# CBR Community  > Comics Should Be Good >  What was your first?

## Greg Hatcher

Not necessarily the first comic you ever saw-- but the one that DID it for you, the one that made you say, "Yes. This. I must have more."

I've written about mine a number of times on the blog, so I won't rehash it all, but it was this one. FLASH #178. I was seven years old.



What was yours? What made it the one that was the tipping point for you? Because I'm nosy.

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## Kid A

Young Justice, I think I was 9 or 10 when I discovered it.

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## KeenerED

Hmm...I can't post pictures right now but I'll throw my hat into this discussion.  First comics that got me hooked on the medium was Godzilla and Star Wars.  My brother got me a subscription to both and I had the first year of them delivered to the mailbox every month wrapped in the brown paper.  After some family difficulties my Mom and I moved and I didn't read comics again for awhile.  Then one day I went into the store my Mom worked in, and there behind the counter someone had left a copy of the Uncanny X-Men/New Teen Titans one-shot.  I read it, and was hooked on the X-Men.  After that I had to get the monthly X-Men comic off the spinner rack in the store...and that led to where I am now.

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## FaerieGodfather

Couldn't have been more than three or four, but I remember a comic in which Ben Grimm was away from the rest of the Fantastic Four and was doing his own thing on some planet or another. I taught myself to read with comic books, because my mother would buy them, but she wouldn't read them to me.

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## lostphrack

The earliest one I remember reading was the *CoIE* where Supergirl died. The one I remember owning and going back to time and time again, was Avengers Annual #16. That thing got surprisingly dark at times and it stuck with me for a while. I was pretty happy when it was included in the old *Contest of the Champions* TPB. It's still a fairly enjoyable read even after all these years.

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## Mormel

Not a single one, as much as it is a couple of collected editions. When I was little, about 7 years old or so, my mother bought me three collected editions of the Dutch translation of _Transformers_, spanning issue 44 up to issue 61. It blew my mind, and I was fascinated by the idea that there were so many more stories to discover before and after. But it wasn't until I was 18 that I managed to complete the whole 80-issue run of the US Marvel Transformers comic. :P

In the meantime, I introduced myself to other, 'proper' Marvel titles, and I've never looked back since.

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## Neil Kapit

Several:

First comic strip: Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson, Age 6 

First comic book: Uncanny X-Men 299 by Scott Lobdell and Brandon Peterson, Age 8 (shortly after seeing the cartoon)

First mature readers comic book: Preacher: Gone to Texas by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, Age 15

First manga: Astro Boy vol. 1 by Osamu Tezuka, Age 16

First webcomic: Ctrl Alt Delete (God help me) by Tim Buckley, Age 17

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## Muad'Dib

I had been reading comics as an elementary school kid for quite a while, but the book that somehow I kept coming back to and pushed me to really pursue them as a place for stories above tv was Fantastic Four #315 with Master Pandemonium.  Beats me really why that one held me for so long.  it also became the first comic that started my "collection" as everything before it either got thrown out by the parents or destroyed by the younger siblings.

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## Star-Lord

Batman Black and White #2 was the first I owned.

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## eye of all

X-Men #1 by Jim Lee & Chris Claremont is the first comic I remember loving. Sadly I no longer care for the creators or the franchise, but I will always have a bit of a soft spot them.

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## Dr Will Hatch

Action_Comics_463.jpg

The first comic book I ever owned. I thought it was awesome(And in hindsight, it's still a pretty good story by Cary Bates), but it didn't really make me crave for MOAR. That was several years later after Batman #665 made me into a comic book fan.

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## dupersuper

I'm pretty sure the 1st comic I read was the one that hooked me, as I don't remember ever not reading comics.  I have no clue what it was.  I remember as a little kid very much enjoying a bunch of DC Digests, Marvel Age issues, the little books that came with Super Powers action figures and, a little later, "The Last Days of The Justice Society".

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## Bradley

I just mentioned this over on the Classics and Collected forum, but mine was Action Comics 595.  I'd read comics before then, but they usually wound up thrown away or given to other kids.  But that John Byrne cover, with the Silver Banshee proclaiming that she has killed Superman, with his "ghost" flying in behind her-- well, I was hooked.  I'm not really qualified to speak about Byrne's other work, but those Superman books were really well-done-- they entertained me when I was a kid, and they can still make me feel nostalgic now, as I'm approaching middle age.

