You know the game and how it is played, but in case you have forgotten here are the general rules:
1) Whoever gets here first (or even second) post a topic starter in the comments that others can jump on and discuss for the day; supply as little or as much detail as necessary to get the ball rolling.
3) The range of possible subjects is broad - comics, movies, music, television, fiction, hobbies, queries, etc. Try to have the topic touch some aspect of Bronze Age nostalgia if possible.
4) Keep it clean and family friendly.
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So give us something to sink our teeth into and we will be back later with our own comments on the topic! Cheers!
30 comments:
Here's a topic:
Most of us left reading comics at some point and came back years later.
1) At what age did you stop reading? Why?
2) At what age did you pick it up again? Why?
For me, I was an active collector from 10-15. Collecting comics was looked down upon in HS so I guess that had a lot to do with it. Plus, the end of the Claremont/Byrne run was so great that everything after that was a huge letdown. The inexplicable Avengers 200 issue also left me scratching my head. And for as much praise as it gets, the Byrne FF run left me cold.
I guess I got back into reading again after the Avengers movie came out. I'm at that age when things from the past bring both great comfort and renew the sense of optimism I had as a young man.
Yoyo
I was an avid comics buyer from the age of 5 or 6 until around my 14th birthday (so 1972-73 to 1980). Like Yoyo, I quit because I felt comics were stigmatized by high school-aged kids. It amazes me today, working in a high school, to see the proliferation of comics-related merchandise walking the halls. I know it's movie driven, not periodical driven, but it still blows me away.
I got back into it around 1985, as a sophomore in college. That was right around the time of Dark Knight, Crisis, etc. Stern and Buscema were on the Avengers, and to an extent I felt like I'd come home. In hindsight, nothing after 1985 compared to the magic of comics I'd felt as a child.
That's why I pretty much remain stuck in the Bronze Age.
Doug
I had a long run as a comic reader, and later as collector. Starting at age 7, lasting until 1986 at age 26. I stopped because I was losing interest in the books the 'big two' were publishing then. Also, I was a young parent with bills, so most of my comics went off to be sold.
Although I occasionally picked up a comic after that, it wasn't until the late 90's that I returned to the fold. My son's had developed interest in comics, arising from the X-Men, Spider-man and Batman animated series. Their interest reawakened mine, and I soon had the great pleasure of taking them both to their first comic convention. I focus on the older comics now, but still keep a hand in the new stuff too...
I stopped reading comics around late 1983 - roughly the time when the Fantastic Four got those horrible new "negative" costumes with the white collars, yuck. I was 17 at the time, nearly 18, and I stopped reading comics because I felt I "should" not because I wanted to. I came back to reading comics (Marvel, I've always been exclusively a Marvel fan) in 2007 because the movies got me interested again. At first I was reading various Marvel Essentials and the Dark Horse Conan reprints but in November 2007 I bought my first new comics for 24 years. Like Doug, I felt like I'd "come home" and I've been reading Marvel comics on and off ever since, either physical or downloaded to my tablets. Unlike most commenters on BAB/BITBA I quite enjoy modern comics and they are NOT full of sex and violence as some people seem to think !
I read occasional issues from '76 to '78 (6-8 years) with availability depending on my parents. The party then inexplicably ended until early 1983 and my new-found wealth as an early morning paperboy. Multiple readings of Avengers #229 and Rom #40 later and I was away - loitering around the newsagent slavering with anticipation as deliveries arrived, swapping and buying comics from friends, the lot. This crazy phase lasted about three years and by the time I went to University, I was only picking up The Avengers. A year later I sold most of the collection.
Then, based on the occasional dispiriting comic shop visit, I spent the 90s thanking God that I was off the comic train.
Discovering eBay in 2000, I picked up a collection of Bronze and Copper comics on a whim. The scales fell from my eyes and I started picking up new comics once again, eventually peaking at about 30 titles a month.
