What decade did you first start reading comics?

[Kyer]

I kind of want to split my vote:

I first ran across comics in the early 60's.
But then the supermarket stopped carrying them in the mid 70's?
So I didn't learn they still were printing new material (other than the DC special Death of Superman) until the last week of 2008. The one SF/Fantasy store I would once a year (birthday gift) get to go to probably had new comics, but I was too busy frantically searching for anything Star Trek or Doctor Who back then to have the time to look at anything else. (My ride got bored quickly and I was pushing it to get twenty minutes search time.)

ps I did flip through Death of Superman in a Target store, but the very idea of Superman being mauled to death by some horrible monster was too upsetting to do more than flip through once.

[Mister Mets]

1990s.

I was born in the 80s, and my gateway drug was Sonic the Hedgehog, and the Spider-Man comic strip.

[Mr. Soul]

Late 70's for me. My first comic book was the Marvel Team Up issue with Spider Man teaming with Wasp and Yellowjacket.

[beewinged]

Around the age of 12, when Raimi's second Spider-Man was just about to come out. Borders was still in business, and they were stocking those big b&w Essentials volumes. I started with the original Spider-Man, but fell in love when I picked up the beginning of Claremont's Uncanny run (X2 came out in 2003, so that's probably the only reason it was on the shelf). I used to read incomplete scans of his and Davis' Excalibur online, because I didn't know where else to find it and thought it was some obscure thing I'd never be able to read a hard copy of in real life.

I became a huge fan of Hellboy and indie comics, but was super turned off by modern comics. It's wild to me that readers my age and younger talk about not being able to get into the "retro" stuff. The hyper stylized writing and art style are and always have been a huge part of the appeal, for me. You read the original runs and you're watching the birth of a dynamic, competitive pop art form; most of the cape and cowl stuff from the past 30+ years just doesn't touch that experience, for me.

[Astral Disaster]

1977 when I was 10, my grandfather bought both me and my brother copies of Iron Man #100 from the spinner rack at a local convenience store. Soon thereafter I got into the Fantastic Four and X-Men, starting with #106 and only missing one issue of the Claremont/Byrne run. Around '84 I had a brief hiatus, but got back into it in late '85 or '86, catching up on what I'd missed and getting into Thor during Simonson's run. Then around '91 I quit altogether until having my interest sparked again in 2014.

[Lairston]

I was in the 70s. My dad collected comics back then and he was a DC fan. He went to the newsstand to get them and I was around three and I pulled out Spider-man and did the kid whine that I wanted it. He suggested Batman, because I loved the Batman reruns of the 60s show, but I wanted Spider-man!!!! And so I got my first comic which I believe was actually Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-man #1 because of the cover. Unfortunately, I didn't keep the comic. I looked at the pictures since it was before I could read and then tossed it in the trash. Which when my dad asked me what I did with my comic book, he about hyperventilated and shouted "YOU DON'T THROW THOSE OUT"
Oh I thought they were like magazines. "NO!"
When Crisis occurred in 86, it ended my dad's interest. He collected from like 1947ish to then. Which I had the opposite reaction. That's when I got really into DC. He told me I have no taste.

[Mace Dolex]

In the early 80's because of Star Wars and Indiana Jones I picked up a comic or two, I was too young to read but I stared at the drawings, it wasn't until 1985 when I wouldve been 9 and picked up a Transformers comic and got hooked.

[KeeperOfTheFlame]

I guess I would put the decade that I started actually collecting(saving the books, getting the next issue, etc.) as the 70's, '73 to be exact with Marvel Team-up #12 (Spidey & Werewolf by Night), Avengers #114, Hulk #166. I caught the reading bug from a collected Peanuts book & a box of old comics I found (Avengers #8, Spidey #6, Strange Tales #110 (yes, that one) in the late 60's, I didn't really understand the stories, but the art was great, at that age I loved the Torch story, Paste Pot Pete and all, lol.
To me the 70's really refined the 60's Marvel characters and allowed them to grow, for better or worse, it's really the only time the books were steered more by the writers than the editors.

[DanMad1977]

Born 1977, so I maybe flipped through some Donald or Mickey comics, or had them in my hands...whatever a three year old does with these books. Mostly damaging it...

I remember Batman, Superman, The Phantom, Motu and Spider-Man as my first superhero comics. German editions. It was around 1981. My first word I could ever read was in a Batman comic. Yeah, Batman learned me reading, lol.

I am still sad that I sold my German collection after I started reading US books in 1990. I only still own the first Amazing Spider-Man issues from 1-137, the rest is in English.

[Gaastra]

1980s. Started when my friend gave me his extra copies of the early transformers comics starting with issue 1! Started picking transformers up on the newsstand around issue 14. Got gijoe and used star wars comics also.

[IMG][/IMG]


Moved on later to fantastic four after seeing a cover with the thing and the torch and thinking how cool they were! Got this trade from a comic shop!

[IMG][/IMG]


My first dc comics not counting the he-man mini comics and teen titans say no to drugs comic I read at school was two issues of action comics I got from my uncle. Later started reading firestorm also!

This was one of the dc issues.

[IMG][/IMG]


Also got some dell comics of popeye and tom and jerry and some archie comics as well around that time.

[[rono]]

Seems there was 2 starts:
- First, when I was a kid somewhere in the 70s
- Then, later as a teen when I consciously realized it's impact on me.

[Riv86672]

I love hearing when people starting reading comics, and I love the age range of comic book readers.

So when did you first start reading comics?

1974, when I was 6. It was an issue of SPIDER-MAN, and I was hooked.

[Nine Crocodile]

I started reading comics when I stated reading, so the '60s.

[babyblob]

1990s for me. It started with my dads Archie comics then moved onto superhero comics.

[GOLGO 13]

To me, the greatest Marvel comic of the '70s was Tomb of Dracula.

I bow to your superior yet nefarious tastes.