I originally had this question for Linda, since she's mentioned the coming of Neal Adams made her quit reading comics... but then realized it could be a good question for all.

But if you quit at one point in your childhood, what brought you back into the medium? Myself, I never have quit comics... always read them, will probably always will in some capacity. But clearly, many of you are much less dorky than me and realized it was time to get laid or whatever, so you quit. So I guess my questions are:

1) What got you into comics to begin with?

2) When and why did you quit?

3) Last issue you remember buying at that point?

4) What brought you back?

1) What got you into comics to begin with?

I always had my little stack of comic books that I had accumulated as a small child, constantly looking them on newsstands. As my reading ability increased, my enjoyment increased. I had an older cousin who also loved them, and we used to talk all about them on visits. At some point he gave me his. By about age 10, I was hooked and wanted to read all the issues I could get my hands on.

2) When and why did you quit?

Several factors -- stuff started going direct-only, and I didn't have a nearby shop. It was irritating. The comics got worse according to my tastes. Changing Spidey's costume was weird to me, and putting She-Hulk in the FF was sacrilege to me (Ben was the heart and soul of the group). So I thought I would read Secret Wars to see why they did it, how it happened, and I thought it was terrible. It was probably me changing more than anything else -- other interests crowded out comic books (this was about age 15).

3) Last issue you remember buying at that point?

My FF subscription in the mail was the last thing to peter out (I remember the one with Hitler saluting on the cover). I did go into a store and buy Man of Steel #1 and I think #4.

4) What brought you back?
I read two different articles in the NY Times, back in about 2003 and 2004. One was about a post-9/11 flavor to comics (it was an article about the Ultimates, and made me try Ultimates). Another was about fiction authors being recruited to write comics (focusing on Brad Meltzer). It made me buy Identity Crisis, which I thought was okay (maybe it was just the pleasure of comics again). More than anything, I think I was at a place in life where I wanted that sense of adventure or heroes again, and there is a comic book store right near where I work. The Wednesday trek was easy and enjoyable. I actually enjoy going every Wednesday more than anything.

1) What got you into comics to begin with?

Aside from the usual British weeklies like the Beano, it was the launch of the Marvel reprint weeklies around 1972, in glorious black and white (or if we were lucky, green or red!) I was only able to get one or two "proper" American comics.

2) When and why did you quit?

Probably when I was about 16-18. The usual reasons - time to grow up, they were taking up too much space, plus the stories weren't too good by then.

3) Last issue you remember buying at that point?

It would have been a Spider-Man Weekly, reprinting an issue of Amazing around 210-220? I found that period of Marvel painfully boring.

4) What brought you back?

Just happened to be passing the comic shop a few years later when I thought I'd have a look to see what was happening - this would have been around the time Dark Knight was on the shelves. I LOVED that period - Watchmen, DKR, gradually discovering things like Concrete and Dark Horse in general, Pacific Comics, First. Great, great time for comics in my view.

1) What got you into comics to begin with?

It was the overall strangeness of them - I got the idea that comics were a window into a weird world of heroes and monsters and impossible events. I loved that. Also, there was nothing else like them; they were completely unique and totally unlike anything you'd see on TV or in a movie, at least they were when I was five, and got this comic in a Christmas stocking. It was the best Christmas present I ever got.



2) When and why did you quit?

In Minotaur books, in 1993, I actually bought this comic, and then decided enough was enough. I quit reading Marvel and DC that day, cold turkey. It was a big decision for me, too, because I loved comics more than anything in those days, except for music. But that cover - and the crapness within it - just killed it for me, somehow. Maybe it was the foil cover that was just that one too many, the stupid-looking outfit on Sue that somehow pissed me off (which it did), or the fact that they had huge Liefeld-style guns...or maybe it was a combination of all that stuff. Whatever it was, I just stopped getting Marvel and DC stuff after that day. Somehow, this issue was just the final straw for me, and that was that.




3) Last issue you remember buying at that point?