Over time, however, purchases of old comics overtook the new (thanks in no small part to Doug and Karen) until the last new comic purchase in 2015. So here we are. As I type this there are enough unread comics upstairs to last 10 more years. Yes, I am still that 12 year old still having peak experiences when reading comics. They really are a marvellous thing, an inexhaustible fountain.
I should add, as both of our Colins have brought up new comics, that I purchased my last contemporary comic in 2004. I found that the books I was buying were just piling up and that I had no real intent of reading them. So why in the world was I spending money and getting no return in terms of enjoyment? It was tough to quit -- I know, sounds like an addiction. But I did stop and have been much happier since, spending those funds on various collected material. Now I have the ability to go down to my room and choose from a vast array of heroes and ages.
I think the things I enjoyed the most from the 1990s-2000s were some of the Elseworlds type stories. JLA: The Nail, Superboy's Legion, Batman and Captain America, Superman: Secret Identity, and The Adventures of Captain America would all be recommended reads.
Doug
Here's a follow up:
To echo Doug's post, when you see the near ubiquity of Superheroes everywhere, from TV to blockbuster movies to theme parks, do you at all feel "vindicated" by your earlier enjoyment of something that was considered so "low brow" and "for kids"? That you were mocked for only being ahead of the curve?
Yoyo
I was more of an Archie and Disney comic book reader in the '60s, when I was in Elementary School. In 1974, I went to the grocery store with my Mom and noticed the Thing on the cover of 3 comics - Marvel 2-in-1 #4 & #5 and Avengers #127 - and remembered him from the 1967 H-B FF cartoon. I was hooked and didn't really quit buying until last year, when the FF was cancelled. I had backed off a lot over the past decade or so, since comics had gotten too expensive, spread out a simple storyline over 6 or more issues, etc, etc, but it was the end of my beloved FF that really ended it for me.
I still pick up a couple here and there. I'm enjoying Future Quest, since it's fun to see all my favorite H-B cartoon heroes together.
I'm also having a blast getting my 12 year old nephew into classic comics. He thinks current comics are way too violent. He loves the Silver & Bronze Age Marvel Comics and has started asking for Masterworks collections for his birthday & Christmas! I'm so proud!
Yoyo --
I really don't think that kids today "like comics". Rather, they like the characters in their cinematic incarnations. So while I generally like those versions of the characters, too, they aren't the same characters I've loved for the better part of five decades. I don't think I feel any animosity toward the current situation; I am a little possessive, however, of the history I have with the comics from the Bronze Age.
I was wearing Iron Man socks a few weeks ago and my curriculum director took note. She remarked that she loves Tony Stark - he's her favorite. He's smart, but funny. A good role model for her kids. I knew everything she was saying was wrapped up in Robert Downey, Jr. and I nodded along. And then I thought of the Stark I've known and sometimes despised and just had a little wry smile to myself.
Doug
Once I started reading comics (aside from that vivid misplaced memory of me reading Kamandi pre-1970) in 1973, I was reading pretty much from then on. I had heavy months, High School/job, and I had years when I was only reading FF, Daredevil and the Avengers. Once I got out of school, married and a real job, I found a LCS and even had a pull list. I was buying 25 to 30 titles a month. Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and, yeah, Image. I found myself chasing the EVENTS. Marvel's Operation Galactic Storm, Image's Wildstorm Rising, DC's Contagion, things liken unto that and so on and so forth.
My LCS used to be right off the freeway and I could stop on my way home from work. Then my shift changed and I would drive in on my off days to pick up my list. Finally, they changed locations and it just wasn't doable any more. I even went by one day to see what was new and the place was now and Scent Shop!?!
I have picked up quite a few Essentials volumes, either at Half Price Books or Amazon. I would gather the dogs together before bedtime and read them the comics. Found out my daughters were also listening, so there's that.
Now I scan and edit and edit and scan...... this is what I do, this is who I am.
