Your FIRST comic books!

[ScottDMSimmons]

I was combing through the Grand Comics Database (www.comics.org), and started searching for all the first comics I had when I was young.

I thought it would be rather neat if we had a thread showing the covers of the comics we remember fondly as our first ones.

Comics started in the 70's for me (when I was a little kid), and the ones I recall are pretty easy to find in the gallery. I could scan them in I suppose (if I went digging through all my boxes), but the GCDB makes it nice to link up here with img tags. I'll share mine in just a few moments.

Share your first comics here!

--Scott

[ScottDMSimmons]

The Flash and Batman are the first ones I recall gravitating to on the spinner racks. FLASH #252 was a GREAT cover and story. Odd thing is that the cliffhanger disturbed me since I never got the next issue (until about 15 years later!!). Elongated Man had turned into a criminal named The Molder, able to touch things and make them stretch and have the consistency of putty. Battling on a airport runway (after Molder destroys a plane), Molder grabs Flash's ankle, twisting it and then proceeds to pound Barry Allen Flash (starting with his head!) into nothing more than a pile of goo. The final image is of flat red and yellow muck... all that remains of Barry.

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1428/400/1428_4_252.jpg

[ScottDMSimmons]

Here are a few other issues of Flash I had, right around the same time period.

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1428/400/1428_4_255.jpg http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1428/400/1428_4_257.jpg

[ScottDMSimmons]

Also, in my younger years were two Batman stories. One features the Joker and has a scene where a doll is found on the roadside run over, and turns out to be some man the Joker shrunk and left out in the road. The other is supposedly the last Batman story, where in the near future Bruce and Dick infiltrate some organization that has outfits in various colors.

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/141/400/141_4_0000286.jpg http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/141/400/141_4_0000300.jpg

Then comes the bizarre Superman book where Mxy has transformed genders of everyone on Earth, and thus Superman meets Louis Lane, Batwoman, and throws down with the superheroes on the cover, most notably "Wonder Warrior".

Then with DC Comics Presents, I enjoyed my first story with Martian Manhunter, who would quickly become a favorite of mine. And learned of Mongul, who later would appear in a Superman Annual I love.

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/116/400/116_4_349.jpg http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2440/400/2440_4_27.jpg

[DrewTheXenocide]

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/3433/400/3433_4_0038.jpg

My very first book that my mom brought for me from some deli type place.

[Punchy]

When I was ten or so an older friend of mine gave me a small stack of comics. I'm pretty sure he thought he'd outgrown them. There were a couple Thors, Marvel Team-Ups, Spectacular Spideys, and Defenders all from the late 70s.

The first comics I bought were GI Joe #11 and Secret Wars #8.

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2652/200/2652_2_0011.jpg
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2880/200/2880_2_008.jpg

I still have all of these somewhere in horrible condition of course. I didn't start reading seriously until years later.

[ScottDMSimmons]

With Marvel, I only had a handful of various issues before my dad bought me three subscriptions (starting my comics reading habit).

I had an issue of Fantastic Four which had a very strong and confident Reed. Supposedly Doctor Doom was trying to siphon off the Four's powers into his son.

I also had an issue of Avengers where a nearly dressed Wasp is seemingly killed at the end of the issue by Ultron (Man, love that goofy Jarvis cover!). This was my first exposure to most of the team, including Beast and Jocasta.

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1482/400/1482_4_0198.jpghttp://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1571/400/1571_4_201.jpg

[Puma]

I read a wide variety

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/11729/400/11729_4_0003.jpg

and

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1528/200/1528_2_112.jpg

and (because they don't show Uncanny prior to 1981)

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/11228/200/11228_2_001.jpg

and
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2164/200/2164_2_1.jpg

[ScottDMSimmons]

I had two Iron Man issues... and the one with Hulk is just classic in my mind (I need to get the two issues that follow it so I can finish the story!). The other Marvel issues I had were Star Wars (and I had the oversize version too).

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1867/400/1867_4_0131.jpg http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1867/400/1867_4_0140.jpg

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2406/400/2406_4_004.jpghttp://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2406/400/2406_4_006.jpg

[Charles RB]

Can't find the actual first cover, but this is near enough:

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/11285/400/11285_4_02578.jpg

[mattbib]

When I started I went for comics that seemed to have the most characters in them:

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/72799610328.5.GIFhttp://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/97792366288.197.GIF

[Wesley Dodds]

Delete please.

[Wesley Dodds]

The comic that hooked me (I like shiny things):

http://www.samruby.com/SpectacularD/Large/Spec189.JPG

Not only only was it shiny but it had a great, psychological story by J. M. DeMatties and fabulous art by Sal Buscema.

But my real first comic was from my grandmother (thanks, nana):

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/90972472834.224.GIF

Scrooge McDuck is still my personal hero.

[i_mmmchocolate]

I can't remember the precise issue-- it was a Bats comic though.


Good times.

[Ronald Bryan]

Here it is. The very first comic I ever owned. It even has detachable cover action!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v444/ronaldbryan/FirstComic.jpg

[Adem]

My uncle bought me a comic, but I was too young to read it so once I was old enough he gave it to me.

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/extremegenesis/UncannyXMen245.jpg

[Slam_Bradley]

While I had read my brothers comics before, these three are the first comics I purchased myself. The common theme of course is Batman on the cover.




http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/87/400/87_4_0454.jpg
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1449/400/1449_4_127.jpg
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/216/400/216_4_235.jpg

[GremlinClr]

This is my very first one:

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2628/400/2628_4_041.jpg

Like Crisis, this year marks my 20th anniversay in comics.

[Grant]

A couple of "classics"...

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/4667/400/4667_4_01.jpghttp://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/141/400/141_4_0000493.jpghttp://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/87/400/87_4_0660.jpg

[Grant]

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/4611/400/4611_4_0010.jpghttp://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/4880/400/4880_4_1.jpghttp://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/4874/400/4874_4_0002.jpg

[Grant]

This was the first comic I read...

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/9835/400/9835_4_001.jpg

[Archyduke]

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/60930948398.95.GIF

It wasn't until years later that I realized that The Answer was pretty much a one-off villain. Its a shame, I really liked that guy.

[Paradox]

Oh, yeah, I've done this a few times before.

My first comic was EITHER...

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1576/400/1576_4_006.jpg
X-Men, Vol. 1, #6 (July, '64)

OR

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/98/400/98_4_0323.jpg
Adventure #323 (August '64)

I know I read them both the same day (sometime in winter of '64/'65), after a 4 year old me was introduced to my grandma's big box of "this'll keep 'em quite" comics. :D

[Paradox]

Grant invokes nightmares:

This was the first comic I read...

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/9835/400/9835_4_001.jpg

Ouch! That's too bad. You should have "just said no". :p