Before Crisis in '86 it was never called Earth B as far as I know. Whatever BS the writers did in the last 20+ to change all that I have no clue. It was always Earth Prime, Earth 1, Earth 2 and so on. Besides, all of the B&B stories that Bob Haney wrote were usually outside of continuity. He didn't give a shit nor did the readers. They were just good self contained stories every month in B&B.

My first exposure to comic shops was after Marvel forced my hand. In 1982 they shifted a few of their lower selling titles to direct market only. My favorite title will always be The Micronauts, so early 1982 forced me to find a shop. I have very fond memories of finding one about a ten mile bike ride away. Luckily, I lived right on a major bike trail connecting DC and the Virginia suburbs, and the shop was within view of the trail too. I forget the name of that shop in Alexandria/Arlington, but I remember thinking I had died and gone to heaven when I first walked into it. Very soon after this my habit got too expensive to maintain locally, so I switched over to the near 50% mail order discount of Westfield Comics. Here's a cool website I just found that chronologicalizes comics and has some input on the direct market situation. ChronoComic Link

I have a dimly lit, borderline condemned, full of nooks and crannies and what looks like a million poorly organized back issues shop near me, complete with chain-smoking proprietor. I'm too disorganized to dig for gems there right now, but it's on my radar.

Actually, I'm sure this was the first comic-book I ever got (Hulk #323 was what got me into collecting)

^It was so bizarre-looking, I had to have it. BTW, I thought the green skin was supposed to represent Hulk

Whatever happened to Michael Golden? He never did that much work after Micronauts, but now, he may as well be dead. Which is a shame because I really liked his work.

Didn't he go into commercial art or something? A lot of comic book artists from that era ended up doing art for marketing and commercial purposes. Some ended up being storyboard artists in Hollywood.

From his wiki it looks like he's concentrated on commercial and ad art, but kept his feet wet in comics.

But yeah, I wish he did more comics work too. I'd love to see the Micronauts run to get a nice reprinting someday, but that's unlikely.

I loved Michael Golden's art. I remember he took over the Mr. Miracle artwork after Marshall Rogers left the series and I thought he kept the quality up. Too bad it was cancelled a few issues later.

I wasn't allowed comics. Someone's big brother gave me a stack of worn out floppies about 1968, and I had them for a year or so before they got thrown out. There were all kinds of random stuff in there: Marvel, DC, and some superhero comics from Gold Key.

The first book I bought as an adult was Detective 567, written by Harlan Ellison.

Funny thing about that is how he did the same exact thing on Dr. Strange, following up Rogers' brief run with Dr. Strange #55, which I honestly think is the best work he's ever done.

If I remember correctly the same thing happened on ROM also with Ditko doing the last few issues. Loved Golden's work.

Ahem. Everyone knows your origin now thanks to the New 52 giving you a canon origin.


I was 12. I first started reading comics when I was 10 in 1989, but my hometown didn't actually have an actual comic shop until 1991.

The one I usually go to is not smoky but it's a real hole in the wall. Barely room to walk, floppies stacked on top of related trades, etc. Another, newer place is bright and spacious with a lot more stock but more sterile.

Yep, that was my first LCBS as well, and my earlier description of Avengers 118 was from one of those naked piles.

Yeah, I remember you mentioning that in an older thread! You use to go with your brother, right? I don't know if I mentioned this in the older thread but the guy who owned it died in the late 90's. One of the kids that worked for him took the name and opened up a store in Sunnyvale. His stock of back issues is actually pretty good.

This is probably the earliest comic I own...not in very good shape anymore, sadly:

We don't see those type of covers enough anymore. They seemingly died out around the Bronze Age. Of course, the inside pages almost never delivered on anything good with the cover's premise.

That's true; especially with the art...I have tons of cool covers done by Cardy,Adams or Aparo and the interiors just didn't hold up. I appreciate whatever artist did the interior now but as a kid I was really disappointed it didn't look as good as the cover.

Don't have a brother but used to go with friends, and we definitely discussed the store in an earlier thread. You just answered my follow-up question on whether the store is still there. Maybe I can take a trip to Sunnyvale next time I'm in the Bay Area.

Here's the link to their Yelp page. I like it because of it's old school feel and their prices are pretty good. Heroes in Campbell is the only other store I go to because of they have tons of back issues and cheap prices, too.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/comic-collector-shop-sunnyvale

http://www.yelp.com/biz/heroes-campbell

Trevor, The Micronauts were some of the very first comics I read when I first started to seriously get into comics. At one point I owned / had read most of the series (for one reason or another, I never did get around to reading the Micronauts vs. X-Men mini series).

I love the characters, but the book was always a bit dark and unsettling (Baron Karza and the Body Banks always creeped me out).

My first comic that I remember getting (April 1978 issue):

I remember being on the way to preschool and we stopped by a 7-11 and my Dad bought it for me. I loved the cover!

My first comic I ever received from a subscription (May 1980 issue):

Again, my Dad came through for me. I was obsessed with Star Wars at the time (wasn't everybody?) and he signed me up for a subscription. This was the first comic I got for the sub and man was it one of the best! Art by Michael Golden and inks by Terry Austin = AWESOME! This issue actually spoiled me because most issues after never quite captured my imagination like this one did. Cool story by Archie Goodwin too!

I know there were several comics in between these but these two were the big "firsts" for me.

I think this was the first for me too, my friend in elementary school was really in to comic books and I remember reading some of his collected trades during "silent" time at school where we had to read something. I remember reading Dark Phoenix and Xtinction Agenda.

My dad was a comic fan when he was a kid, so I was able to read some random Marvel titles like FF and Spidey and Nick Fury back when he was a Sgt with his Howling Commandos. So when my dad started taking me to comic shops (Golden Apple back when they had a location on Pico Blvd, those were the days), I gravitated to Marvel. It was the early '90s, and X-Men was EVERYWHERE, so obviously I got into them. The Dark Phoenix Saga remains one of my favorite stories in all of comics.

Captain Carrot in the mid 80's and I was hooked!!