(She can kill with a smile
She can wound with her eyes
She can ruin your faith with her casual lies
And she only reveals what she wants you to see
She hides like a child
But she's always a woman to me
She can lead you to love
She can take you or leave you
She can ask for the truth
But she'll never believe
And she'll take what you give her as long as it's free
Yeah, she steals like a thief
But she's always a woman to me
Oh, she takes care of herself
She can wait if she wants
She's ahead of her time
Oh, and she never gives out
And she never gives in
She just changes her mind
She will promise you more
Than the Garden of Eden
Then she'll carelessly cut you
And laugh while you're bleeding
But she'll bring out the best
And the worst you can be
Blame it all on yourself
Cause she's always a woman to me
Oh, she takes care of herself
She can wait if she wants
She's ahead of her time
Oh, and she never gives out
And she never gives in
She just changes her mind
She is frequently kind
And she's suddenly cruel
She can do as she pleases
She's nobody's fool
But she can't be convicted
She's earned her degree
And the most she will do
Is throw shadows at you
But she's always a woman to me).
PS: My robot auto correct reminded me that the last movie I saw at the theatre was not Force Awakens but Rogue One! Dang memory chips......
A great question for a great blog site!
I started purchasing comics regularly at Spiderman 100 at 10 years old in 1971 and followed it religiously, along with Avengers, Cap America, Daredevil, FF, Invaders, and Luke Cage until roughly 1975 ish. I was 100% Marvel but for D.C.'s the Shadow. I dropped Spidey and FF due to the Gwen's death and Sue's divorce papers (Thank you not Gerry Conway!) I dropped the rest just b/c... I guess... I started reading books due to my World Lit class in high school and found that very enriching. But I never felt stigmatized reading them as I got older.
I would pick up the odd comic in college and in the military but really got into it again in 1989 b/c my boss was a D.C. comic hound. I actually enjoyed the early 90s D.C.s (no Marvels) with the Death of Superman, though I was in my early 30s by then.
Since the Death of Superman it's been "what catches my fancy." E.g., I bought a bunch of Jim Shooter's run on the Legion, for like $.50 / issue, at a local comic show in Chicago and thoroughly loved it. I found Chaykin's run on Cpt. Flagg run at another show and loved it. I might go into a store and buy a run on pulp characters like the Shadow, Black Bat, etc. o/wise I just stop in a shop to "recharge my batteries" and buy an odd one. I do like the current DD and Suicide Squad so I will buy them. But Lord knows it's hard to find the time to read them!
I would love to know if any of you other Bronzers have discovered cool back issue "runs" (Marvel, DC, whatever) worth reading (like the Legion ones I found or Cpt Flagg)? Cheers!
I pretty much mimic Doug in terms on collecting (perhaps not in my sock inventory...), my glory years were short, but it was at a crucial period in the early Bronze when we felt (looking back...) like being on the cusp of a new frontier, with Steranko helming FOOM, other characters like Brother Voodoo and Conan breaking new comic ground, along with that increasingly-irreverent Comic Code Authority governing progressive content.
Suddenly comics were being mentioned in the 'other world' of Rolling Stone, Cream, and more heady mags, since that first college campus article/pictorial in Enquire magazine back in 1966 highlighting Stan Lee's initial Marvelmania craze.
I'd say 1973-1975, then back again around '83 for a couple of years until even NTT got dull and repetitious by the time Perez left. After that, I just filled Silver and Bronze holes. Sooo, suffice to say, I have nill interest in any monthly mags since then.
I firmly believe Josh Whedon did the best job with the first Avengers flick.., the sequel kinda got unfocused and out-of-control. Liked the first Cap and IM movies as well..., just missed most of the others due to essentially lack of interest.
Forgive me, but I'm most proud to have my '60s Marvel cartoons all on DVD ('unauthorized release' or otherwise..).
