Had a large collection of ‘Commando’
80s into the 90s, Legion of Super Heroes, X-Men, New Mutants, (… X-Factor, X-Force, X-etc.). Grendel. The Elementals. Oddly enough, never collected the New Gods…
This was pretty much me, too. As a kid (1970s), I occasionally got and read comic books (mostly Disney and Archie, rather than superhero stuff), but never kept them.
When I was in college, in the 1980s, a friend got me into Marvel comics, and I became a big fan, and kept everything I bought. My favorite titles were X-Men, Thor, and Iron Man, but I was buying a bunch of other titles, as well.
After I got out of school, I soured on comic books, in part due to changes that happened in some of my favorite books, and in part due to the industry chasing big events, special covers, etc. I’d still occasionally pick up a book or a trade paperback collection, but it was pretty sporadic.
I started reading again a few years ago, when I started a new job, and discovered a comic book shop a block from my office. Interestingly, X-Men (my very favorite book back in the day) is one that I’ve been unable to really get back into – there’s just too many X-titles, and when I’ve tried to read some, I just haven’t been impressed or engaged.
If you’re interested in trying out Marvel comics, sub to Marvel Unlimited for a few months. They’ve got huge swaths of their back catalog online, and are only a few months behind the paper releases. Some of their stuff is rather dire (Secret Empire, ptui), but there’s lots of hidden gems in the back issues to enjoy.
… although, really, Clairemont hasn’t held up well.
I used to love Werewolf By Night, when Mike Ploog drew it, and The Hands of Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu, when Paul Gulacy was doing it. Lovely stuff.
Same here, starting around 1967. Told this story before: After I graduated, made friends with a guy that owned a comic book store, and started seriously back-filling on Marvels. Had complete FF, Hulk, Dr Strange, X-Men, Avengers, Spider-Man (including AF15), and all the other titles up till 1983, coming to about 13,000 in total (lotza undergrounds and some DC in there as well). Then my entire collection was stolen, and I decided that I was no longer a collector. Haven’t bought a comic book in 34 years.
Silver Age DC comics. From early to mid 60s.
I have the first few issues, for example, of Metal Men. So I knew right away there was an error in the Mad Men episode that showed a kid reading one when it hadn’t even been published yet.
I thought I had the issue with first reappearance of the Golden Age Flash, beginning the DC multi-verse and a plot point of an episode of The Big Bang Theory, but I was mistaken. Dang.
I was comics-crazy in high school. I only subscribed to two: Thor and Daredevil. But I dabbled in lots and lots of other stuff. In my senior year, I was paying about $40 a month on comics. Most of was I bought, I still have, in boxes in my attic. Also, I went to my grandmother’s house when I was 12, and I crawled under the house and dragged out all the old comics that my mom and her siblings read in the 50s and 60s, stuff like **Roy Rogers] and Dale Evans, Queen of the West, even I Love Lucy and Superboy.
Problem is, no one’s buying, not even the stuff that seems desirable. Anyone was a Special Edition #1 and #2 of The Tick?
Ow! Sincere condolences! That really sucks!
I have, at this point, one of the better “furry” collections. Not complete by any means, but pretty darn good.
(Albedo #2, first appearance of Usagi Yojimbo, has been seen going for $1,000 – and I have two copies!)
Yep. I bought too many in the late 80’s-mid90’s. We’ve been paring down our belongings and comics were one of the things I decided had to go. I contacted a couple comic buying places and they are not interested in this vintage of comics. So, I went through them and kept around 200 of the ones I want to keep and the other 500 are going into tiny libraries I know of on my biking routes.
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was having $60 and $70 weeks in my comics-collecting craze. I had to stop!