Out of curiosity, how long have any of you been reading / collecting comics. Did you start off slow and build? Have you stopped and restarted? Do you buy more of the "other stuff" (toys, statues, etc) now? What else do you collect?

Seriously, I'm just curious about everyone's "story" when it comes to this hobby / life-style of ours.


I've been reading comics since I was 4 or 5 and really started liking The X-Men with issue 109 (Byrne's 2nd issue). My brother did most of the buying until I was about 11 and mowing lawns for cash, then I started buying and took over "the collection". So my collection dates back to about 1970, even thou I wasn't reading books until about 1975 / 76.

I really got into buying a ton of books in the early 90s -- not speculative crap -- I was just buying everything to read. I also really got into buying the figures -- but sold those when I decided I needed to get laid (yes, my wife thinks I was the model for the 40 yo Virgin movie).

I unloaded about 30 boxes of 90s crap a few years ago.

These days I spend about $100 a month on comics and a little more on statues/busts and I'm starting to enjoy looking for original pages. I still don't have any room to display all the shit I own.

Anyone else ?

4 or 5 - reading Harvey and Disney comics. A year or two later I started on Archie, and a smattering of superhero comics, but ONLY collected digests and stuff...I loathed superhero comics. Not because I didn't like the characters, they were just continued all the time. Still kept on with all of the above until I was about 13 or 14, at which time I stopped buying comics and gave away 90% of my comics...something I've regretted for a long time now! I kept the Superhero digests and some oversized specials, but most everything else, gone.

Around 1990, I was in the Navy, and bored, when I happened upon a comic shop in Waukegan, IL. Picked up Frank Millers Year One, Dark Knight Returns, and JBs Man of Steel. Instantly fell in love with comics again, and this time around didn't mind so much the continued stories, because hey, there was this shop that got them all in every week!

Full circle now I suppose, as I'm picking up Disney comics again, and no longer buy monthly superhero books (save one), although for different reasons than before. My kids are big Disney comic fans, and I'm disillusioned with most current DC/Marvel comics. Still spending my money at the shops or AmazWAN though, thanks to trades, Essentials, Showcases, etc. I do still pick up some new stuff, but only in collected volumes.

I too unloaded several boxes (5) of 90s comics a few years back, and would like to unload 3 or 4 more. Those that remain I'd like to have bound. The fewer single issue comics in the house, the happier I (and my wife especially!) will be. I'd even like to get my prestige format Batman specials bound into collected works.

I read comics from my brother's collection as early as I can remember and was bitten by the bug. As far as collecting for my self, actively buying new comics... I started riding my bike to the town store when I was 9-10 on a weekly basis and never looked back.

22 years. Started when I was 11 and my brother left me at his friend's house with a box full of X-Men and Legion of Superheroes comics. First comic I remember was Uncanny X-Men #175, and I was hooked. My brother was in college and just getting back into comics, so he'd buy his stack of Marvel books, read them, then send them to me. I soon found a comic book shop and started expanding into DC (Crisis, JLI, The Flash, Batman). I dove headfirst into Marvel and at one point was buying all of their mainstream superhero books. Eventually I cut back on Marvel and was also getting DC, Image, and Dark Horse pretty regularly. I got into Vertigo about 10 years ago when I was working at Waldenbooks and could order trades whenever I wanted. With the exception of a year of being too poor, I've collected non-stop ever since.

Born in 1960, my first memories of new comics coming into the house start at around age 4, but we had plenty of comics around prior to that. My brothers had comics, my cousins had comics, my grandmother had saved my father's comics at her house... so anywhere I went, I was surrounded by comic books.

When I was 9 my sister married and moved to New Orleans, which meant frequent trips with my parents to see her (especially when she was expecting her first baby). That gave me the excuse to buy comics almost every week for the car trip. That was also the age where I was allowed to ride my bike out of the neighborhood so that I could hit the convenience stores, pharmacies, and news stands in the surrounding area. By my 10th birthday, I was buying every superhero comic that DC was publishing.

I had a couple of years in college when my money went to booze instead of comics, and when my daughter was born in '89 I dropped out entirely for a decade. I figured that Crisis was a good stopping point since there wasn't much of the post-Watchman comics that seemed to be to my liking. Alan Moore's ABC line, Astro City, and the Kingdom Come hardcover brought me back in '99. I was so happy to be back in comics I opened my own shop in 2002. That lasted for a few years until my day job responsibilities got to the point where I couldn't spend enough time with the shop.

