Tell me about your DC comics experience!

[TheDragonKing]

How did you get started?
What comics are you reading now?
How do you read them?
What do you always find yourself reading again and again?

EDIT: Thank for you posting your DC Comics experience. Now it's time to tell mine!

How did you get started?
I first got into DC through TV Shows and Movies. I really enjoyed watching these characters and wanted know more about them so towards the end of 2017 I got the DC Comics Encyclopedia. Since I started getting so engrossed in the chqeqcters I then wanted to read their comics. After researching I found The New 52 and Rebirth and new they were good starting points but I was intimidated by the amount of these comics. So I started reading miniseries that were out during that time: Ragman, Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands, Mera: Queen of Atlantis. Eventually that path led me to Dark Knights: Metal miniseries and I began reading the Age of Heroes spin off. After Flash War and The Wedding were announced I read them becuse I knew they were big for the characters and that's when I began to read my two first ongoing titles.

What comics are you reading now?
I'm now reading a mixture of ongoings and miniseries. Majority of the ongoings I didn't start from #1 but mainly when a new creative team took over. I'm also reading miniseries like Flash Forward, Event Leviathan and Dceased.

How do you read them?
With the ongoings I read them online but the miniseries I read collect the flopies. I've also started collecting the trades of past DC Comics, starting with COIE in March last year and I collected a couple of others that I'm interested in, not many though.

What do you always find yourself again and again?
Nothing atm since I've not long started reading and collecting comics but I aim to go back and read the ones I enjoyed the most.

[sifighter]

1. I got started probably 15 years ago, I was already reading a bit of marvel at the time but I remembered that I liked the legion of superheroes cartoon and Justice League Unlimited (also a little Krypto the superdog) and just started reading. It helped that my local school library had some comics so I think I started by reading Green Lantern: Rebirth.
2. Young Justice, the Legion of Superheroes, Shazam, The Terrifics, Flash Forward, a bit of Superman and Aquaman every so often. Trade waiting Grant Morrison's Green Lantern, I love green lantern but Grant Morrison is someone I need to let finish his story before I read. Was reading Justice League I felt like bowing out with Snyder leaving, nothing against Vendetti just wanted to follow the story into Death Metal.
3. I prefer trades now a days but I find it important to support the series I like in single issues.
4. I always go back to the JSA, it's either their old All-Star comics return which I have in hardcover or Geoff Johns run. They are my favorite team in DC comics and I await their return soon.

[Ascended]

Well, I read old Ninja Turtle comics because of the cartoon, but when the national news covered Superman's death one day, I thought I should grab that issue because it might be worth money someday. I was 11 or 12 I think. Ended up loving Reign of the Supermen, and that was it, I was sold for life.

What am I reading from DC? Legion, Young Justice, Superman, Action, Shazam, Harley Quinn, Terrifics, Flash. Last God. Superman Smashes the Klan. Harleen. Probably a few others I'm forgetting. My wife is reading all the Vertigo stuff. I was reading Justice League but won't be following the new creators. I'm supposed to be reading Green Lantern but have missed the Blackstar issues. Naomi, when season 2 hits. Metal 2 when that hits. Was reading Doomsday Clock. Was reading Wonder Woman, until recently.

How I read depends on the book. I trade wait Flash, just like I trade waited Deathstroke and some others. I buy a few in digital. Used to buy almost everything digitally but I had a problem that crashed the OS and I backed off from digital after that. Right now most of my stuff is bought in floppies, but I'd happily switch to trade if they released a little faster.

I always go back to Superman. No matter how bad it gets, when the next creator comes in I always give it a try, even though DC has burned me over and over again with the character. I also have soft spots for Nightwing and Cyborg, I always give them a shot, and more issues to convince me to stick around than most.

[Mike]

How did you get started?
What comics are you reading now?
How do you read them?
What do you always find yourself reading again and again?