Case in point, I bought upwards of a dozen minty Silver DC comics this month alone, enjoying those beautiful Adams and Swan Superboy and World Finest covers.
I started reading in the summer of 1974. I consumed everything I could get my mits on. I slowed a bit from 1985-87. Then full stop 1993. I canceled all 35-40 titles at the LCS. Nothing for 20 years. I started reading again in 2013. I got the GIT corp discs and read Marvel books from the beginning to 2003 to 2005. I read some new stuff digitally or in TPB. I don't like the way the new books are printed on that chemical paper and smudgy ink. I am enjoying the Valiant books, they remind me of 80's Marvel. I never felt the nerd stigma while collecting. I didn't understand why everyone wasn't into comics. I guess because like most things the public needs to be fed baby bird style, like the MCU has done!
I first started reading around 1977 and read pretty steadily until about 1986. I took a break for a couple years, but Spider-Man lured me back and I read from late '88 to about '94 or '95, when I got sick of all the fancy covers, endless crossovers, and other blatant marketing ploys that just seemed designed to jack the price up. I got back into comics a few years ago, and now I'm trying to catch up on everything I missed!
I read a few off and on, mostly of the Disney/Casper/Dennis/Archie variety with the occasional Batman or Superman thrown in, beginning in the late 60's. Then, I picked Justice League of America 91 in 1971 and it was the annual JLA/JSA team up and I was hooked big time. I eventually headed over to the Marvel Universe around '75 and read both pretty seriously until late '83-early '84, when my college studies (and the lack of a decent distributor where I attended college) ended my run.
Truthfully, I've never really returned to seriou collecting, but I've picked the occasional collection or two, but mostly from my era. My brother still reads them and keeps me updated and I will sometimes pick up one or two of his to read, but it's just not the same.
I'm just curious if any of you have a hard time "reading" comic books now? After college, working, etc. where I read as fast as possible, to get as much information as quickly as possible, I find it hard to "slow down" and enjoy the art and pacing of a comic. I mean, I constantly find myself wanting to "get to the point" if you will... and not really being able to "stop and smell the roses" along the way. Though, for some odd reason, I do slow down when I occasionally read a Sad Sack or Beano... just something about "humor" books I guess.
And about collecting, have any of you noticed the uptick in bidders on ebay the past year or so, for comics? I used to buy Lev Gleason Daredevils, Quality Comics' Blackhawks, Plastic Man, Fawcett Captain Marvels in "VG" condition for a very reasonable price ($10 - $20) and have at most 1 - 2 other bidders. Now, those books are 2 - 4 x as much, it seems, and it's not uncommon to have a dozen bidders and I left the market.
I get it: the economy climbed out of the Great Recession and folks have more $ to spend. But did that many suddenly discover an interest in 70 year old comics this past year??? Did an equivalent of "Steranko's History of Comics" suddenly hit the media and stir interest???
David B - when you got those comics in Elmhurst a few weeks ago (I live just a few miles from there) did the dealer give you any "context" like "these are really selling like hotcakes now?"
Charlie - yes, prices on pretty much everything published pre-1980 have gone through the roof. It started with the keys and CGC comics and now seems to have bled into the wider market.
Bubbles are notoriously hard to call but this feels like bubble territory. The original demographic (that's us folks) ain't getting any younger and surely the movie caravan can't sustain prices forever. Well, we shall see.
I started reading comics at very young age sometime in the early to mid-70's around the age of 7 or 8, and became an avid reader around the age of 10, and then became a hardcore collector in my early teens. And I never stopped. I kept buying and reading, and collecting comics uninterrupted most of my life. Even after I went in the Coast Guard, and then went to art school, and then got married. I still kept up buying comics.
I even kept it up through the much maligned 1990's. There was actually some pretty good stuff amongst the foil covers and leather jackets and other such dreck. A lot of stuff from Valiant Comics comes to mind. And the Animated inspired stuff from DC. And John Byrne was doing some nice stuff on West Coast Avengers and Namor, etc.