I was 12, and in 6th grade. One of my friends had brought in OHOTMU issues 1 and 2. I looked at the characters and was hooked. I knew about Spider-Man, the Hulk, FF, the Super-Friends, etc., but all these other characters just amazed me. Whole new worlds. The first comics I bought myself were from the convenience store spinner rack, OHOTMU issues 3 and 4. I read every entry word-for-word.

In seventh grade we discovered the first LCS I went to, in Philly on Snyder Avenue. My dad would take me and my friends there all the time. A great place that smelled like old comic books. They had a painted wooden standee of Superman outside. I remember that Michael Golden poster of the heroes walking on the wall. I'd look at that all the time. I was getting all my monthlies there, and discovered back issues. On the wall behind the counter they had special comics hanging. My dad surprised me and bought the Phoenix saga for me. That cemented my love of JB's work. That and Alpha Flight, my "first" series, one I was on-board with at issue 1.

Through my teens, babysitting money went to filling in gaps in my collection with back issues. I was probably picking up 20 titles a month. Slowed down considerably when I hit college. I think I even stopped for a year or so. Once I moved to Philly I had an LCS just a couple blocks from when I worked at Tower on South St. When I changed jobs, I changed stores and started at Fat Jack's. I ended up working there part-time for about two years. That was a dream come true. Lots of fun. Got to read a lot of books I never would have looked at before and try some new genres. And today I'm still shopping there. One of the guys is still a drinking buddy and I still have my 20% discount.

Let's bump this upstairs to the Playroom, shall we?

You people collect comics?

nerds.

Says the guy with the "Sylvester Stallone dressed as Superman" avatar.

Let's see, I began reading comics here and there in the late 1970s, reading my old man's books. Early 80s I started reading, and that quickly turned into collecting. A big chunk of my spare money went towards comics throughout the 1980s.

When I turned 17, though, I sold my comics and bought a Mustang.

A few years later, got the urge to see comics again and got into them big time. Bought LOTS of books. Lots of CRAP. For the most part the only stuff I was reading and enjoying were indie books and pre- and early-Vertigo, but the buying habit stuck with me for about a year. And them I quit cold turkey.

I consider myself having stopped collecting comics around 1993/1994. I had enough. The vast majority of comics were crap. I had boxes full of junk I'd never, ever read. The stands were flooded with garbage. TERRIBLE time for comics.

I got back into comics around 2000-2002 (can't recall the specifics). Didn't think of it as collecting, but as reading. That's how I think of it now. I buy trades exclusively, and have for the last six or so years. Though I like to talk about them, I have no interest in the monthly grind, really don't follow an ongoing series (Walking Dead is an exception), and just read what seems good whenever I feel like reading it. I treat them like books. It's a much more comfortable, enjoyable experience for me now.

I don't know how much I spend, but I'm now into my third large bookcase of trade paperbacks, each five shelves tall, so it's a decent amount, though not outrageous.

My Westfield order comes to $150-200 a month, so I figure I spend close to $2,000 on comics a year.

Wow. That's a lot.

Fortunately I made about $11,000 selling back issues on ebay in the past couple of years so that offsets the cost.

I can remember receiving comics sporadically from parents/grandparents/etc. since I was 5 or so. But in 1988, when I turned 10, my family moved to a house that happened to be one block from a comic book store. We'd occasionally go for walks and whenever I passed that store I could feel something in my brain buzz. I had to go in there one day, I knew.

I just figured this out recently, actually, that the first time my parents took me to the store to buy me something (or maybe I had some of "my own money" to spend) was either October or November of 1988. I think I spent a LOT of time between then and Christmas talking about how all I wanted that year from Santa or anyone was more comics. There was just something about being in that store surrounded by 'em. Such a great feeling!

So that Christmas I must have gotten somewhere close to about 100 comic books or more. Some were from my parents, but a bunch were from an Uncle of mine. He had a huge comic book collection and loved Spider-Man. Apparently when my parents told him that I was getting into it, he decided it would be a good time to purge his collection of any non-Spider-Man stuff.

After that, I was hooked. I never was one of those guys who'd buy dozens of new books every month. Probably the most I ever bought per month that was new was around six or seven. But I dumped LOTS of cash on back-issues. I was one who was always fascinated by old stories referenced in footnotes, and I always wanted to fill in gaps.

That's still the case. I very rarely buy anything new, unless it reprints something old. Every so often I'll buy a trade or hardcover that reprints a recent miniseries or story arc that sounds intriguing (Dan Slott's GLA, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, the Agents of Atlas hardback, etc.). The only thing I will *definitely* buy now is a new Alan Moore comic or graphic novel. You probably couldn't even call me a comic book collector anymore, since my buying is generally so sporadic.

