My very first comic book was acquired about March 1987. My sister-in-law bought it for me at Wal-Mart as I recall. It was Avengers #277
From the moment I saw it on the magazine rack, I was entranced. I guess it must have been the first time I had seen a real superhero comic book. Otherwise, I'm certain (given my rabid love for superhero cartoons and toys) that I would've pestered my mother in buying me one sooner.I was an amateur collector through the remainder of the 80s and the 90s.
Though I use the term "collector," I do so in the sense of a one who is a pure fan. I wasn't buying comics as "investments" (which--even as a kid--struck me as evidence of breathtaking economic illiteracy), but because I genuinely loved the medium. I loved the bright primary colors. I loved costumes and the fanciful, mind-bending powers. I loved the stories. On a more basic level, I loved the simple world in which there were good guys and bad guys, and I loved knowing that--no matter how bleak things might look--in the end, the bad guys would lose.
Then, something happened. In my sophisticated literary judgment, the entire medium went to crap. First the heroes got "grim and gritty." Wolverine became less Australian (as he sounded in these cartoon clips from the 1980s) and more feral:
and (apparently) returned to his roots as "the Dark Knight."
The Punisher (never exactly Superfriends material) became ever more violent and vigilante.
In fairness, each of these characters had been introduced years before and their respective evolutions were already well underway when I became a comic reader; But I was around to see the introduction of new more violent "heroes" such as Cable, Lobo, etc.
At first, I was generally a fan of this transition. There's no denying that the Superfriends (and similar depictions) did a lot to flatten the characters out into essentially the same person. What I didn't like, was when everyone and everything seemed to be transitioning into the "antihero." Superman needed to be more like the Dark Knight...Captain America had to look more like Wolverine...if they had any hope to remain "cool," or "relevant," or whatever the popular adjectives were at the time.
Right around the time that the comics were changing all my heroes, they were changing their prices as well. A flood of idiots descended upon my beloved comic book shops and their willingness to purchase ephemera that had hitherto been printed on cheap paper (to facilitate purchase for kids), encouraged the publishers to produce their books on higher quality paper, with better inks, with glossier covers, and in multiple cover editions. At times, it seemed as though the comics were printed more for the investor than for the reader.
Of course, with higher production values came necessarily higher costs. I wound up being priced out of my regular monthly comic book purchases. I got busy with college, and then work...read a few here and there, but found it increasingly difficult to follow the multiple crossover story arcs and seemingly continual resets of the entire comic universe.
So...here I am. A guy pining away for the happy carefree comic books (not "graphic novels") of his youth and wanting to share them with his own kids for something under $5 an issue. Anyone have suggestions?
Though I use the term "collector," I do so in the sense of a one who is a pure fan. I wasn't buying comics as "investments" (which--even as a kid--struck me as evidence of breathtaking economic illiteracy), but because I genuinely loved the medium. I loved the bright primary colors. I loved costumes and the fanciful, mind-bending powers. I loved the stories. On a more basic level, I loved the simple world in which there were good guys and bad guys, and I loved knowing that--no matter how bleak things might look--in the end, the bad guys would lose.
Batman became less of the blue and gray costumed goody-goody familiar to those of us who grew up with the Superfriends,
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| first appearance |
In fairness, each of these characters had been introduced years before and their respective evolutions were already well underway when I became a comic reader; But I was around to see the introduction of new more violent "heroes" such as Cable, Lobo, etc.
At first, I was generally a fan of this transition. There's no denying that the Superfriends (and similar depictions) did a lot to flatten the characters out into essentially the same person. What I didn't like, was when everyone and everything seemed to be transitioning into the "antihero." Superman needed to be more like the Dark Knight...Captain America had to look more like Wolverine...if they had any hope to remain "cool," or "relevant," or whatever the popular adjectives were at the time.
Right around the time that the comics were changing all my heroes, they were changing their prices as well. A flood of idiots descended upon my beloved comic book shops and their willingness to purchase ephemera that had hitherto been printed on cheap paper (to facilitate purchase for kids), encouraged the publishers to produce their books on higher quality paper, with better inks, with glossier covers, and in multiple cover editions. At times, it seemed as though the comics were printed more for the investor than for the reader.
Of course, with higher production values came necessarily higher costs. I wound up being priced out of my regular monthly comic book purchases. I got busy with college, and then work...read a few here and there, but found it increasingly difficult to follow the multiple crossover story arcs and seemingly continual resets of the entire comic universe.
So...here I am. A guy pining away for the happy carefree comic books (not "graphic novels") of his youth and wanting to share them with his own kids for something under $5 an issue. Anyone have suggestions?
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