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  1. #1
    Boisterously Confused
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    Default How long had you been reading comics when your favorite DC decade occured?

    The very interesting Favorite Decade thread has gotten me curious. How many of us favor the decade in which we first read comics?

    In the intro to The Man of Steel collected TPB, Byrne wrote that his mid-1980s revision of Superman was a result of the George Reeves tv show's impression on him. "My Superman" (as he called it) was the first Superman that he encountered. For me, conversely, my favorite decade of comics came nearly a decade after I started reading, but the answer may be different for different ones of us.

    So, the poll: how long had you been reading comics when your favorite decade occurred?
    Last edited by DrNewGod; 05-22-2019 at 11:16 AM.

  2. #2
    DC Enthusiast Tony's Avatar
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    I read comics as a little kid like most in the 70's 80's but the post crisis reboot is my favorite era. It was the first time I went to a comic book store on a regular basis and followed every issue of titles.

    I find new books to be almost without merit so I have hit the get off my lawn phase of life for comic books at least.

  3. #3
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    On that thread, I said that I didn't have one favourite, but the first decade that comes to mind is the 1960s. I didn't get into buying comic books until 1966 as a result of BATMAN on TV--but I had comics bought for me or borrowed and there were piles of comics in our house. And I looked at comics before I could read them. My earliest favourites were comics like STUMBO TINYTOWN (Harvey), SUGAR AND SPIKE (DC) and DENNIS THE MENACE (Fawcett).

    And I knew about Superman--we could sometimes get a fuzzy broadcast of the syndicated George Reeves program from the States if the wind was right and, when we all went down to Seattle for the World's Fair, I saw the show clearly on the TV in the hotel room (that's one of the few things I remember from that trip, I hardly remember the World's Fair itself except for riding the monorail). I also have this memory of my big brother reading a Superman comic book to me. And, of course, every kid in the neighbourhood played at being Superman.

    So my memories of comic books probably start around 1961 or 1962, before I was even old enough to go to school.

  4. #4
    insulin4all CaptCleghorn's Avatar
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    Interesting question.

    I had started reading in the very late 60s and I would probably pick the eighties as my favorite DC decade. Now there is a theory that our favorite music (and SNL cast) happens in our late teens. My criteria for this is that DC had come up with a lot more stuff I wanted to see and thus bought. Most other companies and decades have a few title I loved, some I liked, but overall a mix of interesting and meh to me.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by CaptCleghorn View Post
    Interesting question.

    I had started reading in the very late 60s and I would probably pick the eighties as my favorite DC decade. Now there is a theory that our favorite music (and SNL cast) happens in our late teens. My criteria for this is that DC had come up with a lot more stuff I wanted to see and thus bought. Most other companies and decades have a few title I loved, some I liked, but overall a mix of interesting and meh to me.
    That's an interesting notion. I was introduced to comics very early in my childhood, 1969-1970, when I was 4 or 5. My favorite era of DC is the 1980s, which began with TNTT, as I turned 15, and ran into my mid-20s.

    My reaction to Marvel is odd tho. I loved the stuff they did in the 1980s, especially as it includes the X-Men's rise to prominence, the West Coast Avengers' launch, Byrne's Fantastic Four, and The Avengers' "Under Siege." However, reading it over, my favorite self-contained decade of Marvel is the 1970s.

  6. #6
    Ultimate Member Lee Stone's Avatar
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    I started reading around 1980.
    My fave era was the '80s up until 1992.

    I think most everyone's fave decade will occur around the time they first started reading DC.
    Primarily because at that point there was something that made you want to keep reading.

    I read my brother's DC comics from 1980 to 1984.
    I started buying my own comics in 1982, but I focused on Marvel while he focused on DC.
    This way we had comics from both in the house.

    I started getting my own DC comics around 1984, with a few issues of Tales of the Legion and Tales of the Teen Titans.
    And then 1985 came.
    Crisis on Infinite Earths, Who's Who in the DC Universe and Mayfair Games 1st Edition DC Heroes RPG.
    It was the perfect combination of material to get me excited about DC.

    And being young and impressionable, I read every page of the Who's Who series and all the books in the RPG box set.
    By the end of both, I knew the DC Universe like the back of my hand.

    Then when Crisis was over, and Byrne came along, the DC Universe I just learned was gone.
    Replaced with a new universe that was just forming.
    I fell into Justice League International, and that's where I stayed until Giffen and DeMatteis left.

    One thing I noticed about my fave decade is that there was a lot of 'ground floor entry' books for both solo heroes and teams.
    Teams with just founders because they were new.
    Heroes and teams that new readers could connect with because they entered into the DC Universe at the same time.

    For me, characters like Firestorm, Zatanna, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, Changeling, Jericho, Nightwing, Wonder Girl, Huntress, Power Girl, Blue Devil, Vixen, Gypsy, Steel, Vibe, Katana, Halo, Geo-Force, Jade, Obsidian, Nuklon, Fury, Northwind, Brainwave Jr, Silver Scarab, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold were so much more exciting to me than the JLA founders.
    It was like the difference in going out to eat or bowl with a friend (the new heroes) or going with a parent (the JLA except for Zatanna and Firestorm).
    Interestingly, Zatanna, Nightwing, Wonder Girl and Changeling were actually 'older' characters, but they 'felt' new for various reasons.

    If DC didn't have all those new heroes and teams in the '80s to latch onto, I probably wouldn't have been interested enough to stick with them.
    And I most likely wouldn't be talking about them, or comics, today.
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  7. #7
    Ultimate Member Lee Stone's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CaptCleghorn View Post
    Interesting question.