But I'm constantly still pulling old comics out of the long-boxes to re-read.

I started when I was 6. I watched reruns of Batman and The Adventures Of Superman every day and when I became aware that they were published in comic books, well... I went down to Bazin's (a convenience store) and picked up Brave And The Bold #106 (Batman and Green Arrow) and a Superman comic (can't remember exactly which one it was).

My collecting was at its height during the late '80s/early '90s. I quit the weekly comic shop habit, with occasional lapses for certain event storylines like The Death Of Superman and the dreaded Clone Saga, which I stopped reading halfway though in disgust.



I'm pretty much in the same boat. Before I'll take the plunge on something new, I'll read some reviews and check the forums to see what people are saying about it. I don't have the patience to wait each month for a new book - I want to read a storyline at one sitting. Yep, I'm old and crotchety!

My parents used to buy me comics when i was a kid...i have vague memories of the Roger Stern Spectacular Spidey issues...first comic i bought myself was Secret Wars issue 3..Spidey vs the Xmen! And have been hooked ever since..so basically about 25 years..!

Worked at a comic store in my teens and amassed quite a collection...sold about 20 boxes worth in the 90s to pay for some summer trips and still have about 8 boxes of comics i still cherish..Batman, DD, GA, etc..

Go to the store every wednesday adn buy $20-$40 worth of books...pound for pound the best form of entertainment out there.

have converted some runs of singles intro trades and have a 3 shelf bookcase with trade paperbacks..i buy a lot of books but i dont collect or keep them all..some i donate to charity or kids hospitals and/or gigve to some friends who are lapsed comic readers or new comics readers (a buddy who is a zombie fanatic got all my Walking dead comics)..its my way of spreading the comic book coolness (and keeping my storage space to a minimum).

I started reading comics as a child in the 1970s. Mom bought my brother and me some, mostly Gold Key Disney and other cartoon character comics. We ran across others in the houses of friends and family, and got a few from them. We even found a stack of them at the public library, at a time before libraries were supposed to have comics. By the late 1970s my brother was buying "Star Wars," "G.I. Joe," and Charlton War comics (and to think he went on to join the Army....). I bought an occasional superhero title.

In the early 1980s I started buying more of them. Around 1980 some friends of the family gave us a big box of assorted comics, mostly Marvel/DC superheroes. I really got into those. Just as I was really getting into buying comics, though, the local supermarkets stopped selling them! In college a couple years later I found a newsstand where I could buy them more regularly.

In the 1990s I went to grad school and found myself living near a comics shop for the first time. Around that time the changes in Marvel/DC put me off them. I couldn't really afford new comics any more anyway. So I started buying almost entirely from the cheap bins. The older comics there were more what I liked anyway. I bought a few more expensive back issues--that's how I picked up most of COIE and a number of Batgirl comics. From the cheap bins I found some comics I'd enjoyed as a child, such as the Gold Key ghost story comics. I also had the good fortune to have access to a library set of Carl Barks Library and found that his work was just as fun for a grown-up as for a kid.

Now I live far, far from any place where you can buy comics. I only very rarely get a chance to visit a comics shop. But now I'm in charge of a public library and can buy trades and graphic novels as part of my job! My personal collection has never amounted to more than a few boxes and a shelf or so of trades and books about comics.

OHOTMU is part of what got me really excited about Marvel comics too. I picked up almost all of the original series when it came out. Seems like I missed one issue. I'll have to check.

Ok. I've said this before.

As a kid in the early 80s, I knew Batman from the tv show reruns which I took seriously, and Scooby Doo appearances

I knew Superman from Super Friends and the movies. I loved all of the movies.

I knew Spider-Man bestest of all-he had a cartoon and Spider-Man and his Amazing friends which was the bestest show ever.

and I knew the Hulk cause he had a cool cartoon and the tv show reruns.

and I loved comic like things like Star Wars and He-Man and Transformers.

But I don't remember many comics. I had a Kool Aid comic, and some Archies I would get at the supermarket, buit i don't remember much other than Archie. Except a coloring book which was the sotry from Amazing Spider-Man 39-40 (Gobby)

I guess I sporadically got some-some Marvel Tales Spider-man which I had no idea was old. For some reason, around 1986, i started picking up some comics at the stationary store. Mostly Spidey, Batman, and Superman (dont remember Hulk there at the tikme). Spidey most of all. Mostly Web of Spider-Man and Spectacular. Wow-comics were for grown ups I was 9 and then 10, ready to feel "adult". Archie was kid stuff compared. Plus their were Transformers, and Star Wars comics, sporadically.

by 1987, i was buying the whole Marvel line practically, trades, Marvel Masterworks for birthday presents and Chirstmas, and a good half of DC. I knew Stan Lee, was buying Marvel Age, and soaking up everything I could behind the scenes, bought comic Scene Magazine, etc. I was the go to guy for anyone regarding superheroes, had t-shirts, posters, and sunk every dime i had. By 1988ish, I had to get a paper route to pay for all I was buying. I bagged some but never boarded. Had comic boxes.

