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24 comments:
What are the final five comics you got, as a kid?
Mine are:
Moon Knight Vol 1 # 9 (Moon Knight vs the Midnight Man)
Marvel Superheroes Monthly Vol 1 # 378 (Avengers vs Absorbing Man)
Power Man & Iron Fist vol 1 # 73 (ROM vs Power Man & Iron Fist)
The Uncanny X-Men Winter Special, 1981 (What If Phoenix Had Not Died?)
All of these were 'one offs', as I'd stopped regular buying, at that time. Nevertheless, they were all good issues - some very good!
I've only got 4, here - but I need some tea for my memory to charge up! What's your list look like?
Phillip
I've never bought a final comic, Phillip, and haven't really grown up. So thats me out.
-sean
Same here.
I pretty much kept buying comics of some sort or other since I was 5.
There were key dropping-off points though, if you like?
I bought 2000AD from Prog 1 right through my childhood and teens. It was a badge of honour in those days to have been buying it since the very beginning. My interest in it waned over the years, though I always had a standing order. I worked in a newsagent from 15-19 and had it on order there. When that newsagent closed and I moved on, I let it go. So that was 2000AD done and dusted in 1990. Never picked another prog up until they were giving them away free at Tribal Gathering 1997.
I had a period in the early 90s when all I was buying was Alan Moore and Frank Miller. I'd previously idolised Bill Sienkiewicz as well but he properly dropped off the radar in that period. Miller got worse and worse and I gave up after 2 issues of 300. So it was just me & Al.
My interest in comics generally was renewed in 1999 when I started chasing up what I'd missed over the decade.
Maybe I need some caveats, taking on board Sean's comment.
Earlier hiatuses in your comics journey can also be included. For example, in (late?) March 1978, my parents decided my brother & myself should stop reading comics, and read books instead. Not being financially independent, that put a stop to comics for a while, but (thank goodness for inconsistent parenting) Marvel comics were back on board, later in 1978.
Also, returning to comics later in life, means you can still include hiatuses, for whatever reason.
Basically, interpret the title however you see fit!
Phillip
Matthew - You could keep that in reserve for a later 'Speak Your Brain' - When was your jaded interest in comics renewed?
Phillip
Phillip! Very interesting question. I have not quit the purchasing of comics. I will still buy reprints from Gem Comics in Elmhurst, Illinois and Graham Crackers in Downers Grove, Illinois. The last new ones i bought were 4~5 issues of World’s Finest about a year ago… in large part because it featured Metamorpho! Charlie!
Charlie - Wasn't it Ramona Fradon (?) who drew Metamorpho, for DC? The only female Marvel artist I recall is Marie Severin (obviously). I suppose, in those days, in both cases it was trailblazing (or something!)
Phillip
Phillip, I managed to transition from kid to grown-up without giving up the comics habit. There were definitely periods when my purchases of new comics scaled way, WAY back, and there were more than a few weeks when I’d exit my Local Comics Store completely empty-handed. But I still doggedly went every Wednesday, right up until the Covid Lockdown. I confess that during those last six months or so, I rarely bought a ‘new’ comic off the racks. I think my ‘final’ new comics purchase may have been one of those DC 100-Page Giants, SWAMP THING or BIRDS OF PREY.
As the Lockdown dragged on, I was surprised to find I didn’t really miss that weekly trip to the comics store. I do feel kinda guilty about it — the owner of my LCS is a really cool guy and I feel bad that I don’t at least buy back issues from him, or the occasional TPB collection of Bronze Age stuff, or Betty and Veronica Digests or whatever.
b.t.
b.t. - Hmmm! I suppose I transitioned from comics to books, starting with fantasy/sci, and eventually more serious stuff. However, comics material relaxes you, ready for sleep, more than books do. The last few nights, it's been some Essential Moon Knight, to slow me down. You've also just reminded me of something I'd forgotten - the big part the weekly routine of comics played - having your "fix" to look forward to, on a particular day.
Phillip
Phillip, I was actually buying and reading books BEFORE I started collecting comics. When I was in grade school, it was mostly stuff like Alfred Hitchcock anthologies (MONSTER MUSEUM and HAUNTED HOUSEFUL etc) and H.G. Wells and Sherlock Holmes — in my teens, I got into Pulp stuff like Doc Savage and Fu Manchu, and James Bond and Mickey Spillane and Matt Helm and The Executioner and The Destroyer, and Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs and H.P. Lovecraft. As an adult, I still read all that stuff, plus tons of Mystery, Hardboiled/ ‘Noir’ Fiction, Science Fiction, Horror, the occasional biography and historical non-fiction, etc.