The last comic I read, though, was the next year - JBNM was the last thing I was reading, and when it stopped, so did I. I was, towards the end, buying it out of habit, I think. It was late 1994.




4) What brought you back?

I sold all my comics in 2005. Everything - literally thousands of comics. As a result, I developed this weird desire to start reading them again. I never have gotten back into it as fully as a collector, but I found that I still cared enough about this stuff to want to know about it. It hadn't been a part of my life for a decade, but I found that I still loved the idea of comics, even if I wasn't really preoccupied with them any longer. I wanted to know what was going on with comics, even though I didn't really want to read a whole lot of them any more. And I started to collect certain things - such as 'Creatures On The Loose' - purely for the hell of it. Just because they were from an era I like, and they were limited runs that wouldn't cost a fortune to obtain. Sometimes, I'll buy a comic on a whim at the LCS - or go on a mad binge like I did with the DC relaunch (most of which ended up at the local Salvation Army store recently). I have every issue of the B&W 'Rampaging Hulk' mag, and a couple of Epic Illustrated issues and assorted stuff that Epic published (The One, Alien Legion, The Bozz Chronicles - weird stuff like that). I tend to get stuff from the 70's and 80's. I have a nostalgic streak that's a big part of me, and comics are a part of that, now.

I'm still not "back" - I used to be really obsessed with comics. Now I just look at them fondly and nostalgically. I've tried to get back into things, but it's not the same, now - or I'm not the same, at least. Now, I just get the odd thing that grabs may attention. Last time I was at the LCS, they had the issue where Spider-Man gets his spier-buggy in a bag stuck to the wall behind the counter, and it made me smile to see it for sale. I didn't want to buy it, but I loved the fact that someone was going to walk into that shop and pay fifty bucks for it, and that it would make their day to do so. I think that's where I'm at with comics, now. I just like knowing they're still around, but I'm not really reading a lot of them any more. I have these moments where I'll think "Maybe I should get every comic with the Wendigo in it" or something odd like that...but then I think of the effort involved and just think "Nah".

1. Buying them off the rack as a kid. Mostly Archie, Richie Rich, Gold Key. I didn't read mainstream superhero comics often as a kid until the Blue Ribbon Digests and their ilk came along. I didn't like that stories were continued all the time, because I didn't get them monthly. I bought the hell out of those digests though!

2. Just fell out of it gradually. I was never a huge collector. Had a bunch of comics that I read and reread, then gave away in my teens because I was embarrassed to have them around.

3. Probably something Archie. No clue.

4. Dark Knight Returns. I read an article about it in Rolling Stone magazine and picked it up. It made me curious about Batman, who Jason was, and more. Sucked in and never left.

1) What got you into comics to begin with?

The Batman TV series.

2) When and why did you quit?

Faded away at the end of 1968 because comics had become ugly and offensive.

3) Last issue you remember buying at that point?

I think I might have followed Captain Action until cancellation in early 1969. Never quit altogether, but I was no longer a regular buyer who bought a bunch every week. Until the 1980s I was getting maybe one or two comics a month. (Which is where I am again now.)

4) What brought you back?

In the '80s there were a few creators whom I perceived, rightly or wrongly, as trying to bring Silver Age values to new books, and it re-fired my enthusiasm for a while.

I wouldn't say that I'm back -- I would say I'm long gone -- but a handful of things today (mostly Ditko) continue to feel like the natural evolution of comic books to me, and I'll always be interested in reading such things.

1) What got you into comics to begin with?

Born into comics. Five older brothers, shared a bedroom with three of them until I was 7 or 8. There were comics all over my room before I was born. Plus my grandmother saved every comic that she'd bought for her kids, so we had access to Golden Age comics as well.

2) When and why did you quit?

Easy to say Crisis on Infinite Earths but I stayed on for a couple of years after. I was able to rationalize buying comics through my new marriage and unemployment, but once we were expecting our first kid I realized that the enjoyment of reading comics was no longer equal to the expense. My DC Universe was gone and the new universe seemed very bland. Add to that the fact that I'd moved to Washington D.C. and no longer had a pull list waiting for me in a shop. Very easy to just stop going to the comic shop. Crisis made it very easy to quit. My DC now had an end-date. I was better off reading my old comics and buying the occasional back issue. For years I ended up doing neither.

