I remember Lily reading what we all wrote, she looked at me, rolled her eyes and went to bed. It was classic. We really do need to get that beer at San Diego one year, Greg.

Where we differ, I think, had to do with the X-Men; I’m that one comics fan out of a million who just could not get interested in the series. For me, the two series that defined the way I looked at comics were the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League and Peter David’s Spectacular Spider-Man. Because of that, I think, I’ve never been able to enjoy comics that I felt were taking themselves too seriously, or were being grim n’ gritty for the sake of being grim n’ gritty (which made a whole lot of the 1990s an unpleasant reading experience for me).

Thank you for reminding me of the joy of digging through the older comics bins in hopes of completing a collection or just learning more about characters and series I loved. I’m glad that the Big Two has begun reprinting a lot of old issues in the Essentials and Showcase formats, but to me there’s still nothing like finding that 1970s-era issue of The Flash or Captain America in the bargain bin, taking it home and getting a completely new perspective on a character I thought I understood…and using the letters page and the ads to gain a window onto what the world was like when I was a toddler.

Someone should find the place where I said it, so I can see what I said!

However, I say “as much as it ever was” because there are bits of Blind Justice that have never really matched up with anything, in particular the bit where Bruce and Alfred re-did the Batcave entrance in the manor to be a voiceprint-ID lock. That’s never turned up again before or since. Also, there was a scene where Commissioner Gordon clearly implied to Bruce Wayne that he knew Bruce was Batman. Never really came back to that one either, except a VERY vague allusion in a ‘No Man’s Land’ issue of Legends of The Dark Knight by Greg Rucka, and I’m pretty sure that was just a case of Greg Rucka having the same idea as Sam Hamm, rather than one riffing on the other.

I still really like Blind Justice, but if you’re a continuity nerd there are bits that will upset you. (Personally, I think those are easily overlooked, but mileage varies.) Anyway, as far as I know we still have Ducard as part of the history so to me that says it ‘counts.’

When I got home my older brother revealed that he had a HUGE collection (huge compared to having just one, as I did) and that’s when I was introduced to the Avengers, FF, X–Men, Hulk, DD, Iron Man, pretty much the whole Marvel U.

And the rest is (personal) history.

I only dabbled in DC briefly when a friend asked me to get her some Legion of Super-Heroes while she was away on vacation, and so I got hooked on them for a while (it was during the Great Darkness Saga). Then in ’86 I followed Byrne and Miller over to DC and opened my eyes to what the DC universe had to offer (1986 was a very good year to be introduced to DC).

There was a brief lull during university until just for fun I checked in on the mutants and got swept up in the Jim Lee, Liefeld, Portracio hoopla in ’91. That died down for a while and I just bought the occasional Vertigo stuff, Sandman and Hellblazer mainly.

Then Morrison’s JLA and Busiek/Perez’s Avengers got me back into the hobby. I mostly hunt DC and Marvel back issues and Vertigo trades now and I love it. Finally got Amazing Spider-Man no. 171, too. That’s the second part of story from Nova no. 12. Again, crossovers are good marketing tools, just not always fast.

Thanks for the blog opening up the floodgates of memories.

Among the presents were the X-Men’s Blackbird toy that split into three separate vehicles and fit 4 action figures total (very cool, and probably worth a ton to a fellow nerd on the eBay) and a huge stack of comics, which included X-Men #1, X-Force #1, a ton of old X-Factor and New Mutants issues, and…a reprint of Batman: A Death in the Family! Kid you not.

Did my parents have any clue that perhaps the content in these comics was too much for an 8 year old to comprehend? Nope. All they cared about was that their son loved super heroes and that they wanted to keep him reading something.

At the time there weren’t very many kid-friendly books like the Marvel Adventures line or the great indie press books like Owly or The Littlest Vampire. But despite the violence, gore, and heavy-handed story telling in some of the books from the 90s, it did keep me reading, and it got me into writing, too. So I think I ave to agree that it doesn’t necessarily matter where you start out–Comics can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, and as we grow and mature so too do our comic tastes.

Great blog, man.

Aside from about a year in my late teens when money took away the ability to buy much, ive never looked back… especially as i dont really want to remember much about the Youngbloods and Bloodsport cr*p that i bought way back that still wont shift on ebay…. :-/

I also patronised an Excalibur Comics in my home town of Chichester, UK. Also the best comic shop i ever went to….

My own gateway comics, more or less, were DC’s 80-Page Giants, Marvel’s SGT. FURY & NOT BRAND ECCH, & Gold Key’s RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT, back in the days of 12-cent cover prices (except for the 80-pagers, of course) & no less than 5 spinner racks in my tiny (not a single traffic light to this day!) hometown.

Greg, I have to disagree with you in one respect – while, i agree that Lobdell’s stuff did dip at some point, i think he did a terrific job with his later issues (in particular the Eve of Destruction storyline). i was an avid comic book reader from a very young age (mid to late 80s) and in high school (late 90s) i stopped following comics closely. but Lobdell’s death of Colossus issue coerced me into picking up X-Men comics again (via visiting the comic shop regularly), and i followed his stuff all the way through Eve of Destruction. i thought that final Lobdell arc was greatly unappreciated, presumably because everyone was so excited for Grant Morrison that they forgot to enjoy Lobdell’s final stuff. i think this also happened to McDuffie and his terrific stuff on Fantastic Four, which was overshadowed by the impending Millar FF soft relaunch.

McK: Brian mentioned at one point on the blog that “Blind Justice” was no longer in continuity. He’s the Master of All Comics, so I believe him. But I’m not sure where he got his information. Maybe somebody can confirm!

jazzbo: Yeah, Lobdell’s good work on Uncanny X-Men didn’t last TOO long, but his early issues were good. I think he, like a lot of writers for the X-titles, were hampered by all the crossovers later, but he did start out strong.

I am a bit like that too.

Starting reading comics when you’re well in your teenage years makes for a different kind of comic book fan. I was never the kind of fan that has such a big love for specific characters. I also don’t feel any deep outrage when some comic book is made “too dark for the kids”. Because when I was a kid I didn’t read superhero comics anyway.

My first comic was Daredevil 157 with the death of the Death-Stalker (which was inevitabley destroyed by a younger sibling). Now there is a villian that deserves a comeback.
After that it was all X-Men all the time. Say what you want about Claremont but the X-Men of the 70′s was awesome.

Says who? Granted, it hardly ever gets mentioned (I remember a mid-90s issue that referred to Batman having his “back broken twice,” and that’s the only reference I could think of), but I never heard of it being specifically excised from continuity by anyone. Too bad if it was, because it really is an excellent story.

Great article, by the way. Everyone who remains into comics well into adulthood tends to always have a fascinating story why. That is, except for the people who are into comics because they have no lives.

This is where I mention the time that Chris Claremont was both of those things to me at SDCC, when I was 14.

Probably deserved.