Early Childhood Memories of Comic Books
How far back do you remember?
My oldest memories go back to when I was three or four. How do I know? By the comics books I had and what my Dad read to me. I remember! Most of my childhood memories revolve around comic books. Many of my later memories also recall where I was when I picked up a certain comic book. Right or wrong, I can tell you where I was when I received The Incredible Hulk #300. There’s also no question in my mind from where Web of Spider-man #1 came. I also know that most of my early G.I.Joe comics came from Shiloh Drug Store in Shiloh Plaza.
Show me an old back issue and it will usually trigger a memory of where I was when I purchased it the first time. Most of these memories revolve around the gas stations and drug stores that carried the comic book racks when I was a kid.
I’m not sure how old I was when I received my first comic book but I have learned that a lot of my first comics books were printed before I was born. They could have been hand-me-downs, but from whom? I am still unclear on that but I think Uncle Clyde was involved somehow, or cousin Cary or Kevin.
I’ve re-purchased a lot of the original comics I owned since our house burned down in 1987. All of my memories pertain to the first time I bought the comic. I don’t have all of them, but the good ones are in my collection.
Marvel dominated my latter years as far as collecting is concerned, but I had a lot of early DC comics from the 70’s thanks to the Super friends cartoon. As I grew up in the mid-eighties, my first love was G.I.Joe. Secret Wars helped change that.
The first DC comic book I remember is Superman #335, with Mister Mxyplyzyk. There were others but I was too young to remember them. They were mostly Justice League and Batman. Back then I had more DC comics than Marvel, but that would change shortly. I do remember Uncle Clyde buying me a Batman comic at Nanny Woodsons one time. It featured Man-Bat and was scary as shit for a little kid.
The first Spider-Man comic I remember was ASM #133, which I remember my father reading to me in our living room. It featured the Molten Man. That comic was published in June 1974, so I don’t know how long I had the comic before Dad read it to me.
Uncle Clyde also brought me some Incredible Hulk comics. My very first was disappointing. It was a Doc Samson solo story and I couldn’t understand why my Hulk comic didn’t have the Hulk! Incredible Hulk #218 from December 1977. This was around the time that the Hulk TV show (1978) was on and I wanted to be the Hulk...or Aquaman.
When my parents drove to Colorado with Mema and myself I was little, about 4 or 5. I remember they bought me a stack of comics. Some were Star Wars, which I was too young to appreciate yet. One of them was Amazing Spider-man #181. I was four and a half. In that stack I also had ASM #113 which was published the year before I was born, in October 1972, so I have no idea where that comic came from. Another Star Wars note about that trip - my mother gave me my first two Star Wars figure in a motel on the way out to Colorado. R2D2 and C3P0 would soon become my favorites.
Some of the comics I collected were real duds. I loved Rom, Spaceknight and the Savage She-Hulk. For She-Hulk, I would ride with Dad to the dump and if I had been good, he would let me buy a Slush Puppy and a comic. That’s where I would pick up the She-Hulk comics. The first issue I picked up was issue #3 (April 1980). I also picked up issues of The Handbook of the Marvel Universe and a few Spider-Woman comics. Another cruddy book I loved was Dazzler. See the female hero trend, here? I just noticed it for the first time. Add that with my Wonder woman fixation and this is probably telling about me.
When I was in first grade my father would pick me up from daycare on his motorcycle. We’d stop at SDI mart for a quart of beer and I’d get a comc which he would slide in his jacket and give to me once we were home. Dad will never know how much I enjoyed doing that. He would later tell me he was scared to death to have me riding on that motorcycle with him.
1984 was a big year for me and my comic collecting. I spent most of the year a ten-year-old. That August my parents took me to Knoxville to see the Jacksons Victory Tour. On the way there, we stopped at a gas station where i picked up G.I.Joe #26 - it was all about the story of Snake Eyes and it bound me to the comic for many years after that. I might not have enough money for two comics but the first comic I always bought was G.I.Joe.
In Mount Juliet there was “The Country Store” which had adult nudie magazines and comic books. I remember finding my first Hobgoblin issue, Amazing Spider-Man #250 and buying it there because the front cover actually tells you to steal it. In the top left, the Hobgoblin says, “It’s great! Steal It!” It was only $.60.
The first time I saw Spider-Man in his black outfit was just a few months later when we were in my father’s blue Mazda B2000 Sundowner truck. Mom and Dad were going to the lawyers office in order to sign paperwork to buy the plot next door to our house. Amazing Spider-man #253, from June 1984, was purchased at a gas station up the street from Mema’s house in my parents effort to keep me busy while they did the adult stuff.
Chris Atwood and I were forever changed one Friday night at Shiloh Drug Store when one of the kids working there told us about The Great Escape, a store that sold only comics books and sports cards. We couldn’t believe it! Once I found that store, my life changed drastically. Here I am 41 years old and usually every time I go back to Nashville for Christmas, I stop in their Madison store and buy something. I didn’t start bagging and boarding my comics until around this time.
I was sick at home one evening in October 1984 with the chicken pox when Billie Belew brought me some comic books. One of those gems happened to be Incredible Hulk #300. I was hooked after this, and Mike Mignola’s Crossroads storyline immediately following this issue is one of my all-time favorite runs of comics.
I’ve already started collecting comics for Liam, mostly the free comic book day comics, but ones he can understand. I tried to read him and Batman & Scooby Doo adventures comic yesterday. He’s 3 months. I can’t start him too young, can I? I hope he likes comics. One day all mine will probably be his.