(With the obvious exception of the "Big Barda porn issue" or whatever the hell was going on there.  That... was a bad call).

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## Scott Taylor

This was the one. I read the cover off, literally. 

Batman_258.jpg

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## Dispenser Of Truth

I'd always been interested in superheroes, but the first comic I really got was this, I think:



It's in the midst of the whole "Sandman is melting because he was bitten by Venom" thing, and it was *creepy as hell*. There's a bit near the beginning where he accosts some homeless men (he's kept just off panel), tries to grab some ketchup, and it falls through his slushy decaying biomatter that used to be a hand, squirting everywhere in a way clearly meant to resemble blood before the next full-page shot of him melting and screaming. The backup feature shows a (maybe homeless at this particular point while MJ's apparently dead?) Peter scrounging for work, making it to his job interview only for them to reject him because he's overqualified, and forcing him to get a job as a dishwasher just to make ends meet. I was 5 years old, and it scared the living shit out of me, but damn if it didn't apparently scare me in all the right ways. It also had a line in it that pretty well sums up my view of Spidey:

"_Fine! Everything that can go wrong does go wrong... ...fine! Children in trouble. drug busts...the Sandman! Fine! Fine! Fine! I'll handle it all! I'll save the day! I'll beat the bad guy! And I will get to my blasted job interview! Because... ...I'm going to have a life!_

It also made me think that Venom must be terrifying, and that Mysterio is awesome. I wasn't proven wrong.

There were bits and pieces since then--Superman and Batman Adventures (I got rid of them years later, not realizing I was throwing away McCloud and Millar comics!), a couple trades--but the big two things to get me to dive in and never look back were this:


and this:

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## Zainu

Red Hood: The Lost Days

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## galaxygnome

for comics in general: sandman
for superhero/cape comics: secret six




> First webcomic: Ctrl Alt Delete (God help me) by Tim Buckley, Age 17


Hah! I think I was reading CAD before I read comics. I must have been in middle school when I started. I haven't gone to the site in a very long time, but apparently it is still running!

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## Drumanespic

All-Star Comics #68 was the single issue that hooked me. I was very young and more familiar with 'Super Friends' than the 'Justice League' proper, yet I was thrilled. An alternate universe; ageing heroes; Power Girl; Commissioner Wayne!; a team split down the middle! 

A few years later, COIE was explained as a necessary simplification of the DCU. Well, at 7 years of age, I coped just fine!

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## John Keyt

The first comic I read was The Death's Head Knight by John Byrne , and still have it .The comic that hooked me was Warlord issue 2 . Just loved the sci-fi  and continue enjoy reading and collecting . Took a brake from collecting for a while to raise a family and got back into it a few years ago . And finished a few runs that I was into in the 80's . Ie Iro man and Conan .

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## dancj

59229_20060824165244_large.jpg

Superman calling Clark Kent a liar?  I had to know more.  For the next few years, Cary Bates was my favourite writer and Curt Swan my favourite artist.

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## Greg Hatcher

> .... Cary Bates was my favourite writer and Curt Swan my favourite artist.


Both Bates and Swan are MASSIVELY underrated by modern readers in my opinion. Bates' first couple of years on CAPTAIN ATOM were amazing.

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## Godzylla

My firsts were a pair of coverless Joe Kubert comics, *Tarzan* 208 and *Our Army at War* 195. (My mother threw them out overnight, but I was still hooked.
Our_Army_at_War_Vol_1_195.jpgtarzan208.jpg

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## Neil Kapit

> for comics in general: sandman
> for superhero/cape comics: secret six
> 
> 
> 
> Hah! I think I was reading CAD before I read comics. I must have been in middle school when I started. I haven't gone to the site in a very long time, but apparently it is still running!


