The Valeyard

If only time travel were possible....

mrhan

You can compare that Batman cover on the top of the rack here.

http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/batman

Dimension X

Thanks, but I'm already pretty sure it's Batman #149. That "newsstand" link Trevor provided let me narrow it (and a few others) down to two possibilities (like the Casper comic under it is probably #49). It doesn't make it any easier with the color being so off in the screenshot, but as I said in my earlier post, Car 54 was pretty easy to identify (there were only 8 issues, with two of those being reprints, and I knew the film was made in 1962, so that narrowed it down even more).

These two links should show everything on that rack: May, 1962 and June, 1962

Inhumans99

Great thread. I started collecting when Uncanny X-Men 188 was on the stands of the first Comic Book store I remember setting foot in. I have mentioned this before, but my older brother is who convinced my parents to check out the comic store, and he bought the X-Men issue, but I picked up a bunch of quarter bin Man-Things (from his 11 issue run). He drifted away from collecting comics in fairly short order, and I became the addict. I turn 44 in Sep. this year.

malazar

Apparently, it was May 1991 for me. I had read random issues before then (mostly those late 80s-1990ish Rock N Roll comics about various bands), but that was when I first started collecting. I was late to the comics game at age 12 since I was more of a baseball/football/hockey card kid before then. That changed in May 1991.

Things I remember buying initially from that month:

Superman: The Man of Steel #1 (my friend told me it would be worth a fortune some day!)
Amazing Spider Man #349
Excalibur #39 (and very quickly all the previous back issues as this was my favorite series. Yay paper route money)
Sleepwalker #2 (and #1 from the previous month of course)
Uncanny X-Men #278

I ended up collecting some more series pretty quickly, but these are the ones I definitively remember buying then.

PhantomStranger

If? Time travel has been possible since 1945. I've probably said too much...

brayzie

First comic I bought:



Bought it in a Walden's Books. Cover says March 1988. Thought it was neat but I didn't buy another comic until:



Saw this comic and was hooked on comic books and the Marvel Universe.

Trevor

Yes you have, great grandson. Prepare your pod.

mrhan

So, they stopped using navy destroyers and made it more portable? If you can't say; that's cool...

Paul_SD

Trevor and I are the same age. My earliest, vivid, off-the-rack comic book owing memories begin with Batman 237 so that would put me at 4 years old when I started. By June of '75, I was already starting to wind down.

From this particular month it looks like the only book I remember having is


And brother, do I remember it (John Buscema draws a blonde skinny dipping in the first few panels- hubba hubba).

I also vividly remember seeing that exact Dark Shadows issue at a neighbors house the next year. It made an impression partly because besides being Dark Shadows which was cool, it was a case of "hey someone else besides me likes comics!". And it was also that I always wondered who voluntarily collected Gold Key books? The art always looked so rudimentary compared to the Marvel and DC stuff.

Going back through that site (which is awesome BTW, Huge thanks for bringing it to peoples attention, Trevor!) it looks like my prime comic book owning years early on were '72-74. I remember owning a lot of DCs when the price was 20¢ and they had the 100 page Super-Spectaculars. But I also remember my enthusiasm waning around '75 and '76. In fact my comic book buying (other than from trips to the flea market) would be really spotty between '75 and '79. It wasn't until I started 7th grade that I started to become a regular purchaser/reader. The Superman film helped re-kindled my passion for the stuff, and for the first time I started trying to compile runs.

But that didn't last too long and by winter of 80-81 (and the jump to 50¢) I was out again.

Been like that for the rest of my life. Periods of intense passion, followed by stretches of apathy.

hanshotfirst1138

I kind of envy you guys. As a kid, purple Silver Age writing would've been simply perfect for me. As it is, I got into comics in my teen years as a sort of "alternative" thing when I discovered more "adult" books like Moore, Gaiman, the Vertigo line, etc. It was actually pretty exciting and new to me at the time.

PhantomStranger

It actually took me a few years to come around on the Vertigo stuff when it first started getting popular. I finally caved after a couple of years when everyone kept saying that Gaiman was doing genius stuff in Sandman.

Ash Ketchum

This is the Marvel Comic that got me into Marvel and turned me into a Marvel aficionado--in 6th Grade. The debut in Strange Tales of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD:



It was a short jump from this to Spiderman and Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, Daredevil, etc.