Superboy starring The Legion of Super-Heroes #204

Hawkman

Single issues

The New Teen Titans
The Legion of Super-Heroes
The Fury of Firestorm
Batman and The Outsiders
The Brave and The Bold starring Batman
All-Star Squadron

[CaptCleghorn]

I started on the Korak and Weird Worlds series. I had picked up occasional issues but nothing regularly until these two. The next series I collected was 1st Issue Special and subsequently Warlord. At this time, I was also picking up JLA/JSA team-ups when I could. My real regular buying of DCs was the New Teen Titans and Legion (just before the GDS), and any Earth Two related stuff.

[MRP]

I discovered DC as a kid in the early 70s through other media first...Super Friends, View Master reels, syndicated reruns of George Reeves Adventures of Superman and the Adam West Batman. My first DC comic was Batman #250 in the summer of '73, but growing up I was more of a Marvel kid-I probably had 10 Marvel comics for every DC book I had.

I really got into DC in high school, circa '85 and '86********* era JLA, trial of the Flash, then Dark Knight Returns, Man of Steel, Legends, Watchmen, Giffen & DeMatteis Justice League etc. Through the late 80s and early 90s I was buying and reading much more DC than Marvel, but starting around that time I was also getting into more indy books and stuff like Sandman and Vertigo from DC, and by the late 90s I was only buying a handful of super-hero books from any publisher and was mostly buying other genres.

What I am buying/reading now from DC includes the Hill House books, the Sandman Universe books, Hawkman, the DC Giants, some of the Ink/Zoom OGN's, some of the Black Label stuff (Superman Smashes the Klan and the Many Deaths of Vic Sage) and some of the one dollar reprints and facsimile editions. I am also slowly picking up the collections of Golden Age DC material that's out there (mostly Batman and Superman) and some other stuff I find in collected editions. As back issues, I am buying issues of DC war books and mystery books from the Bronze Age.

The stuff I listed, I buy as monthly singles, but I do pick up other stuff here and there are trades. I also have access to Hoopla through my library and a DC Universe subscription so I sample other stuff here and there that piques my interest or that gets good buzz form people whose opinion I find relevant to my tastes.

Stuff I keep going back to...Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier, Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League, Sandman, Ostrander's Spectre, Moore's Swamp Thing, Wein/Wrightson Swamp Thing, Perez's Wonder Woman, Kirby's Fourth World, Kubert's Tarzan, various Hawkman series (in particular the Kubert issues), and early Golden Age Batman and Superman.

-M

[DrNewGod]

I'm one of the old farts youngsters complain are hamstringing comics advancement. My brothers (Late '60s Marvel Boys both), got me started, but it was reruns of Batman (1966) that hooked 4-year-old me. I was a '70s fan, so Satellite Justice League is best! I learned to read in the midst of the 100-Page Experiment (which I still love). DC was reprinting it's iconic issues in ginormous tabloid formats (glorious). Neal Adams was The Man of DC art, and DC's previous era hits were regularly turning up in (then) modern output, helping tie readers to the whole DC/Fawcett history.

I'm biased, but it was a wonderful time.

[Jim Kelly]

I got started crawling into my siblings' piles of comics when I was a baby--they smelled real good. Some of those must've been DCs, because I remember my sisters cutting out and playing with the Sugar and Spike paper dolls--I still have a couple of Sugar and Spike dolls (pasted onto cardboard--we usually used the thin cardboard that came in my mother's package of nylons for that sort of thing--my father would use the old nylons for his tomatoes--it's the cycle of life), I know I didn't paste up these two dolls--I wasn't allowed to use scissors yet--so it must have been one of my older sisters. Later on I made my own cut-out paper dolls for Batman and Superman and for other characters I made up on my own. Who needs store bought toys when you got crayons, paper and imagination.

