Cover Contest Nov. 30 to Dec. 7: Your First Comic Book

[Shawn Hopkins]

I wanted to do a contest that was positive and interesting, so here's what should be a happy memory:

Your First Comic Book

This can be the first comic you remember reading or owning or the first comic you remember buying yourself. However you want to interpret it.

Plus if you don't mind, post what you remember about the experience.



This is the first comic I can really remember picking out. Actually it was in a plastic three pack of all the issues of this limited series and my dad let me get it at a bookstore that he used to take us to. Going to that store to get books and comics and orange sherbert push pops is one of my happier childhood memories. The story inside was a completely forgettable adventure in the Voltron universe. I don't remember anything about it and I didn't even bother to hang onto it, but the act of picking it out started a collecting obsession that persists to this day.

So there you go. This should be the easiest contest to pick a cover for ever.

THE RULES (shamefully copied and pasted from the previous contest):

* Post One (& ONLY ONE) Cover that fits the theme of this Week's Contest!
* Cover must be from a Published Comic Book or Collected Volume!
* Covers must be Posted before Voting Begins!
* Voting Begins 12 AM Tuesday 12/6 and Runs Until 12 AM Wednesday 12/7 PST (3 AM EST)!
* Vote by Posting the name in BOLD of the Poster whose cover best fits the theme or that you simply like the most! A vote need not be in bold, but it does make it easier to Count-The-Votes!
* The Winner of the Contest is the Entry with the MOST Votes after the Voting-Period!
* It's Okay to Discuss the Covers but if you Think Someone's Entry Doesn't Fit the Theme or Violates the Rules, you Don't need to Argue it in the thread, Simply Don't Vote for It!
* Occasionally Voting will Result in a Tie! The Person Who Started the Thread and Thus will do the Counting that Week will Usually call for a TIE-Breaking Vote from Someone who has Not Yet Voted!
* AFTER the Tie-Breaker Vote, Voting Ends and the Winner is Declared by The One Who Started the Thread (or assigned surrogate) and Thus will do the Counting!

[The Darknight Detective]

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe this was the first comic book I ever read or owned:



I remember my mother giving it to me right before I went to my first-grade class (early '72) and became a show-and-tell exhibit not that long after. Sadly, it disappeared over 40 years ago.

[CaptCleghorn]

My first comic book. It's not the first I read, nor the first I bought, and it's part of my adult memories, but it is the first that was the culmination of a lifelong fantasy. And, yes, I know it was the 80's and the B&W boom brought forth a lot of dreams and bad books. But "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

[Tami]

I don't remember what my first was. It was over 30 years ago and I bought so many comics and manga over the years. I may have to fudge a bit. This was my very first favorite comic book series. I assume I bought it during one of my very earliest comic book runs. Wish I still had my comic books from back then.

When I was in college, there was a Flea Market about 4 - 5 miles away from the main campus. On weekends, when I was tired of studying, I would walk there to buy comic books. I amassed a decent collection. I was an avid walker, great exercise.

Several years after graduating, I made the mistake of selling my collection ... one of the dumbest things I ever did in my life. Still sad about it.

[Kirby101]

My brother and I bought comics in the 60s, but I bought this on my own and it's the comic that started me being a full hobbiest-reader-collector-fanboy.

[MRP]

This is the first I remember owning (I may have had some based on comic strip or cartoon characters previously, but this one I remember having and reading until it was coverless and dog eared.



The back up story (about a bunch of kids telling stories of different versions of the Batman to Bruce Wayne on a charity camping trip) stuck with me far longer than the forgettable lead story about a murder in a wax museum.

-M

[Overhazard]

STH115.jpg



When I was a boy, my public library had single issues, and this was the first comics I ever read. I was, and still am a gamer, and I found this comic completely absurd. A Video Game Character, with a Comic Book?! Those are just two worlds that weren't supposed to meet. I have been reading this series ever since, and it's really fun.

It got weird at times (It was the 90's, yo-yo's and swing music were popular for a short time.) The main story involved Sonic and his robot dog Muttski finding a genie and making a wish, Sonic's speed ends up being transferred to Muttski and he has to save him, the B story involved knuckles (he's green because he absorbed the energy of the master emerald.) getting into a fight with someone.

[codystarbuck]

I had been given comics at a young age and Super Goof is the earliest I remember reading. The first I got to pick out was Shazam #10, while sick with bronchitis, though I didn't have many to choose from. This was the first I bought with my own money, from a spinner rack. The Marshall Rogers cover caught my eye, Mister Miracle's costume was awesome, and the interior story has Scott Free and Oberon, on Apokolips, deliberately getting captured so they can publicly escape from Darkeid's most murderous execution device, a cutting and grinding wheel that descends on prisoners, to show the Lowlies of Apokolips, and a comatose Barda, that Darkseid could be defeated. The art is spectacular and the story was engaging and inspiring. A house ad for the series made me curious about Mister Miracle; this made me a lifelong fan, leading me to, eventually, track down all of the Kirby issues.

[Kai "the spy"]

First one I bought from my own money (well, allowance, anyway). German edition of "Batman Adventures", #3 inlcuded US issues #9 and 10.

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

I know it had either Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck, I don't know which one, and have no recollection of its content.
I had a reprint, translated.

[Chicken Pocket]

I'm pretty sure this is the first comic book I bought off the rack with my own money. I remember being so gripped by the cover - colorful heroes and villains shooting energy beams...from their hands! What was the deal with the two guys and their purple glow? Who was this axe-wielding metal man? The fact that he was on fire really drew me in. It looked like a battle royale, and I had to read about it!

[seismic-2]

First, two points: (1) Yes, I really am this old, and (2) this June 1955 issue wasn't actually my first comic book (my parents had been buying them for me for a year or so before this), but they bought me this one when I was in kindergarten and was trying to learn to read comic books by myself (after I had learned the dialog from my parents' repeated re-reading of them to me). This one I remember in particular as a formidable challenge, since the lead story was Carl Barks's The Fabulous Philosopher's Stone. Let me tell you, it took nearly forever to learn how even to say "philosopher's", much less read it out! As with the other Barks stories, of course, the effort was worth it in the end.

[foxley]

This wasn't the first comic I ever owned, as there were comics in the house from my older siblings and I am certain I was looking at these even before I could read and making up my own stories to accompany the pictures. But this is the first comic to have a significant effect on me. My parents gave it to me for my 6th or 7th birthday and it absolutely fascinated me. This was probably the book that turned me into a lifelong comics fan. It got read over and over till it fell apart.

[LordMikel]

I'm not sure if this was number 1, but it was about that timeframe. Although I had read Archie before that, I'm not sure I could properly identify any.

581365.jpg

[worstblogever]

Got a free copy of this bad boy from the paper mill my parents were working at, and old overpublished comics went to die.