But even I finally reached my breaking point about 5 years ago. I found that new comics had just become too unbearable to read anymore. It seems these days the creators (or whoever) are more interested in destroying the characters and deconstructing the comics medium than they are in telling good (and fun) stories anymore. It seems to be all about shock value and big events nowadays, and I finally had had enough. It just wasn't any fun to me at all anymore.
But on the bright side, I now had the time to jump feet first back into the Bronze-Age. I realized that there were a lot of titles I never read growing up. And there were many issues I had never read of the titles that I did buy. And then there's the stuff that I really wanted to read again.
So I started putting all my enthusiasm for comics into buying back issues and collected volumes of stuff from the 70's and 80's (and even the 60's). And I'm having as much fun as I ever did reading comics again. And I pretty much just ignore what they are doing today.
I read comics from about age 3 but didn't make any effort to collect until I was 8. Amazing Spider-Man and Uncanny X-Men were the first two series I collected. I got into back issues a years later, gorging on old Hulk issues because I enjoyed the villains. Over the next few years, I subscribed (via the local comic store) to every Spider-Man title, New Mutants, Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, X-Factor. When Byrne joing the "Distinguished Competition," so did I, subscribing to Superman & Action Comics for a couple years, plus every 'Legends' tie-in.
At age 18, I went to college, but the store held my subscriptions until I came home. I'd usually marathon them during summers and holidays. I finally quit when I was 24, when the Clone Saga and Age Of Apocalypse were all the rage and I didn't care for them.
A few years later, I began picking up occasional reprints of 1970s & 80s issues. And now, since I blog about Bronze Age Reprints, I pick up as many books worth of them that I can.
I still buy new comics every other Wednesday...but not for me. My wife collects the current Star Wars, Buffy, Patsy Walker and Ms. Marvel series, plus the occasional Gaiman minis. I thumb through them sometimes,but I don't ever see myself reading or collecting new comics ever again.
I started for real when I was about ten. I stayed a fanboy through high school (the last holdout of several friends who started out with me) and dropped comics (sorta) when I started college. Actually I focused on Charlton, but soon enough I was back on all of them again. That lasted until about ten years ago when I finally called it quits on most all new stuff. But now I spend about as much on reprints. Sigh it's never stopped for long.
Rip Off
I started young; I'm not sure I know what year because I started with used comics from my cousin. I purchased my first comic in 1977 and followed until about 1983, dropped comics a bit in my later high school years, picked it up sporadically again in college, and jumped back into it more in 1988 through 1992 before dropping it pretty much for good. I still pick up the occasional issue. But I keep finding books in my old collection that I totally forgot I even had. It is like a whole new discovery and I am able to read it again and almost retain no knowledge from my previous reading. I am still stunned that 1987 was 30 years ago so I've forgotten much in the meantime.
I have to start selling some of my collection off. I've been giving some away to friends and family's kids to start weeding it down.
Colin B - Please don't say the "B" word!!! I am hopeful that one day my home will be worth what I paid for it at the height of the bubble around 2005. (Ouch. But the kids kept getting bigger or the original house smaller (?) and we had to do something!) Anyhow, I just got my ebay alert that Mile High Comics (big dealer from Denver area) is selling copies of Dandy from the 1970s and 1980s at like 10 (yes T-E-N!!!)) times anything I've ever paid for a super nice copy. Good Grief! I think I need to join Andy Capp for a pint tonight!
Wowzer. I've been served chips wrapped in Dandy comics.
Apologies for the flashback - at least you got a lovely home. Try living inside a house made of mint copies of Force Works #1.
Marti - you are speaking my language. Exact same experiences and situations except I started in 1971. I still have "bunches" of comics I bought at Chicago Comiccon (fire sale stuff so not a lot of $ invested) that I planned to read and simply haven't. Well, after 10 - 15 years it's time to let it go.