What happened?

Three things

(1) I flipped through an issue of Amazing Spidey on the way home from school. and he proposed. WOW! I couldn't believe it as a kid. I ran home, begged mom for money, ran back, and bought it. Had to get the next issues, could not miss them, and started stopping at the stationary stores constantly. The annual where they got married is the first time i saw real newspaper cover an event in comics, and it had the date the book would come out, and I made mom promise she would go to the stationary store and get a copy of that comic and pay the extra price.

(2) At a two day flea market, I bought three issues of Secret Wars. Spidey and Hulk were on the cover. WOW! The most awesome thing ever. I went back the next day, bought the rest of Secret Wars, Secret Wars II and other things. I was amazed at these great heroes-Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, DOOOOM!!!! I soon found a used book store near me that sold new books half off, and old books 5 for $1. I usually skipped the new books and sucked up used copies of Hulk, X-Men-so weird, Iron Man, Captain America. Never had Spidey, Supes, or Bats.

(3) I got this book Avengers Digest which summarized maybe 20 issues of Avengers circa the Kree-Skrull war. There was a history to these characters. What happened in the past counted. the more i read, the more Marvel, the letters, Stan's soapbox, Stan's introduction to the masterworks, etc, the more it felt like a clubhouse with "real" characters, it felt more adult, and it felt like there was a real history there. I was sucked in. and this is why Marvel, and not DC, always had my loyalties. DC had Crisis. They told me their past sucked, it didn't matter. and the books never seemed as adult, real, or connected. Their universe never felt like this awesome clubhouse. They never told me "you readers are the real editors" and "tell us what you want, you'll get it." They rarely preached real world issues like racism, didn't have STAN LEE PRESENTS, as if each and every Marvel comic story had Stan Lee's personal approval. Didn't talk incessantly about their gods of the past, like Marvel did with Stan The Man and King Kirby, didn't seem to profile their creators every month. Didn't give No-Prizes-how I dreamedo f a no-prize-what was it? Didn't have Mark's Remarks.

and I discovered Wolverine in earnest.when I bought Claremont/Miller Wolverine series for $4.95. DC didn't have a single character so damn cool, bub. Only Wally West promised Marvel like adventures, with his doubts, his living in the shadow of Barry, his limitations and weaknesses, and his penchant for women .

So by 87 i was buying it all and slowly memorizing everything of Marvel's history. I knew it all, practically, even stories and history I had no access to, thanks to digests, Masterworks, Marvel Tales, Marvel Saga and reprints and retellings. *See Thor 386 for the reason why it's snowing in Manhattan, True Believer!

and then at age 11, Todd McFarlane came on Spider-Man, drew the scariest, bulkiest, bad guy I had ever seen (Venom), and blew me away with the giant eyes, spaghetti webbing, and giant boobs for MJ. I was floored by the twisted position of Spidey at the end of Amazing 300. DC didn't have anyone like him, or later Liefeld, Lee, and company. I almost knew none of the creators on DC. But I did at Marvel and Todd was the first one I followed and looked forward to, the only artist I ever "collected." Still, I collected much of DC too.

My dad read most of the books with me too. He liked Superman, Hulk, Wolverine, and the Silver Surfer best. He read X-Men. He didn't bother with half the minor books I read. We talked about them and got excited about them. How dad loved Infinity Gauntlet and Adam Warlock.

In 6th grade i wore a McFarlane Spider-Man t-shirt and some kid made fun of me "Spider-Man is for babies." I probably bought a dozen of them in response and started wearing them every day.

In 1989, Batman came out. I was 12 and suddenly, everyone was wearing Batman t-shirts, going to the movies, even buying the comics. I felt validated. I knew comics were more for teens and twenty somethings. Not kid stuff.

At this time, I started becoming best friends with some kids, and three of them started reading comics too. and we'd discuss and argue argue argue. They liked the "cool" characters best-Wolverine, Ghost Rider, gray hulk, Punisher, Lobo. I liked most of them (cept Lobo) but the classic characters of Stan and Steve and Jack meant more to me. We used to ride to the comic store every friday and then wednesday together. I bought many books which they borrowed. They virtually never bought DC outside of Batman.

