Spider-Man stops by the Electric Company
This is the first in what hopefully will become a series of articles on some of my favorite comics, movies, books, TV shows, and even individual characters. For my first outing in the series, I will just explain my love of comic books
I had been a comic book reader from a young age. When I was young I enjoyed Spider-Man on The Electric Company (Nobody Knows Who You Are!), The Incredible Hulk with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, Wonder Woman with Linda Carter, Super Friends, The Thing, and even Shazam…It was a good time to be a comic book fan. Everyone on the playground wanted to be superheroes and even sporting Underoos was fun. Inheriting comics from my sisters, I was of course infused with Archie, Betty and Veronica, Pep, and the occasional superhero comic (or even an issue of Dark Shadows which kind of freaked me out).
Power Records: Spider-Man–Mark of the Man-Wolf
Another early venture in the comic book world was the Power Records series. I had The Amazing Spider-Man: Mark of the Man Wolf (which collected Amazing Spider-Man (1) #124-125 (September 1973-October 1973) as I later found out). I played the record into the ground (repeating lines like “On a brownstone on the other side of the Hudson” and “wolf stared at man, man stared at wolf”). The story scared me a bit as a kid but also had a perfect skip in the record which had the presenter saying “Look out, Spider-Man!” over-and-over again…and I listened to it over and over again.
One of my earliest introductions to my own comic books was the triple packs that were popular at the grocery and drugstore. The grab-bag style of comic books (almost entirely Marvel) introduced me to less mainstream characters like Rom, Alpha Flight, and the New Mutants. When I got a giant Marvel Comics puzzle and saw in the “Comics for Sale” section of my comic books that many of these strange characters actually had their own comics, I learned there were more than just issues of Amazing Spider-Man.
A great puzzle full of fun characters!
With ventures into the comic book world, I visited my first comic bookstore and bought my first back issues which I still have today. I think my first trip ended up with Sub-Mariner #3 (with Namor and Triton bound together), Jack of Hearts #1 (still one of my favorite “lame” characters and covers), Inhumans #1, Howard the Duck #2, Man-Thing #2, and She-Hulk #2…I was hooked. Now, a whole world of characters had opened up to me.
The love continued but waned for a period of time (I was subjected to my parents’ proximity to the comic bookstore and no regular trips). It was reinvigorated by the purchase of the X-Men’s Asgardian Wars which renewed my interest in the characters who filled the book…I had no clue who half of them were and had to find out.
Merry Marvel Marching Society Poster
From then it didn’t end and it hasn’t ended. I mostly focus on storylines and first appearances and as a result have most of the Marvel character first appearances from the mid-’70s up. DC had always been a mystery to me but I began to delve into them in the last fifteen years and the fun of exploration has returned with a whole new universe of exploration.
It might be the art that initially draws people to comics, but it is the stories and characters that ends up holding them. If you are in comics for a quick buck, it is possible, but don’t expect it. Events like The Walking Dead #1 selling for $10,000 are few and far between, and you’ll be more likely to be stuck with a bunch of dollar books. If you enjoy comics, however, even the dollar bin can be a fun trip…if you’ve been away a while, come back for a visit…the characters are like old friends that will always welcome you.
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