I plan to open an ebay account any day now... Maybe now is a great time to sell if there is a bubble of interest.
As the book "Comic Con and the Business of Pop Culture" says, retail comic sales really started declining heavily in the 1970s and us "bronzers" represent the end of the Golden Age of those "collecting" comics (and probably anything else).
My kids have no collections of anything and could generally care less about a physical book since they are used to digital. If I recall, the book suggests there are only like 10,000 thousand maximum of us out there buying an actual comic and only a few thousand buying back issues. So... it's a thin market, getting thinner, as time goes by.
Forgive me for writing so much today, buy I probably tore my knee meniscus playing soccer Sunday and am home, disabled, waiting for an MRI!
Colin B - I've had the fish and chips a few times in London and Cambridge, wrapped in newspapers, and I was, well, always wondering if there was ink bleeding onto the fish and chips? It really is a tasty treat and now I am hungry!!!
Hiya,
I don't know if I ever collected comics, I just kept reading them until they fell to pieces. Remember when the covers came off so easily or turning the pages with fingers made greasy and wet from the chips and soda we were snacking on?
I know people who wear white gloves whenever they take a book out of it's protective cover.
As for really reading these things that was when I got my newspaper route and found a store sixteen miles from home that carried something besides Dell, Golden Key or Harvey Comics. I bought a good selection of Marvel and some of DC, but as the Seventies went on I became much more discriminating about them. By the mid Seventies I was drifting away with only an occasional purchase. But up and coming creators like Byrne, Clairmont, and Cockrum got me looking for their works and Star Wars became the first title that I actively collected to the point of searching out missed issues.
The next decline in my purchases came during the expansion of titles during the mid and late Eighties. My funds were chasing too many books and, with the X-titles and Spiderman-man-man-man, there were too many variations of limited themes and my interest eventually waned.
It wasn't until Shooter's Valiant universe emerged that I became interested in comics again and that only lasted as long as Shooter was in charge.
As for the last book that I followed? That was a series of tv tie ins produced by IDW and written by Brian Lynch and artwork by Franco Urru. These featured the Spike character from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer show as the focus of several mini-series and a short lived regular title. The creative team really got the character and made it work in the comic media, something that I don't believe Joss Whedon was ever able to do.
Nowadays I glance at the racks with the new books before making my way to the boxes of back issues.
I may not know much about art but I know what I like.
Seeya
pfgavigan
I stopped collecting comicbooks roughly around the time Secret Wars came out; then, about 15 years ago I started a new job which just happened to have a local comicbook store a few blocks away. I started to buy some of the Bronze Age stuff, mostly titles I had followed when I was a kid, and it's rekindled my old love for them. I guess it never went away, it just laid dormant until this opportunity came along!
- Mike 'sent my Valentine to the LCS' from Trinidad & Tobago.
I forgot to mention in my above post that I actually sold off most of my collection of back issues in 1991-1992 (at the height of the comics speculation boom). I actually supported myself while I'll finished school that way. I had also just gotten married and we lived in a one bedroom apartment and 14 long boxes of comics took up a lot of room. The only thing I kept 100% of was my Spider-Man collection. I've actually repurchased almost all of my favorite comic runs (and then some) in TPB and hardcover collections since then.
Despite selling the majority my collection I still continued to buy new books every week at the comic store. Until about 5 or 6 years ago when I just couldn't take it anymore. (See my previous post).
I even eventually sold off my Spider-Man books a couple of years ago to get a down payment on a house.
Around about the age of 20, I "grew up" and thought it was time to stop reading comic books. So I sold off everything I had (including loads of high-grade Silver Age Marvel) and "moved on" to my "adult life". That didn't last long though, and here I am at age 54 surrounded by more comics (and hard and soft books thereof) in my study than most reputable stores have.
Oh, who else digs those IDW Artist Editions!? Maybe that can be a new thread.
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