Got old, less money for comics, found girls, and the companies were charging us and arm and a leg for fancy covers which we all bought-how cool was Silver Surfer 50 and the glow in the dark Ghost Rider. , double covers, which we all bought. We all bought 9 zillion copies of Spider-Man, X-Force, and X-Men 1. They were great. But many of the books started to suck. They were taking advantage of us with the prices and the covers.

The new Marvel gods left Marvel for Image. and their replacements, they weren't exciting. They were lame copies.

X-Men. Coolest of the cool. It was suddenly unreadable. Avengers was lousy, junk. Thor was terrible. Marvel had like 100 books a month it seemed, and suddenly, 90% of it was junk. "Our characters" Darkhawk, New Warriors, etc, became a mess.

DC was totally and completely worthless outside of, somewhat boring, Superman and cool as always Batman. Their line by this point was totally boring and they had no cool artists or writers. they couldn't do a crossover to save their lives.

and Image. half a dozen copies of Spawn,,Youngblood, Shadowhawk and whatever. and every single one of them, with the exception of Spawn, was complete and utter waste. We were 15 or so, and we knew these were complete garbage. Spawn was the best and it was mediocre.

My friends collected from Batman through the Death of Superman, Batman's back, and Hal going nuts. They weren't there by the time Bruce came back. They ripped the adamantium out of Wolverine, and one friend declared "I will never read comics again, until Wolverine gets his metal back." He never did come back.

I collected as best I could spending money on my gf, and going to college. The books mostly stunk, but Spidey was cool. I bought every issue, every mini, every appearance. The clone saga was interesting

Suddenly, Wizard or someone said that "Spider-Man is a clone and has been since 1975. Ben is the real one."

WTF? Marvel's history was sacrosanct. My entire reading experience with Spider-Man happened with a clone? Marvel's writers don't like the marriage? MJ is awesome. I felt like Marvel had said "F*** you" and ripped up that No-Prize I had eventually won.

I dropped every Marvel comic i read. I dropped every DC. I didn't have the money anyway. Mom and dad moved to Florida, and i was on my own. I could barely afford to live. Still, i cheated and read Spider-Man at the store, or would buy a copy. I had to see how it ended. and Wizard was reporting sales were suddenly tanking on Spider-Man. Validation. Wizard allowed me to follow the goings on of the companies. I wasn't away for too long. Spidey was coming back-the real one. I bought all the back issues.. Started to buy again, but just Spidey. and Heroes Reborn. Eh. Liefeld didn't have it. Lee was better but it wasn't "real." and then by 1998 i was buying more and more.

By 2000, i was going again as much as i could. By 2002, I finally had some money for the first time since 1995, and i was going every week. At this point, I go frequently. try to get monthly shipments. but i like to peruse the store too. Reject waiting for the trade. Buy $65-$150 in books monthly, counting Omnibuses, and trades of old stuff. and that;s with the discounts, which cause me to buy more not spend less. Don't bag. Don't keep mint. Dont check prices. Dont buy t-shirts or posters much anymore. Picked up almost everything and then dropped most of DC after being burned by Infinite Crisis-they still suck at crossovers and since One More Day, my 22 year buying of Spider-Man has ended too They did it again.

Um, wow

*runs away sheepishly in shame at the long post

I read it all, Rob.

About 29 years now, started in 1979 when I was 12. Got hooked first on the movie tie in comics, Star Wars #25 & Battlestar Galactica #5, and spread to the superhero comics from there. In the 80's I discovered mail order (Heroes World still owes me money) and indie comics. Read a lot of shit back then. During the 90's I bought the least amount of comics, there seemed to be three times the amount of shit being published compared to the B&W boom. With the exception of the Vertigo type books, I wasn't buying anything from the mainstream publishers. When I finally got online, and started talking with other comic fans, finding out about books I hadn't heard of, I was buying like crazy. Now I'm in a slow down period again, still buy a fair amount, but I've got way too much that I haven't read yet because I just don't have the time.

I buy some toys here and there, I've got lots of Looney Tunes stuff, and I do collect original art. I'd probably be snapping up the Universal Monsters statues and busts put out by Sideshow, but I've yet to convince myself to drop that kinda cash on something that's just going to sit there.

The above is an excerpt from the forthcoming autobiography Comics And Me: A Love Story By Rob Steinbrenner. Coming Fall 2008 to a bookstore or comic shop near you.

I really want to say "long enough to know better".