[married guy]

Batman #291 (1977!) got me hooked on DC Comics. Before that, I was all about Spider-Man.
The cover just HOOKED me as a kid and that was it.
My mother would buy me one new comic every week. I LOVED that trip to the newsagent and choosing what to buy!
I have cut my DC titles to two - Flash and Aquaman.
I still buy the monthlies (and variants on all Flash books)
Stories I go back to over time are usually Flash related.
Return of Barry Allen, Dead Heat, Race against Time, Terminal Velocity more than others.
I haven't gone back through my Batman collection in about 10 years. (I really need to sell it all)

[C_Miller]

I got into DC in early 2004. I bought Flash #207, Green Arrow #34, and JSA #59 at an FYE and quickly fell in love. I had been reading just X-Men books at the time, but I loved the Justice League cartoon, so I picked up these books as I believe they had been recommended to me.

I'm not reading any DC ongoings right now. DC is my favorite of the Big 2, but when the JSA and Legion were cut out of continuity, I was no longer interested. I know they're kind of back, but I'm not convinced that they're not just being rammed in there to appease fans. I am reading The Question: The Deaths of Vic Shade, Wonder Twins and Superman vs. The Klan.

I do pick up trades and back issues from DC. Just got a couple old Batmans the other day.

I find myself returning to the runs of the comics that I mentioned above. Winnick/Smith/Meltzer Green Arrow, Geoff Johns Flash, Johns/Goyer/Robinson JSA. And Starman. I love Starman. The New Frontier also gets a yearly read.

[Vakanai]

Well of course I started my love of DC as a child with Batman the Animated Series. But I didn't read any comics as a kid beyond some Sonic the Hedgehog and those Archie digests. Not because I didn't want comics, just didn't have access to any place that sold them. About a decade and a half ago I joined one of those books by mail clubs and bought Batman The Long Halloween and Dark Victory and fell in love with them, but I wouldn't get another DC comic until about 5 years ago when I got an Amazon account and slowly started collecting the classics and some self contained stuff.

I don't have a real income so I don't follow any ongoings, single monthly issues through Amazon just wouldn't be cost effective, so I don't do many floppies. I'm still mostly just collecting classic stories and self contained stories. I recently read Harleen and I plan to get Superman Smashes the Klan soon probably. Black Label, Earth One, and the Zoom/Ink stuff is perfect for a fan like me.

I mostly focus on Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Love me some Trinity!

[Dr. Ellingham]

Great idea for a thread.

How did you get started?
Not with comics. First it was Superman I and II, then TV reruns - 60s Batman, 50s Superman, and Super Friends. Comics in the mid-80s starting around age 9, reading Superman, Batman, JLA, Green Lantern, Flash, Firestorm, and branching into DC's reprints and non-cape stuff circa Crisis. Then indies. I dropped out of comics after Crisis, and came back in the mid-90s. Left again after Morrison left JLA. Came back with ID Crisis and Green Lantern Rebirth.

Every time I came back, I was immediately hooked on some new phenomenon that was already 2-3 years established. (For example, discovering Astro City five years in was wonderful, because it was good, and there were already a few trades.) That said, my interest in superheroes really dwindled around 2010, and Flashpoint was my last "new" comic.

What comics are you reading now?
Virtually none. My floppies are gone. Somewhere I have 2 bins filled with hardcovers and trades collected over two decades, though they're with extended family. Maybe donated or sold off at this point? Don't know. Last year I bought some Green Lantern trades super-cheap at a used bookstore, so my total comic collection after 30+ years is 4 used trades of GL reprints from the 1980s.

How do you read them?
Rarely. But physically it's trades, with some digital back-ups too.

What do you always find yourself reading again and again?
Well, most of the old classic books I remember well enough I don't need to revisit, despite my affection for the stories - Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Kurt Busiek, Mark Waid, Steve Englehart, Mike Grell, Len Wein. The last new indie I really liked was Mouse Guard. But of all comics the one I think of most, is Maus.

I have fond memories of DC's comics from my teens, and 20s. Which is why I visit CBR - for me it's like a comics version of social media. It allows you to "connect" with that best friend from 5th grade, or the hot girl from middle school gym class - but from that all-important distance.

