let's talk about comic books

my first memory of our local card shop wasn't baseball cards. i didn't know what those were. no, my first memory is seeing all the comic book racks that were in place across from the register and the boxes of back issues along the wall.  i didn't buy comics back then - instead going the baseball card route a  year or two later - but i have mentioned in a few posts that i used to read and collect comic books in the 1980s. it pretty much ended in the late '80s when i graduated from high school, but i would still read a few releases here and there as my brother continued to pick up neil gaiman releases like "the sandman" and i'd check them out over winter break.

i still have some of my old collection, including my "dark knight returns" graphic novel (first printing)

it's pretty well read.

here's my "watchmen" series (first printing)

alan moore is great. i gave my "saga of the swamp thing" comics to my brother one year but did pick up the hardcover releases 

that covered moore's "american gothic" storyline. and, i kept dc presents #85

which was also penned by moore.

there were some other high end miniseries that i bought after dark knight blew up, including dk2 - "the dark knight strikes again"

and "green arrow the longbow hunters" 

and "the shadow: shadows & light"

plus "the shadow blood & judgment" in graphic novel

format.

the oldest comic in my collection is not that old - it's from 1979 - and it's one of those false drama cover issues. "adventure comics" #462:

it's been over 35 years since i've read that issue, but i am pretty sure batman doesn't die.

i have a few other "batman" and "detective comics issues"

including the "year one" and "year two" series.

i started collecting "superman" sometime in the early 1980's and then went back and completed the run from issue #350

through the "final" issue #423

and i also picked up the last issue of "action comics"

alan moore strikes again with those final issues! i kept collecting "superman" into the john byrne reboot, 

but lost interest after a few months.

the bulk of my collection, however, is my teen titans stuff. it starts with "dc comics presents" #26 (new teen titans preview)

and continues with the series #1 issue

and #2 which includes the first appearance of deathstroke

the "who is donna troy?" issue 

was a classic that was later ruined by revisiting the question as "who is wonder girl?"

later on. i think that revisitation was the last comic book i ever bought.

prior to that, however, the original titans title became "tales of the teen titans" 

and then some time after that published reprints from the deluxe format series. i stopped once that happened because i already had the deluxe format comics of "the new teen titans" from #1 

up to issue #37 (and then picked up that aforementioned "who is wonder girl?" series as well).

i also have all the titans oddball issues and crossovers from that era

which includes "batman" #368 (the first appearance of jason todd as robin)

some of these tie-ins and crossovers are pretty minimal, but thanks to the official crossover indices, 

i was able to track them down. i don't have the original teen titans stuff though - just the wolfman/perez era stuff.

speaking of wolfman/perez, i have the "crisis on infinite earth" miniseries

plus all the crossovers

although i don't have duplicates of the titans issues that fit that bill. in fact, i should probably double check with my crossover indices

this was a fantastic series, but some of the crossovers were pretty weak. i still bit, though.  i thought about selling the crisis stuff a couple of years ago when it was a storyline on the cw, but didn't. oh well.

speaking of the cw, i did keep my issues of "the new flash"

this was the reboot after the "legends" miniseries that had wally west moving into the role of the flash as opposed to continuing on as kid flash. he had retired from that role when he was part of the new teen titans, but came out of retirement during the crisis - just in time to see his uncle [spoiler alert] die. i only have the first nine issues of this reboot, plus the first annual special. i have some initial issues from other reboots like "justice league" as well.

there are a few other random series of books in my collection - i think i have all of the ambush bug appearances across various dc titles, plus some independent releases

(but not the original tmnt, unfortunately).  i think my brother has the original "elfquest" series. that was a good read, but i gave up on this "seige at blue mountain" storyline after a couple of issues. 

all of these comics have been bagged and boarded since the mid to late 1980's, although i might re-read some of them at some point. i would also like to find matt wagner's "mage" series from 1984 to re-read. my brother had it and i really enjoyed it but never got a copy of my own.

i also used to have a bunch of "flash" (carmine infantino era) comics - leading up to the trial of barry allen and the end of that series, plus the first few issues of the marv wolfman/george perez "wonder woman" reboot. as you can tell, i was mostly dc (my brother collected marvel titles) although i did have some frank miller "daredevil" issues and a few "uncanny x-men" and "web of spiderman" books that are no longer in my collection.

there's a lot more i could cover, especially since i have a ton of the "secret origins" comics and the dc encyclopedia and absolutely fantastic "history of the dc universe"

by the aforementioned wolfman/perez tandem. these are just fantastic items in my opinion.

speaking of which, i thought that today would be a good day to begin the transition from card blogging to comic blogging, so...

go check it out here!