It still is, and I was surprised to read the latest comics, which are a fairly standard but surprisingly well-done sci-fi action story.  You can see it here; http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20140416

This is from the guy who gave us gems like this; 

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/loss-e...ltdel-parodies

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## harpier

So, I came to comics quite late—I was certainly older than most here—and recently.  Like many adult converts (and many ladies, I'd come to discover), I first discovered the graphic medium through Gaiman's _Sandman_ collected editions.  I was 18 or so.  The first time I ever walked into a comics store also came at the instigation of a novelist.  Two years ago I bought China Miéville's _Dial H_ #1 from DC's second wave of New 52 titles.  Though it's already been cancelled after its unconventional and generally unrecognized, if exceptional and truly unique, run, it launched me as a fan of the medium.

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## ExcelsiorPrime

My dad was and is still into Comics.. he had a bunch of these in the attic and he actually let me draw and color in them.. I don't think they were ever extremely valuable but they were extremely fun.

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## Pharozonk



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## Neil Kapit

> 


Aaand now I feel old. It's like it was just yesterday when I was a punk teenager whining about that comic on the internet for ruining Spidey's origin forever. (I've since learned better).

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## plan B

1992+Shattershot+01.jpg

First comic I ever bought and read. I got it for 1 dollar and thought it was the coolest thing ever. 

drop you.jpg

After many years this panel still remains to be single favorite in all of the X-men universe.

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## GuavaLava

Spider-Boy #1. I saw it at a 7-11 when I was in 4th grade. Hey, I was a 90s kid! I loved those pouches though. I wonder if I still have it somewhere. 

5588_4_1.jpg

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## Babylon23

The earliest comics I remember owning were Australian reprints of Marvel titles. My favourites were the Avengers 


My love of DC's Golden Age characters came from Super Adventure Comics #61. This reprinted a few stories, but the one that really stood out for me was "The Unknown Soldier of Victory", the JLA/JSA/Seven Soldiers team-up from JLA 100. I loved the JSA and couldn't get enough of those JLA/JSA crossovers. 



But the comic that made me a lifelong fan and stopped me from quitting when I was about 8 years old was New Gods. I found 10 of the 11 Kirby issues for $1 a piece at my LCS and was completely blown away.

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## Enigmatic Undead

I think it was Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5

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## My Two Cents

Was introduced to comics through my siblings
Never could afford them, but they always purchased a few Archie and Harvey and D C books
So I was reading and liking them a lot for years.

One day I walked into a fountain soda store and saw comics....... not just comics, but Marvel Comics
I knew of the characters from the cartoons, but had no idea they had comics.
I picked up Incredible Hulk 158 and Amazing Spider-Man 115 and Captain America #155 and Fantastic Four #129 and 
Invincible Iron Man #55 and Mighty Thor #207 and Avengers #108 and Defenders #5 and Sub-Mariner #53 and Marvel Team-Up #7 
over the next few visits and was hooked ever since.

I found my love for Marvel has been replaced with D C over the past twenty years.
But nothing will ever replace the day I walked into that fountain shop.

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## saul_on_the_road_to_damascus

Batman War Drums

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## buttler

It was either an early issue of _DC Comics Presents_--I want to say #3, with Adam Strange--or the three-issue JLA arc with the Secret Society of Super-Villains swapping bodies with the JLA. 

I mean, seriously, look at this Garcia-Lopez cover.  How could I _not_ be drawn in? 

DC_Comics_Presents_3.jpg

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## ShadowDemon

45_48058_0_GIJoeeighties1OperationLadyDoo.jpg

But my collecting REALLY took off in the early/mid 90s with

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## X-Force

X-force volume 1 #25

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## cc008

First one I ever bought:

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## George Geef

I had received a Superman book here, or a Dick Tracy reprint there, but THIS is what did it for me. I picked this up on a trip to 7-11, on the way to school, when I was six years old (this was back when you could still buy comics at convenient stores. I'm that old, kids.) , and I was transfixed by that cover. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. I have never been the same since.

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## Mari

New X-Men: E Is For Extinction (TPB)

My first experience with comics.  After this, I could not stop buying until the end of the run of New X-Men.

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## WillieMorgan

No cover picture, sorry.

But Superman #341. Nov. 1979.

'Can the Man Of Steel outwit J. Wilbur Wolfingham (con man supreme)?'

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## Greg Hatcher

Holy God, I'm old. Compared to the rest of you, anyway.