3) Last issue you remember buying at that point?

There was no "That's it, this is the last comic" moment. When I took my comics out of storage after ten years, I saw that I'd stopped buying during the Invasion crossovers. I remember that Invasion and The New Guardians were the next big events after Crisis, and they were god-awful.

4) What brought you back?

I met up with local cartoonists who brought me up to date on what was good about the current comics. They introduced me to Moore's (then new) ABC line, Astro City, The Authority... I tried a few of each and liked them enough to buy up the few back issues that had been printed and then kept up with them on a monthly basis. I was lucky in that my neighborhood video rental store had tried to sell comics for the year prior. They'd over-ordered from Diamond before quitting the new comic business. So they had all of the back issues that I needed on sale for cover price. Tons of first issues and none of them marked up. Then I picked up a copy of the SPX Anthology and realized that underground comics had exploded into the indie/alternative comics scene, and got heavily into that.

Wow, this was in the 75 cent era, no?

75¢ is a lot when you started buying comics at 12¢ a comic. And spending $30 a month on comics was a big expense. Especially when you're a newlywed with a kid on the way.

1) What got you into comics to begin with?

An uncle gave me a big box of comics, mostly DC when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. This was when I was a little gifted child and reading above my grade level so I was in heaven. The collection was made up of Flash, Superman, Action, World's Finest, Justice League, Legion of Super-Heroes, Hot Stuff, Richie Rich, and other various titles. (I learned to hide the Legion because my mother was not happy with the skimpy clothing that Grell was drawing on the girls.) Drug stores were the only place to get comics in nearby larger towns until Wal-Mart moved in, but trips there were few and far between so collecting titles monthly was not possible. Then a friend told me that a local business Ferguson's Bait Shop had a comic rack and I started collecting big time.

2) When and why did you quit?

I quit when I started college and sold my collection to support a substance addiction. I would pick up titles here and there, but there really wasn't a lot to buy that interested me other then Sandman.

3) Last issue you remember buying at that point?

Hard to say... probably Swamp Thing.

4) What brought you back?

I was driving to Memphis every weekend to take an elderly aunt on errands and stopped at a comic book shop one day. I bought a Legion of Super-Heroes Archive to reread my old Legion comics and decided to buy a book a week as well as back issues. This led to the internet and eBay and Amazon and the JBF and the start of a trade collection.

1) What got you into comics to begin with?
My mother was born in Greece. When she came to Canada as an adult she didn't know any English. As I got to reading age, she knew how to speak English but her reading skills were not great. One of the ways she learned was to read comic books and so that's how I found them and started reading myself.

2) When and why did you quit?
It would have been around 1987 or so. I just got too busy with other things. I was on the football, basketball, baseball, soccer and volleyball teams. I loved video games and going places with my parents. I just had too many other things to do that interested me more than comics.

3) Last issue you remember buying at that point?
Not sure, would have likely been an issue of Uncanny X-Men as that was my favourite comic at the time. So give or take an issue of two, Uncanny X-Men #217

4) What brought you back?
The animated X-Men cartoon on Fox in 1992. Saw it and remembered how much I loved the X-Men. Had no idea who Jubilee or Gambit was and picked up a few comics to see what was going on at the time. Got hooked and was reading comics again.

Planet Hulk was a factor along the way. That was on of the first cool storylines that pulled me back into one of my childhood favorites. I was in from the get-go. Felt like I was in on a secret at first, because it seemed really good.

I think indies, back issues and trades kept me alive during the lamest times... there was a chunk of the late 90s and early 2000s when I just totally lost interest in modern comics of the time, but that was when I was finally able to afford tracking down Miller's Daredevil run, Sin City, Moore's Superman and Supreme stuff, Buddy Bradley, etc.