[9th.]

How did you get started?

- I got started in middle school around 06-07, for some reason I got obsessed with the idea of famous superheroes having kids so I googled them found pictures of Superboy, Wonder Girl, Slobo, and Kid Amazo. That led me to an Superboy Linkin Park AMV that covered the Infinite Crisis. Later on that year I bought a couple of Young Justice comics on eBay and I managed to track down the Teen Titans Infinite Crisis graphic novel at Barnes & Nobles.

- Infinite Crisis ended up taking over my life because it smacked me in the face with a bunch of characters I didn't even know existed. There 2 Superboys and an older robin beating up on a smaller robin I was so confused and excited at the same time. I went on spree to gain more knowledge and ended up finding Comicvine. I would read character profiles for days trying to make sense of everything.

- After that I eventually fell off after discovering anime and manga and didn't pick it back up until 2013-2014.


What comics are you reading now?
No DC titles at the moment but I do plan on picking Red Hood back up and I've bought a couple DC Ink titles but I haven't read them yet.

How do you read them?
I'm all digital I read them on my iPad via comixology.

What do you always find yourself reading again and again?
I like teen/YA titles so I tend to gravitate towards those, I also love strong female leads and quirky characters. Not everything I read falls into those boxes though.

[Vampire Savior]

How did you get started?

I have an older brother who had the Kingdom Come trade (I think it's in my possession now), and I would sit there looking at it and reading the back part that lists who all the characters are.

What comics are you reading now?

No DC Comics right now. If something sounds interesting to me, I'll usually give it a gander without buying it. If I like what I see, I'll let it run its course for a while before choosing to spend any money on it. I'm EXTREMELY wary of giving DC any of my money, because I'm not going to get in a situation where I start buying something, then get blindsided by creators leaving after 3 issues, abrupt changes in direction, and comics that get quickly cancelled and don't finish the way they should, or an event comes from somewhere and derails or interrupts everything. When stories I was following and paying for do that, I have a feeling of being taken for granted and also like someone broke a promise to me. I laid down my money with certain basic expectations (like the story will finish organically and the creators won't quickly bail on the whole thing), and when those aren't met, I feel as though the company wasted my time and fooled me into wasting my money, and I don't trust the company. Largely because of that, I don't buy any DC Comics right now, and I actually sold my DC figure collection for hundreds of dollars and sold some valuable single issues for hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and I don't regret any of that.

How do you read them?

Occasionally, I will pull out back issues from long boxes and read them. It's not irregular at all for me to do that. Often these days, I do that for educational purposes to see how the comics creators were crafting their comics, or to see how I feel they stack up against my own work. If I want to check out something that sounds like it might be interesting to me, I'll find a way to look at it without paying for it. If there is something I want to pay for, I'll buy it digitally. If I REALLY love something, I'll also buy the trade of it. But, honestly, things never get to that point for me these days.

What do you always find yourself reading again and again?

John Byrne Superman. Triangle era Superman. I have an interest in with Alan Grant Detective Comics. Steve Englehart Green Lantern. Amethyst comics. I tend to like quite a few things from the 80s and early 90s, even though I didn't start reading DC Comics until the late 00s. But the thing is, even when I started, I was reading mostly back issues. When I started, there was a bunch of Countdowns, and 52's, and Geoff Johns, and various Crises going on, and I wasn't into any of that stuff, and I'm still not.

[CellarDweller]

How did you get started?

Got started in the 70s, from watching The Super Friends on tv. When I found The Super Friends comic book, I started collecting that. From there, I started reading LoSH, some JLA, and then some Green Lantern.

What comics are you reading now?

I'm reading the Wonder Comics imprint. Naomi, Wonder Twins, and Young Justice.

How do you read them?

I buy the actual book, and for Naomi and Wonder Twins also got the TPB.

What do you always find yourself reading again and again?

For a while I was collecting the X-books, and I often read them, and back issues of JLA.