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## MRP

The first comic I remember owning was Batman #250...



I was about 4 at the time, and the back up story resonated with me more than the lead story, but the one that sealed the deal for me, making me a lifetime comics fan was a few years later....



Avengers 162, the classic Bride of Ultron story which I read a over and over again when I was 8 and used to get tracing paper to trace all of Perez's work in it, especially the picture of Thor descending from the sky on the splash page. 

-M

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## DemonRin

The first comics I remember reading were a couple of Spiderman issues my cousins happened to have on them when coming over to my house one time YEARS ago.

They were:

Sensational_Spider-Man_Vol_1_3.jpg Superman_vs_spiderman.jpg
Sensational Spiderman #3 and Superman Vs. Spiderman.

Yeah, I started reading comics in the thick of the Spiderman Clone Saga.  Maybe that's why I have an affinity for Ben Reilly and wish Marvel would bring him back lol.

As for the first comic I ever OWNED? Not sure which came first, but I got both of these around the same time.
I bought myself a copy of Spiderman #1
Spider-Man1GoldUPC.jpg 
And was given a copy of Superman Issue 47 (The Wedding Album) by my cousin.

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## CharlesM

My daddy had a relatively small collection of comics, and included in them was this issue of Superman - except, his copy didn't have a front cover on it. Reading his comic books is what got me started with comic books, and this issue of Superman was the comic book that got me to reading superhero comic books.

It wasn't my favorite comic book, nor even my favorite superhero comic book, but it's the one that snagged my interest, which then only expanded exponentially.



This also reminds me that I started a *comic book blog*, last year, and I seem to have managed to allow myself to get sidetracked from keeping it going. I had posted about this particular issue of Superman on it, and this jarred my memory about it.

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## CharlesM

> This reprinted a few stories, but the one that really stood out for me was "The Unknown Soldier of Victory", the JLA/JSA/Seven Soldiers team-up from JLA 100. I loved the JSA and couldn't get enough of those JLA/JSA crossovers.


Amen. I loved that storyline.

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## Greg Hatcher

> My love of DC's Golden Age characters came from Super Adventure Comics #61. This reprinted a few stories, but the one that really stood out for me was "The Unknown Soldier of Victory", the JLA/JSA/Seven Soldiers team-up from JLA 100. I loved the JSA and couldn't get enough of those JLA/JSA crossovers.


My very first included an Earth-2 story too and I completely fell in love with that idea. I was in for JLA/JSA from day one.

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## From The Shadows

As if I didn't think Spider-Man was cool enough (was exposed to him through the cartoon) there was this cover with these awesome-mysteriously strange looking characters of Cloak and Dagger. I loved the C&D visual. 

Soon after I started reading all the SM and C&D I could get my hands on.

Here is the first issue.

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## SpideyAZ

Tales of GI Joe #8.  I remember seeing it in a corner store while on vacation in California.  Read and examined it until it literally fell apart.

tales_of_gi_joe_v1_008.jpg

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## arosenbarger

First comic I ever read - Transformers #7 - will never, ever sell it. Got the book when I was about six or seven.

What got me getting into comics was that these were dynamic creations with a past and I was curious how the past connected to the issue I had in my hands. I LOVE Cliffhanger issues and remember Venom: Lethal protector as Venom fell through a cave discovering a hidden city with the character proclaiming "WE've FALLEN THROUGH TIME!!!" and I remember going...at 11/12..what the fart? That's just...dumb. But had to get the next issue

Then I got into the older stuff. DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, read when I was 10/12 didnt do I for me. I thought it was dumb "WHY WOULD BATMAN QUIT?" - I reread the series later, when I was 15 and LOVED IT. Watchmen convinced me you get fantastic ideas through a comic. The type of ideas so meaty, so delicious you have to return to rethink and reread. Then Preacher as the book was better than most movies (stolen from Kevin Smith's intro but its true)

Then when I was 18 read Understanding Comics. and the behind the scenes creativity opened up.

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## marvelmaniac6169

I was just starting to read Super Hero books in 65(I was 10) and a friend of mine showed me this...

FF025.jpg

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## Selena Musić

It is all because of 'Alan Ford'.

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