Planet Hulk got me into the character after I dropped the book toward the end of PAD's run... luckily, Jeph Loeb came aboard to chase me away right after Ed McGuinness left the book (I was collecting just for his art and all the Rulk and She-Rulk and evil Doc Samson business made me grow to hate the Hulk's world by the time he left; i finally gave up with World War Hulks).

That's how it is for me too. I think after the last Alan Moore comics for ABC trickled out in 2005 or 2006, I pretty much stopped collecting modern stuff. So instead I just started filling gaps in collections of old stuff. And somehwere in there I'd maybe buy more recent mini's or trades. Only this year have I started collecting monthlies again, thanks to the relaunches of Glory and Supreme. Now that I'm back into the monthly grind, I'll be adding other stuff to the pull list, like Creator Owned Heroes.

Oh, really? I heard only fancy boys like that book.

What current book would you suggest to a lapsed reader?

In the late 90's I had a friend suggest Kingdom Come and Astro City (since I was stuck in the Silver and Bronze Ages).

Is the criterion "superhero comics that they will enjoy if they liked Silver and Bronze Age superhero comics?"

Because, none.

But there's tons of great titles outside that parameter.

You heard wrong. It's also for fancy MEN.

No criteria.

Because getting me into Kingdom Come and Astro City didn't get me interested in other comics. Authority did.

1) I got into comics because I’ve liked stories told with pictures ever since I started noticing the newspaper funnies. When I was a child comic books were pretty much everywhere—stores, friends’ houses, my cool great-aunt’s place, the library, even church camp. A couple of teachers had them in classrooms in middle school. Most of my fondest early comics memories are of Gold Key titles. I didn’t really read many superheroes until I was around 13. The first superheroes I bought regularly for myself were the original “Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe” and anything I could find with Earth 2 characters. Both of these gave a sense of discovering a different world with its own history and rules.

2) When I was in high school the local stores stopped carrying comics, so for about two years I couldn’t find them. Then I went to college and found a nearby newsstand that carried them. Imagine how startled I was to learn that “Crisis on Infinite Earths” had taken place in the meantime! That’s when I started buying mostly Marvel…. Then in the early 1990s in grad school I found myself living near a comics shop. By this time new comics had mutated into something I didn’t like. But there was lots of stuff in the cheap bins that fit both my tastes and my budget. So I both got out of buying new comics and started building a modest collection of back issues. I never had the money or the inclination to become a big collector.

3) No particular issue put me off of contemporary comics. It just got so I hated the violence and angst and ugly art. “Batman: Year One” turned me off of Batman. Post-Crisis put me off of DC in general. John Byrne’s run on “West Coast Avengers” stopped me reading that.

4) I’ve never been completely “away.” But I now live a solid hour from anywhere that sells new comics, and farther still from a place where you can buy back issues. There are probably only about a dozen or so places in this state that now sell comics! When I’m traveling I’ll run by any shops I find to browse and see what comics look like now. Once in a while I’ll buy something that looks interesting and maybe a few back issues. I get the very occasional GN at a bookstore. As a librarian I’ve built our library a junior GN collection that seems popular. The two or three adult GN titles I’ve put in the collection haven’t gone anywhere, so I’ve concentrated on age-appropriate titles. Apparently I’m just about the only adult in our whole town who reads comics!

In more or less descending order:

Unwritten
American Vampire
All-Star Western
FATALE
Fury (MAX)
Frankenstein Alive, Alive
Sweet Tooth
G.I. Combat (the Unknown Soldier half of it. The War that Time Forgot half of it is a major disappointment)
Thief of Thieves
Secret Agent

Depends on the person.

Apparently, my two closest friends needed the book to be about zombies -- neither read anything until Walking Dead and now both of them own every TPB. I had one get interested in the Dark Horse Conan stuff but I'm not sure if he kept up with it.

If it were superheroes though... hmm. Hellboy is a natural, that would be one of my top picks. The relaunched Glory has been quite good lately. Invincible is consistently solid... as is Irredeemable.

And, as always, I'd toss in Savage Dragon, depending on their familiarity with comics tropes.