    I had started reading in the very late 60s and I would probably pick the eighties as my favorite DC decade. Now there is a theory that our favorite music (and SNL cast) happens in our late teens. My criteria for this is that DC had come up with a lot more stuff I wanted to see and thus bought. Most other companies and decades have a few title I loved, some I liked, but overall a mix of interesting and meh to me.
    I've heard about that theory.
    Basically, from 12 to 21 is considered your 'formative' years. And you associate things you like with the 'coming of age' experience, and those things become a part of you.

    Here are the articles I read a while back:
    https://pluggedin.focusonthefamily.c...rmative-years/
    https://slate.com/technology/2014/08...ence-bump.html

    And this one is a bit more recent and has some more information:
    https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/12/1...lt-taste-music
    (And the article sourced in it: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/o...ite-songs.html)

    I also found this one from 2011 that I don't recall seeing before:
    https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2...ltural-tastes/
    Last edited by Lee Stone; 05-22-2019 at 11:57 AM.
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  8. #8
    Constable of Continuity Gero4568's Avatar
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    I started reading in about 2010, and my favorite decade of publication was probably the 80s, so I was reading for about -30 years when my favorite DC decade occured.
    Last edited by Gero4568; 05-22-2019 at 03:44 PM.
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  9. #9
    It sucks to be right BohemiaDrinker's Avatar
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    Hmm. I started reading in 85, my favoriute decade is about 96-2005, so 11 years.
    ConnEr Kent flies. ConnOr Hawke has a bow. Batman's kid is named DamiAn.

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  10. #10
    DC/Collected Editions Mod The Darknight Detective's Avatar
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    I started reading comics (1972 at the age of 7) almost at the start of the Bronze Age, which just happens to be my favorite era.
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  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Stone View Post
    I've heard about that theory.
    Basically, from 12 to 21 is considered your 'formative' years. And you associate things you like with the 'coming of age' experience, and those things become a part of you.
    I hardly think that's true for me. My favourite band of all time is the Beatles and I was only about five years old when I became aware of them. I remember for one birthday getting a transistor radio for my birthday and carrying it around with me, holding it to my ear. But I have a very good memory and can remember things from very early on in life. So maybe the imprint of things I experienced in my first five years stayed with me.

    While I certainly read a lot more comics in the 1970s, my passion for them started in the 1960s (and I would re-read those comics until they totally fell apart and were just scraps of paper). And in the 1970s, I always had this feeling that the comics had been better before. The quality of the interior colours improved in the 1970s (DC gave their production staff more colour combinations to work with), however the quality of the printing got worse.

    I believe this isn't just a subjective thing--I remember reading somewhere that the presses they had at Sparta were old and not as good by then, whereas in the 1960s they were newer. So the pressings were better in the 1960s. And then by the last part of the 1970s, they had switched to plastic presses which were much worse and had all kinds of problems--such that inkers were told to ink with thicker lines so the lines would register properly and not wobble or disappear completely in the printing.

    In fact, by the early 1980s, DC was experimenting with new presses in Quebec and other places. And while this eventually led to the offset presses we have today (rather than the letterpresses that traditional comics were printed with), some comics in the 1980s looked really bad because they hadn't worked out the bugs yet.

  12. #12
    Boisterously Confused
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Kelly View Post
    I hardly think that's true for me. My favourite band of all time is the Beatles and I was only about five years old when I became aware of them. I remember for one birthday getting a transistor radio for my birthday and carrying it around with me, holding it to my ear. But I have a very good memory and can remember things from very early on in life. So maybe the imprint of things I experienced in my first five years stayed with me.

    While I certainly read a lot more comics in the 1970s, my passion for them started in the 1960s (and I would re-read those comics until they totally fell apart and were just scraps of paper). And in the 1970s, I always had this feeling that the comics had been better before. The quality of the interior colours improved in the 1970s (DC gave their production staff more colour combinations to work with), however the quality of the printing got worse.

    I believe this isn't just a subjective thing--I remember reading somewhere that the presses they had at Sparta were old and not as good by then, whereas in the 1960s they were newer. So the pressings were better in the 1960s. And then by the last part of the 1970s, they had switched to plastic presses which were much worse and had all kinds of problems--such that inkers were told to ink with thicker lines so the lines would register properly and not wobble or disappear completely in the printing.

    In fact, by the early 1980s, DC was experimenting with new presses in Quebec and other places. And while this eventually led to the offset presses we have today (rather than the letterpresses that traditional comics were printed with), some comics in the 1980s looked really bad because they hadn't worked out the bugs yet.
    I think the theory describes a tendency rather than an absolute. Exceptions, such as yourself, don't mean it's wrong.

  13. #13
    insulin4all CaptCleghorn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DrNewGod View Post
    I think the theory describes a tendency rather than an absolute. Exceptions, such as yourself, don't mean it's wrong.
    It's only a theory which is definitely not meant for everybody. Lee Stone supplied much more support for it than I had and it's one I only mention as a possible comparative point. For comics and music it doesn't hold for me. Although for SNL it does hit the spot.

  14. #14
    Astonishing Member failo.legendkiller's Avatar
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    I started in 1992 and my fave decade is still 90’s

  15. #15
    (Formerly ilash) Ilan Preskovsky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by failo.legendkiller View Post
    I started in 1992 and my fave decade is still 90’s
    Me too exactly. Well, reading comics regularly. I read a few random issues when I was younger but I started properly in '92.
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