The first one I can remember buying was the Star Wars Super Special, but my older brother's copy of this was the first one I ever read:

robin2099

The first comic I ever actually got to read was Detective 608 the first appearance of Anarky. I remember picking it up because I was obsessed with Batman after watching the movie and the Adam West series.

A couple years passed and The Flash series was on and I picked up this issue at the grocery store. I also picked up another issue with Guerrilla Grodd on the cover and Wally with some collar on his neck but don't remember the issue.

I started collecting about two years after getting those two issues but for the life of me I can't remember what caused me to get into collecting after a two year gap.

mrhan

Here's another one. This one has art by Adams.

davidh777

I bet JasonF can identify that issue.

mrhan

Isn't the Phantom Stranger suppose to know all?

davidh777

Apparently not in this case.

PhantomStranger

I have consciously blanked out the issue in my mind. I think it's better not knowing the exact issue, much like no one really knows my origin.

fujishig

Judas!!!

Philzilla

first I remember

resinrats

Found it. Fantastic Four #220

Crocker Jarmen

That's great. Not just for the goofiness of Batman and Sgt Rock together, but also that its another in a long line of "Pieta" covers.



http://comiccoverage.typepad.com/com...book_cove.html

slop101

Couple of my very first comics, around when I first started to learn how to read:



Little bit after that, my first superhero comic was this collection, that got me started in my love of all things Marvel, circa 1976:



And I believe this was the first "floppy" comic I had:




I'm old...

Ringmaster

This was the 1st comic I remember buying.

PhantomStranger

It's strange how memory works. I can still remember the exact moment I picked that issue up off the shelf of my local comic shop. I can't remember a single thing about the issue itself, but I can tell you how the shop looked that day and what it smelled like.

fujishig

What age were you when you first went into a comic shop?

I've been thinking about it, and though my daughter can't yet read, I kinda want to go to a comic store and pick some comics up so she can have the experience. I already have a bunch of MLP comics that I've bought and read to her via Comixology on the iPad, and I've bought her a bunch of Tinkerbell tpbs, but seeing this thread makes me nostalgic.

On a side note, one of the benefits of my old online comic place going down and moving the orders over to dcbs is that I got a Previews in my order for the first time in a year or so, and it's also tempting me to start ordering some floppies... even though the reason I stopped in the first place was the lack of room and preference for HCs/tpbs.

PhantomStranger

I think most people can answer this if they recognize what comics were priced at when they first started going. My first memories of going to a comic shop coincide with the changeover from 65¢ to 75¢ comics, which happened around 1986-1988. That many comics in one place blew my mind at the time. I practically had a heart attack when I went to my first con, it was like heaven on Earth.

http://www.mania.com/history-cost-co...le_116449.html

Ringmaster

I must of been 5 or 6 when I bought the issue but I remember it had some cool action panels involving the batarang. I've since bought the entire run of this story arc. It was pretty grim stuff.

slop101

Well, I didn't have a comic book store within walking (or biking) distance, and my parents were certainly never going to take me to one, so I didn't hit one until I could drive when I turned 16 in 1987 - that's when my real collecting began.

mrhan

This story was based on Earth 2 with the Golden age Batman so it sort of makes more sense than the later ones. There was a couple more with the Earth 2 Batman where he teams up with the Blackhawks.

It was the summer of '77. The Comic Collector Shop in downtown San Jose. So many books for 50 cents or less and they were all 12, 15, 20, and 25 cent covers. They weren't even bagged and boarded....just stacked up in piles.

Mondo Kane

My demograph right there.

I think I was 10 when "Comic Castle" first opened up in Victorville, Ca (Right before I moved up north to the boonies) I was told about that place from my friend who I had gotten into comics. Since I missed out on the horror-comic age (And was very curious about it) a Werewolf By Night issue was my 1st purchase there (Issue #22, I think) Made sure to get a Tomb of Dracula on my 2nd visit.

lattethunder

I'm guessing my first trip to a shop happened when I was 14. It was back during that time Marvel stopped selling at drug and grocery stores. The closest one was half an hour away, and I suckered my parents into taking me once a month.

I started taking my now 15-year-old nephew when he was five. He's been hooked ever since, and it also evolved into his reading "real books" for pleasure, so double score.

Crocker Jarmen

I started hitting the local comic shops around 1988, we had two just a couple blocks from one another, Memory Lane and Len's Odds and Ends. Cooly enough, the Len's is still standing (though with different owners and a different name).

As I get older, I find myself yearning more and more for the days when so many stores were real mom and pop outfits. Now every store tries to look franchised and "professional", but wind up feeling sterile and souless. Why must everything be so brightly lit? I miss the old dingy comic shops with cheap wooden shelves you might get a splinter on and the smell of the owner's second hand smoke as he watched a hockey game on a black and white TV set with a coat hanger for an antenna.

The first books I bought regularly were GI Joe and Groo. I was super attracted to the horror comics but depending on who was behind the counter, it was a crapshoot whether or not they'd sell me Hellraiser or Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children (which was an illustrated short story, not really a comic). I remember trying to smooth talk the clerk who refused to sell me a comic with the "Suggested For Mature Readers" label, pointing out it said "Suggested" not "Mandatory".

slop101

This place, near my work, is exactly the kind of old-school CBS you're looking for. There's not that much traffic, and he doesn't even bother turning on the lights most times. But it's a great store and the owner's a good time.

PhantomStranger

There are still a few shops around left like that, if you look hard enough. Mostly ones that have been hanging on since the industry crash in the 1990s.

New shops are as you describe them, lit as brightly as Target.

The Valeyard

A lot of the Sgt. Rock and WWII Batman stories were set on Earth B.


Every time a fan would knit-pick continuity in a story, the answer was "It took place on Earth B." Example: Earth B is where Bruce Wayne had a brother (Thomas Wayne, Jr).