My First Comic Book

People imagine my childhood far differently than it actually occurred. Some people think that I have stacks of comic books and have been collecting them ever since I was a child. This is not the case. I didn’t get into comics until I was in high school and couldn’t wait for the next issue of The Age Of Apocalypse came out. Before that I would read Wizard when it was nearby or a friend had it but I wasn’t running to the comic shop every week buying comics.

With the AOA series they took Marvel and made a history that was affected by the fact that Charles Xavier was killed. The art in almost every issue was good. The stories were fresh and new. It ran for a while and I ended up buying pretty much every single issue. Then it was done and so was I.

Shade the Changing Man was the next series of comics that had me running to 7/11 and Golden Apple. Remember that place? No, its not gone. I just stopped going there when they decided that toys and yoyo’s were more important than, you know, comic books.

The very first comic book I ever got was Daredevil Issue 261. No, I didn’t beg my parents to buy it, head to the shop, or have any interest in daredevil. I didn’t even know what the hell Daredevil was. I bought it from this guy I think was named Henry. A tall White guy that wore camouflage pants every day and would have all us kids chase him while he pretty much parkour’d away from us.

One day he needed money for the bus right when we were leaving school. He said “I’ll sell this for a quarter.” I happened to have one so I got it. The cover looked cool. Imagine my shock when I read it on the bus ride home and The Human Torch never lights up completely and Daredevil isn’t even in costume. It pretty much all took place in a bar.

Since that first comic I’ve become a huge fan of Daredevil. I’ve given away boxes of comic books. All I have are trade paper backs and graphic novels. The last time I read regularly was when Mr. Soot was letting me borrow all those DC 52 comics which was the inspiration for even starting this blog. I wish I knew where that dude Henry was so I could thank him for accidentally creating a monster.