Aw, man! Did you know it’s First Comic Week! (at least unofficially)? Neat.
Now, I was pretty darn nerdy by the time I got my first comic, so I can’t say that it’s what ‘did me in’, so to speak. It was for graduating 6th grade and they were from my brother, a good 13 years older than me. I still have all the books bagged, boarded and boxed somewhere, a selection of Spider-Mans (including the disco Peter Parker issue), some Uncanny X-Mens and only one of them blew me away. Reaching into the shoebox, the one second to the last was Uncanny X-Men #152.
My tiny little 7th grader jaw dropped at the two half-naked women wrestling in the sky on the cover. My mother let my brother pick this book up or was I getting the wrong box? I mean, the guy in the wheelchair looks to be having a heartattack and I didn’t blame him! What was I getting into? Were these really ‘boys’ books’?
And then… like a beacon of shining hope, like a gift from angels above, I picked that one up, set it outside the box and found one of my mst treasured books to date: Gold Key’s Star Trek #41.
A huge Trekkie, this was like mana from heaven as I’d collected tons of paperback pocket books of the adventures of the Enterprise and had run dry in my supply. The very idea of Star Trek comic books was opening a whole new door to me, one that made me step foot in my first comic shop and I’ve never looked back.
I eventually read that issue of Uncanny X-Men instead of making faces at it’s leggy cover and came to know and love Storm as one kick ass lady (no matter her fashion choices).
X-Men #24 was my first non-Trek book, purchased off the shelves at the store I’m proud to work at now. I’m still a huge fan of the X-Men (a fact that causes me great distress some days, trust me) while Star Trek fandom is on the decline. Gene Roddenberry’s idea of a future utopia just wasn’t ‘real’ enough for modern audiences, so they got darker, got lost, and lost viewers. Comics these days also seem to be taking on that ‘we need to be more real attitude, hopefully for a better effect.
Or will I be looking at a box of comics somewhere down the road and be starstruck by something entirely different than the industry provides?
One Comment
Neat! I’ve seen a lot of “First Comic Week” stuff, but not a lot mentions the old, old school. My first comic may have been the Gold Key Star Trek #27. Still one of the better Gold Key ones, check it out if you see the reprint!