What is or was your touchstone book?

[Zero Hunter]

What was that one series that you had to buy month in and month out? The one you would save to read last. The one that always brought you back to the comic shop even if there was not a lot else you wanted, and if it ended did it take a part of your desire to keep reading comics with it?

For me it was always the Legion of Superheroes. Through the original run to the Reboot to the Threeboot to the Retroboot that was my series. No matter what that was the one book each month (and twice a month when Legionnaries was going on) that I could not wait to get. Even when I didn't like the series that much like with the Threeboot I still stuck with it. When it was cancelled after the start of the Nu52 I was gutted. For the first time in decades "my" series was gone. Slowly I started losing interest in comics in general. I went from going to the shop weekly to once a month and then to maybe once every 6 months to finally just getting trades online here and there. When they brought it back I was thrilled "my" series was back until I realized it was by the writer I hated most in comics and it was another full on reboot. Finding that out just made me sad all over again.


So what is or was "your" series and if it ended did it sort of diminish your interest in comics as a whole?

[Timothy Hunter]

This is a great topic for a thread!

I have so many, but if I had to choose one it has to be the Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman and later John Ney Rieber. I was a perfect age to have discovered it, having been about as old as the protagonist Timothy Hunter. I think that series perfectly encapsulated what it felt like being a teenager. What Tim was going through, I was going through, (except the magic stuff).

While I have comics that I like more and that I reread more frequently, no comic is closer to my heart than Books of Magic.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Interesting thread. For me, there were 3.

First one is Wolfman and Perez New Teen Titans. I had access to an uncle's box of comics weekend in weekend out as a kid, and those comics looked so damn cool I actually forced my family to teach me how to read before school age so I could read them.

Second one is Waid's Flash. The legacy angle - and it's contrast to Nightwing - made the DCU feel textured and alive for me. That made me live DC as a universe.

Third one was Grant's Animal Man. Although I already knew that rationally, seeing Grant in the comic really drove the point in my head that, once I became an adult, I wasn't obligated to be an accountant or work on metallurgy or something. The door to be a creative professional and person was opened for me on that one, so it holds a dear place in my heart.

[K7P5V]

Definitely, my choice would be the Dixon/McDaniel run from...

Nightwing

[caj]

1. Justice League of America the Satellite years. While the quality drastically goes down after #200, I stayed with it until it moved to Detroit.

2. Legion of Super Heroes the Paul Levitz years. No matter what artist was drawing it, I was in until Levitz left. I continued with it during the 5YL but left when Giffen stopped writing it.

3. Teen Titans- through the original, New Teen Titans, and even some that followed. If Nightwing/Dick Grayson was there, so was I.

[Robotman]

For me it would definitely be All Star Superman. I was counting down the minutes until the next issue was released.

[married guy]

The Flash.
Come hell or high water, I never miss an issue.

Way back when, it was Flash and Nightwing. (I still think nobody has come close to Dixon's run on the character.)

[Jim Kelly]

Back in the decades when I was a regular buyer of comic books, I had the idea that there was always one book that would keep me coming back every month to buy more comics. Which title was the one kept changing, but there was always at least one title I couldn't give up and so I had to keep going. Once there was no one title I had to get, then I stopped buying comics.

[NeathBlue]

When I started buying in the Mid 70’s, Green Lantern was 1a… but there were a lot that were 1b.
Flash, Justice League, All-Star Comics, Batman, Detective, Superman, Action, LSH, etc etc.
There were simply loads of titles I couldn’t wait to get my hands on… and the dollar comics and limited series, like Wanted, super series and tabloids.

[Lightning Rider]

Flash. My favorite character, it was simply mandatory that I read it, I always had to know what was going on with the Flash family. That stopped around 2012-2013. I gave New 52 a shot; it was okay at first, but I eventually lost interest. When I stopped needing to pick that up, my desire to follow titles regularly pretty much disappeared until Rebirth. Pretty happy to be back on the train.

[Air Wave]

The first book that I really, really looked forward to every month was BATMAN FAMILY. I was so disappointed when it was cancelled, even though it kinda moved over to DETECTIVE. It wasn't the same.

This is the first issue I bought in real time:

Screen Shot 2022-09-26 at 1.24.23 PM.jpg

[j9ac9k]

For me it's always been Legion of Superheroes and Green Lantern.

[Jim Kelly]

Two developments in the early 2000s brought my monthly comic book habit to an end after thirty years. One was being laid off from my job and having to do some serious belt tightening. The other was trade paperbacks. With virtually everything getting collected in a trade, there was no need to keep up with a title month to month. And because the mark-up on floppies was so big in Canada--trades proved to be the cheaper option (often having more content than when the story arc came out month to month)--and there was no panic to get the trades as soon as they went on sale. A person could wait until they were ready and had the money for them.

[Kaijudo]

It was Robinson's Starman for me, for sure. Never mind the seamless blending of standard superheroics, noir sensibilities, and indie pop-quirk vibes, but it was such a love letter to not only the Golden Age characters and stories that the original Starman came from, but also the less traveled, more haunted recesses of the DC Universe that didn't get a ton of play. When one issue can feature Elongated Man, contemporary versions of Freedom Fighters Black Condor and the Phantom Lady, the previously one-appearance only 70s Disco Starman, and the ghost of long-forgotten swashbuckler the Black Pirate, is it any wonder that someone like me, who was mainly introduced to DC Comics via Crisis on Infinite Earths and Who's Who, would even consider another series?

Beyond that, I'd say probably Morrison's Animal Man and Waid's Flash, too...a lot of the reason being the same as what Robinson did above. Only Flash was more traditional and Animal Man was more meta, while Starman was so unique in atmosphere and mood...only thing I can think of that came close at that time was probably Sandman Mystery Theater.

[jamgut]

For me it was the Legion.

Starting with their run in Adventure I followed them faithfully up until 5YL.

During the 5YL era I would pick up issues occasionally but I just couldn’t get into it. Then came the SW6 storyline and that drew me back.

When the Nu52 Legion ended I was left with just once DC book, the Rebirth Titans.

After I saw images of the Bendis Legion and realized how many characters I no longer recognized, I decided to not to invest any time or money in that version of the Legion.

Since the Rebirth Titans had been cancelled and I wasn’t interested in the Bendis Legion, I stopped reading any current DC comics. I’m still into comics, but only some X-books.