How Did You Get Into Comics?
 

How and when were you introduced to comics?
Have you been into them non-stop ever since, or were there breaks?
Do you see yourself still reading comics 5, 10 years from now?


I'll start...

The origin and brief (I'll try) history of my rollercoaster relationship with Comics: [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I was reading manga as a child... this was back in the early 80s. I read many, but there's only one that I remember clearly...Kinnikuman (muscle man)... which is now a cartoon airing here in the US called "Ultimate Muscle" [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

My mid-80s were spent reading Archie, the occasional DC/Marvel issues that were passed around in school, and Mad Magazine-- Spy Vs Spy was awesome!

then I grew out of comics (or so I thought)...
it was late 80s to early 90's... my teen years... no interest in comics whatsoever. I was too busy trying to be cool and rebellious with my glam-rock/metal phase. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] Music was my one and only obsession. Then
1993 came and so did my first TV obsession, The X-Files. Still, no care about comics...

...not until 1996 (I think) when my friend (a bigtime comic freak) surprised me with a couple X-Files comics. I geeked out and started looking for every issue available. Even though that was the only title I was getting, it was only a matter of time until something else got its hooks in me. Like, Buffy - my next major TV obsession. That eventually lead to Buffy comics. Trips to the
comic shop started to be like a trip to the Candy Land... so much yummyness... new stuff every week... who knew there were so many... and not just your basic Superman and Batman stuff... but a wide range of stories.

The big trigger to my comic habit was when my friend (who got me the XF) let me read a couple of his Darkness issues. I liked it and started looking into other Top Cow titles... Witchblade, Ascension, Spirit of the Tao, Fathom-- I couldn't get enough of TC. Soon, I was branching out to titles from other publishers... fell in love with Ramos's art in Crimson, J. Scott Campbell's Danger Girl, Joe Mad's Battle Chasers. My taste in artwork started to broaden as I went nuts over Jae Lee's Inhumans... I was mesmerized by Warren Ellis's Planetary and Alan Moore's Promethea... it was official... I was in love with comics.

then it all went to hell...
I became frustrated and disappointed... seemed like it happened over night. My favorite titles were ending, the ones still around were late or had disappeared into limbo, Ellis no longer wrote Authority, Quitely's art was poo (imo [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] )... and so forth. I wasn't happy with what was going on in my little comic realm... so I got rid of most of my collection. Sold them, gave them away, threw them out (Gah!!!)-- I didn't care. I was done, it was a wrap. And I stayed out of comic shops for close to two years.

It was my ongoing Buffy obsession, and word about a new slayer by the name of Fray that lured me
back.

ALL of this leads up to Today... me and my expensive addiction... my once a week fix...

I blame it all on Topps for making the X-Files comic, and my friend for bringing it into my life. [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]


Ok, I probably wrote WAY more than you wanted to read, but there it is.

Your turn, people. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I didn't really get into it at at a young age; though I was always interested and picked up whatever I could from local libraries or friends, my parents refused to buy me any.

Not having a job... [img]smilies/sigh.gif[/img]

What I did end up starting with was Spider-Man 2099: the concept of a future Spidey was really cool, and I'm still into Miguel O'Hara. Started in on that, but stopped when the local toy store (where I got my comics) went belly up.

That said, I still kept up vicarously; with the introduction of the 'Net into my life, I kept close tabs on comics through IGN's Comics section (part of IGN Sci-Fi), and discovered Marvel's new Ultimate line as a result.

On a trip to Edmonton, I wandered into a comic store located in the West Edmonton Mall (largest mall in the world!) where Ultimate X-Men #1 and Ultimate Spider-Man #4 beckoned.

The rest, as they say, is history. Nearly gave it up 2 years ago when I got totally fed up with the horrific store I was going to, but discovered my current store located on my route back from school.

I should really go by, haven't made it in a month; too damn busy to spend the 2-3 hour detour. [img]smilies/sigh.gif[/img]

I first got into comics because of my dad. He had all of his old comics in boxes in the back of my closet. Despite his frequent warnings never to touch them, I ended up reading all of them. He had all kinds of Archie comics, including Pep, Archie, Betty and Veronica, etc. He also had a diverse array of Marvel comics. I spent many afternoons reading Spiderman, Iron Man, Thor and the like. There were a few old Disney comics, and some Gold Key's as well. Heck, I even read some of the old Romance comics he had for some reason.