I still read comics too, but almost exclusively ‘Vintage’ stuff these days. My most recent comics purchase was the Collected WEB OF HORROR from Fantagraphics. I’ve been debating whether or not I want to get that new DEFENDERS Epic Collection.
b.t.
Like Sean, I haven't grown up; and like Charlie, I've not quit buying completely. Now, I've cut waaaaaaaaay back- very seldom buy 'new' comics; most recently a few on Free Comic Day. The most recent five books i've picked up are all back issues, courtesy of yard sales and those ever fruitful flea markets. They include Avengers 135, Yogi Bear #11 (a Dell Giant from about 1962), Archie's Pals n Gals #21 (another giant comic, early 60's vintage), Uncle Scrooge #224 (a Don Rosa issue), and Rima the Jungle Girl #2.
It's fairly simple for me to name these, as I use the CLZ comic app on my phone to keep track of comic purchases. Any of you as obsessive about tracking your collections?
Incidentally, looking over the last few dozen acquisitions, they are nearly all 'humor' comics. Does that mean I'm regressing as i get old?
b.t.- that "Web of Horror" collection sounds great. Those old horror tales had some fun stories, and often pretty nice artwork...
Like most regulars on here, I didn’t ever really stop buying and so I’ll adopt the key moment approach.
Last weekly UK comic on standing order was Complete Fantastic Four #37. I’d followed the FF from MWOM to Titans, Captain Britain and then Complete FF and was sad that this title did last longer. I definitely carried on buying weekly and monthly comics, for a few, years, but didnt place anything on order. I don’t recall an actual discussion but I think I was only ever allowed a single weekly order which passed from Planet of the Apes to Captain Britain and then Complete FF.
Slightly contradicting my recent US monthly 40 year posts, I realized my last regular Marvel monthly, again on order, was X-men 193. It makes sense because the accountant in me would have recognized 100 issues of the All New All Different X-men (although my actual run started at #96).
The final actual US monthly purchased (in the physical sense) was the final Alan Moore issue of the recent-ish Marvel reprints of Miracleman. Because I sold my Eclipse copies back in the day, obviously ;-)
DW
RED - I to find myself reading more and more literature. Targeted for children. Part of this is because of my new granddaughter. Part of this is because I actually find it easier to learn foreign languages using texts and cartoons to study. Inoftrn joked “ I wish I could speak French as well as a five-year-old French kid.” LOL.
Also, I think that the era in which we live, what with the incessant bombardment of the negative from the various mediums, demands we try to balance ourselves with children’s humor at times to stay balanced.
Anyhow, I think this is a great topic for a future discussion.
Phillip! Sorry for the diversion!
The Charles a.k.a. Joshika the Magyar!
Quick cultural question Due to an ongoing discussion of how many languages assigned genders to nouns.
In the UK, if there is a group of males and females together, would you use the expression? “what are you guys up to? “Or is it an American thing?
The point being that in America, we are assigning a masculine gender to a mixed group which includes females.
Thanks for the topic, Phillip.
I must confess that I don't have a clue what the final 5 comics were that I bought during my first period of comic buying. I'm definitely going to have to do some research before being able to answer that one.
Charlie (?), I wouldn't call a group of males and females, "guys," but I know that a sizeable percentage of younger people would.
b.t. - Is grade school equivalent to junior school (8-11) in the UK? Capturing Dean Martin's hung-over, 'day after the night before' look, in print, sounds interesting! I've only ever watched the films! DW's contradicting myself clause applies to me, too. I didn't neatly transition from comics to books (reconstructing memories forgets 'overlap'). I was reading Burroughs & Tolkien aged 11(whilst also reading comics), but I only later encountered other writers you mentioned. I read 'Conan the Adventurer', aged 12 (I think); to me, Spillane's more lightweight than Chandler - so I only read one of his books. Fu Manchu is readable enough, although the racial generalizations are unintentionally hilarious. I've got one pulp - an Abraham Merritt - but it's literally falling to bits.
