Middle aged comic book fans

[Robanker]

29 here, and though I ducked out during the New 52 for a myriad of reasons, my girlfriend was able to rope me back in and remind me why I love comics. Even when the people in charge are boneheads sometimes.

Aside from that period I lapsed, I've been reading comics since somewhere around 8 years old.

[married guy]

I'm 45, but to be fair I behave like a stupid teenager....

[Brad]

I'm 41, too. Have to be honest and say my buying habits have slowed down considerably in the last 10 years. My completionist days ended around 15 years ago. Quickly found out the world doesn't end when you stop a long run on a title. Now I'm more discriminating with my money, avoid huge company cross overs, and prefer self-contained titles/properties. Last year I started trying out Alterna books. They have some interesting stuff on newsprint, usually only $1.50. Yes, $1.50!

[DCStu]

Wow, this is awesome! So cool to know I'm not the only one!

[Darkseid Is]

I'm 27 but I plan on being in my 50s reading comics. I don't see the difference between reading comics and studying something like mythology.

[Darkseid Is]

29 here, and though I ducked out during the New 52 for a myriad of reasons, my girlfriend was able to rope me back in and remind me why I love comics. Even when the people in charge are boneheads sometimes.

Aside from that period I lapsed, I've been reading comics since somewhere around 8 years old.

I got out of reading brand new comics around the time of 2013 but I still buy trades and stuff. I'll be back to buying new comics soon. Everytime I get out (Grant Morrison on Green Lanter or Detective Comics 1000) they pull me back in!!!

I always buy different trades and stuff like that of older stuff when I have the money, even when I'm not buying the current stuff.

[failo.legendkiller]

I’m 44 and I’ll never stop to reading comics.

[Buried Alien]

Will be 47 in May. Started looking at the funny books in 1977, back when Jimmy Carter was US President.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Superfly Frankenstein]

I, too, am 41.

My first comic book that my dad got me was Marvel’s G.I.Joe (very underrated series). My dad was an avid DC fan growing up. He was big on GL, Doom Patrol and old western titles. I was his excuse to get back into it. We would go into an old shop about once every few weeks and get odd and end stuff.

By the time I was 10, I was getting anything with Superman and Spider-Man on the cover. By the 90s, turn was full fanboy. I was getting anywhere between 25-30 titles a month. As an adult in the early aughts, I was getting even more, with 80% being DC.

New 52 brought me down. I went from getting 29 DC titles and 7 Marvel titles (One More Day ended my Spidey run for a while, as did the bastardized version of Cyclops ended my X days) to 5 Marvel. At that point, I stopped buying Superman for the first time in 23 years.

Rebirth brought me back, bigger than before. I get 15 DC titles and 9 Marvels. DC has regained its place as #1, but I’m still waiting to see if they are going to completely correct the ship. I have gotten my boy into some titles (he is autistic, so he loves titles with LOTS of characters) and my youngest girl reads from time to time. Ever since Dad had a stroke, he doesn’t read as much as before due to his eyesight, but he still asks about what going on. Sometimes I tell him, sometimes the kids beat me to it.

[DCStu]

I, too, am 41.

My first comic book that my dad got me was Marvel’s G.I.Joe (very underrated series). My dad was an avid DC fan growing up. He was big on GL, Doom Patrol and old western titles. I was his excuse to get back into it. We would go into an old shop about once every few weeks and get odd and end stuff.

By the time I was 10, I was getting anything with Superman and Spider-Man on the cover. By the 90s, turn was full fanboy. I was getting anywhere between 25-30 titles a month. As an adult in the early aughts, I was getting even more, with 80% being DC.

New 52 brought me down. I went from getting 29 DC titles and 7 Marvel titles (One More Day ended my Spidey run for a while, as did the bastardized version of Cyclops ended my X days) to 5 Marvel. At that point, I stopped buying Superman for the first time in 23 years.

Rebirth brought me back, bigger than before. I get 15 DC titles and 9 Marvels. DC has regained its place as #1, but I’m still waiting to see if they are going to completely correct the ship. I have gotten my boy into some titles (he is autistic, so he loves titles with LOTS of characters) and my youngest girl reads from time to time. Ever since Dad had a stroke, he doesn’t read as much as before due to his eyesight, but he still asks about what going on. Sometimes I tell him, sometimes the kids beat me to it.

Sorry to hear about your Dad, must be rough. It's lovely that you share this with him though. I try to share it with my kids but like I said before the oldest doesn't really have much interest anymore and the youngest would rather watch the films, animated movies and TV shows.

Sadly for me - my parents decided to stop me reading comics as a kid (never really knew why). It was one of many things that caused a massive rift between me and them which can never really be repaired. Even at 41 I'm still really bitter about it. I still think that's one of the most evil and cruel thing another human being has ever done to me.

But it's made me a better parent I think. I'd never do something that despicable to my kids.

[ed2962]

52 here. There's been times when I stopped collecting for various reasons, but been reading off and on since I was maybe 10.

[The Darknight Detective]

I'll be 54 in a few months and got my first comic book in '72. Though I have taken a few sabbaticals in regard to purchasing them over the years, I have been connected with our hobby in some way for all of that time.

[The Darknight Detective]

To my surprise, the comics turned out even better than the movies. A lot more imagination and wonder.

That's exactly how I felt when I got my first DC superhero comics in '73, though I had only seen superhero TV shows at that time.

[JLH]

You are youngish.

At 46, I can barely remember 31.

I know, right?! Heck, at 55 I'd feel "youngish" if I could backtrack to your 46!

[Air Wave]

I'll be 55 next week. My older brother started me off in the 70s by giving me a stack of 15 comic books and I was hooked. My reading peaked around 1977/78. I stopped in 1979 partly because I was then in high school and getting interested in other things, but also, looking back and piecing things together, I think it was the DC Implosion. I think I went to the drug store on Friday one week like always and there were no new comics. Then the same thing happened the next week. So I just gave up. I tried to pick them up again a couple times after (in 1984 and 1987) but it just wasn't the same. Especially the second time--they were printed on a different kind of paper, there were trades then which I didn't understand (were these different stories? were they in continuity? did they "count"?), and also, the Crisis on Infinite Earths had happened and the whole world was changed. It was all too much. All that said, a couple things happened about 10 years ago that conspired to have me pick them up again and I'm back, at least for now.