The Comic Anniversary Or Event That Made You Feel Old!

There's bit of skew towards AARP on these forums. Those in that more mature category have all had the experience:[LIST][*]Get on an elevator.[*]Hear an orchestral instrumental of a song your parents were convinced typified the collapse of civilization when you were a teen.[*]Suddenly feel old.[/LIST]
I suspect there are a lot of us with a story about when something in comics shocked us at just how old we were getting.

For me, it really landed hard with [I]Flashpoint[/I]. At that moment, it sunk in that Nu52 Superman was as far away in time from Byrne's Post-Crisis [I]Man of Steel[/I] reboot as the 1986 reboot had been from the demise of the Justice Society's first run. Worse, it was as far back from my purchase of [I]All-Star Comics #3 Famous First Edition[/I] (1975) had been from the initial publication of [I]All-Star Comics[/I] #3.

Growing up, I had tended to think of everything predating the DCU as I knew it as ancient literature. In part, that was because back issues were nowhere near as plentiful as they became from the 1990s onward, and there were no digital libraries of the older material. Only the rare and occasional reprint.

Now, not only were the comics I first encountered as a child far enough back to be somebody else's ancient literature, the "cool revisionists" comics of my YA experience were too! :(

Not so much the comics themselves, but my own life experience with them: I stopped collecting comics, what always seemed like "a couple of years ago" to me. But when I recently decided to go back and start reading them again, and looked into what's been going on since I stopped, I realized that it's been 15 years since the last time I bought a new comic. I collected them through most of the 90s, stopped around 2001, then picked up a few to catch up in 2004. That means the gap in my comic buying/reading has actually been longer than the amount of time I actually collected them.

How's this to make those of us who lived through them feel old: Crisis on Infinite Earths was 34 years ago, and Zero Hour was 25 years ago. I actually started reading shortly before ZH, so that's the major benchmark for me.

I started reading right before Zero Hour, too, so seeing solicits for the 25th anniversary omnibus made me stop and pause.

Shifts in popularity often get me to stop and think. When I started reading, if Marvel wanted something to sell they'd slap an 'X' on it. Avengers was a b-list title where they were radically changing mainstays like Iron Man and Wasp to try to attract readers. Nowadays, it seems like the X-franchise has been treading water for yeeeaaaars and if Marvel wants to make a quick buck they'll slap 'Avengers' in the title.

[QUOTE=Adset;4453383]I started reading right before Zero Hour, too, so seeing solicits for the 25th anniversary omnibus made me stop and pause.

Shifts in popularity often get me to stop and think. When I started reading, if Marvel wanted something to sell they'd slap an 'X' on it. Avengers was a b-list title where they were radically changing mainstays like Iron Man and Wasp to try to attract readers. Nowadays, it seems like the X-franchise has been treading water for yeeeaaaars and if Marvel wants to make a quick buck they'll slap 'Avengers' in the title.[/QUOTE]

What's the old proverb? "If you wait by the river long enough, you'll see the body of your enemy floating by..." ;)

I felt the oldest when I tell cashiers at my LCS that I've not only been reading such and such since before they were born, but actually buying at that store since before they were born.

As for actual comics, explaining the feelings of buying Crisis and Watchmen off the stands as opposed to reading it in a trade as a "graphic novel" makes me realize there's a whole generation who don't get the old days.

Get off my lawn.

[QUOTE=CaptCleghorn;4453392]I felt the oldest when I tell cashiers at my LCS that I've not only been reading such and such since before they were born, but actually buying at that store since before they were born.

As for actual comics, explaining the feelings of buying Crisis and Watchmen off the stands as opposed to reading it in a trade as a "graphic novel" makes me realize there's a whole generation who don't get the old days.

Get off my lawn.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, and there's something to be said for getting the monthly installments and having the writer ambush you with a complete swerve away from what you were betting would happen next.

I'm currently re-reading my old collection, and working through the late 80s stuff now. Seeing the ads in some of those comics is surprising me. Flipped a page in an early Flash issue (14?) and saw an ad for The Killing Joke. Sometimes, you forget that the classics used to be new.

That THE KILLING JOKE is called a classic makes me feel old. That comic just came out not too long ago, didn't it?

ACTION and DETECTIVE turning 1000 makes me feel old. I remember when those comics were in their 300s and the idea that they'd ever reach 1000 in my lifetime seemed impossible.

But then I look in the mirror and I realize I'm not old. I stayed the same, it's everyone else that got old.

[QUOTE=Jim Kelly;4454508]That THE KILLING JOKE is called a classic makes me feel old. That comic just came out not too long ago, didn't it?
[/QUOTE]
If you consider 31 years "not too long ago", then you're correct.

For me it was the New 52, it was then that I realized the cycle is restarting and all the characters that I loved will be forever changed. It was then that I knew I was aging out of superhero comics.

This was the same when it came to the Marvel Now initiative, but at least Marvel kept continuity. I know that Rebirth is trying to rectify it, but for me it is too late. The only DC book I now follow is Batman and even that is wearing extremely thin, and for Marvel it is Thor which is ending soon too.