Joshika - Divert away - the more topics the better! Yes, language learning's certainly progressed since our schooldays. I wish those Michel Thomas language courses had been around when I was learning French (with very limited success!) Some people are now saying learning basic stories, you'd read to little kids, in another language, is how to learn a language (as you were saying!) When I visited La Rochelle, 20 years ago, I picked up a book/pamphlet telling the entire history of France in cartoon form! I've never seen that in the UK!
If Joshika's Hungarian for 'Joe', what's Hungarian for Charlie?
Similar to Steve's comment, I think 'guys' is sometimes used by some adults talking to mixed groups of young people. Not our generation(s), mind you.
Steve - I'd agree! Dredging up my last 4 or 5 comics from memory was a task for me, too!
Phillip
Redartz - I don't know CLZ, as I'm a technology dinosaur. I'll have to look that up!
Phillip
I think in general a group of males anď females would be addressed in UK as "guys" or "folk" also you "lot" etc plus there will be regional and national specific terms Scots, Welsh Irish, Cornish language etc
Phillip, when I was growing up in Southern California, Grade School (or Elementary School) was grades 1-6, Junior High School was 7-9, High School was 10-12. Sometime in the 1980s, Junior High became ‘Middle School’ for grades 6-8, and High School for grades 9-12. But it can vary depending on the location.
The Matt Helm in the original novels is nothing like the swingin’ spy in the Dean Martin films. In the books, he’s tough, cynical, occasionally brutal, doesn’t have much of a sense of humor, and many of his assignments center around straight-up assassinating someone working for the opposition. I appreciate the Helm books now more than I did as a teenager (but with the caveat that they’re generally VERY sexist by 21st Century standards).
I’m practically the opposite with the Fu Manchu books. I re-read a few several years ago and found them very slowly paced and somewhat dull. I’m surprised that Tween Me actually enjoyed them back in the day.
b.t.
b.t. - A Fu Manchu book I read was particularly hilarious, the main character generalizing how "Arab women fall in love, at first sight". Reading that, I thought: "Does Sax Rohmer really believe this nonsense he's writing?"
Phillip
I think everyone knows my last five comics as a kid.
Four of them were the last four pre–Dez issues of Super Spider–Man And Captain Britain (or whatever it was called at that time).
And there was the first Dez Comic that I read. It might have been the third or fourth Dez comic with me missing a few because of some sort of strike. But the one I got first had (i) strips shortened to, what, 4 pages/week? (ii) boring Nova and Surfer strips introduced to the mix at the expense of other strips that I was invested in, and worst of all (iii) the Spider–Man story printed wasn't a new one. It was a reprint from years earlier. Maybe ASM #90? Turns out that Dez had actually been continuing with material from where pre–Dez left off and that this reprint was only because of strikes or deadline doom or something. But I didn't know that, so I dropped out in a fit of pique.
dangermash - I didn't know your last 5! Looking it up, there were some Lightmaster ones, and the Scorpion, too, on the covers, at Super Spider-man's fag-end! Tracking down early Dez's 'Spider-man Comic' issues is difficult, because of the title's disambiguation problems! I was mightily unimpressed when paper cover weeklies started, too. To me, things picked up when Gerry Conway/Jim Shooter's Avengers started appearing in paper Spidey. But that was a very long wait... The Carrion story was powerful, too - albeit disturbing.
Phillip
Publishers are always giving ús good reasons to stop reading comics, but here are some notable 'jumping off' points -
Marvel and DC: the late 70s. Pretty much anyone who was any good had left by then. Once even Jack Kirby was gone you knew it was definitely over.
2000AD: going all colour. Tharg just didn't have the art droids capable of filling the progs competently every week. And grud on a greenie, don't get me started on the writing (with the Mills droid stuck on repeat, did they have anyone worth reading other than John Wagner?)
English language comics generally: Watchmen #12.
And of course there are times when one's interests might turn more toward - holy hormones, Batman! - girls.
Or boys (I think it's fair to say the comment section here seems to skew male/straight, but let's not exclude anyone).
The above applied to me anyway, but I am such a terminally sad case I would find reasons to jump back on the wagon again.
Just the one comic, I could stop any time you know, honest...
-sean
* To be clear, theres absolutely nothing wrong with Watchmen #12 (I am not pushing some sort of revisionist nonsense about the alien squid being a dumb idea, or anything like that).
It was a jumping off point in the sense that there wasn't really anything worth reading afterwards.
-sean
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