After that, I read whatever I could get my parents to buy for me. Usually it was only Disney comics, but I could sometimes wrangle a Spider-man out of them. Once I got old enough to drive, I started driving to Texarkana (about 50 miles away), to a comic store there. That is when I started buying Image comics, especially Spawn. For over a year I would drive to that shop once a month to pick up my favorite books. Then a comic/baseball card shop opened in my town. I went in every day and spent every extra dime I had there. I bought comics, magic cards, comic book cards...whatever I could get my hands on. Then, my senior year of high school, the shop closed down and moved to another town. I kind of fell out of collecting then.

I didn't really pick it up again until my sophmore year of college. I happened by a comic shop in Sherman, TX and went in to pick up a Wizard. I realized that several of my old comics had gone up considerably (Preacher, Vengeance of Vampirella), so I got the fever again. I ended up selling most of those comics so I would have extra money to buy comics I actually wanted to read....The rest, as they say, is history. I have been an avid comics reader since. I missed the boat on a couple of good back issues (Darkness #1 and the JOhnny the Homicidal Maniac series come immediately to mind), but I don't really care about that. I collect comics that I want to read now, not because I hope they are worth a ton.

Well .. it was Gaiman's Neverwhere that got me into the first comic shop I ever went into. I'd had friends trying to get me to read them for months since I wouldn't shut up about how much I loved the way he told a story. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] So picked up one of the sandman trades and loved the story wasn't crazy about the art but curious about the medium in general. Then Witchblade the tv movie came out and hooked me and I got a wee bit obsessed then had to have all of the witchblade story. Totally got into the art .. esp the early stuff .. and esp anything Turner drew. So branched out into Fathom from there and it's been growing steadily since.

I didn't start reading manga until I went to college, I go to an art school & everyone here is into anime (which I got into in college) & manga. I got into the mangas from the animes I watched, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun & Chobits, then I was wandering around the comic shop in Japantown I found Gravitation, Under the Glass Moon, Demon Diaries, Chronicles of the Cursed Sword, King of Hell. I bought the comic Lost off my friend in LA for 50 cents & I want more. :-( but there's only issues 1-3 before Chaos shut down. : [img]smilies/sigh.gif[/img]: I just bought some other comics yesterday but I don't remember what they're called...

I was six or seven and I was in a Toys R Us store. There were the comics.. they're probably the reason why I started reading early.

Welcome to the board, Catfighter and KawaiiJay.

[img]smilies/wave.gif[/img]

Just occurred to me that if I include Calvin and Hobbes, my public school's Scholastic book club (basically, legalized distribution of flyers during school time [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] ) were a huge part of that.

I think it's SO cool that we all come from different places, with different interests and tastes... and got into comics at different times... and yet we all ended up here and share the same love. And even though our first starting comic books are different from eachother's in type, we now have several titles in common.

Comics make the world go around. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I think all of these comic-based movies will draw in new fans. Or even TV-based comics. That's how I got drawn in. I've seen CSI fans show interest in the comic. And there were talks of an Alias comic a while ago that had Alias fans curious.

All in due time, our army of comic fans will rule! Muahaha!

k, sleepy time.

[ 12-14-2003: Message edited Life ]

Quite cool, yes. [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]

Im a marvel fan so I got into it after I saw a bunch of the cartoons on TV. The old 90s spiderman and xmen episodes were really what got me started...wish they were still on.

i saw chasing amy by kevin smith 3 years ago and i have been interested in comics since then.
i don't think it will last forever though.

Welcome! [img]smilies/wave.gif[/img]

Chasing Amy is gold; it's too bad the DVD collector's booklet wasn't done as a Chasing Amy comic instead of a simple chapter overview.

Why wouldn't it be everlasting? Comics are a medium, rather than a genre; there's something for everyone.

Hey there. Welcome to the board. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I agree with HeadHunter. Comics are a wide-reaching genre with subjects and art styles for nearly everyone. You should be able to find something to interest you forever. I have so far. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Once upon a time, I went in to a comic book store looking for a comic based on a cartoon I was watching. I went back to the comic book store looking for more comics about the same cartoon, but I never found any. I, however, did take an interest in a graphic novel called X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga. The next ten years were filled with me buying every single comic title out these at some point in time.

Then I learned Japanese and started reading manga, in the original Japanese.

I don't read US comics anymore.

The End.