What Are The Comics That Changed YOUR Life? Options

[G-Man]

Hi everyone.

Want to thank everyone who may have taken the time to read the first Life In Four Colors column and I hope you enjoyed it (despite the two typos that snuck past me.... )

I thought it would really be cool and interesting if you could share a couple of stories concerning some of your favorite all time comics. How many of you out there remember the first comic you read? Why do you remember it?

I know I would like to see some of those responses and I'm sure Chuck would as well.

Not very long ago I interveiwed several different comic shop owners in my area, all in the same day. and asked that question....all for a series of interviews I was doing for another website. They all had some pretty great books and interesting stories, but none as good as Bill Thade's reply to the question. For those of you who don't know who Bill is he owns a comic book store in Dayton Ohio called Fearless Readers and he's the primary financial backer for the annual Gem City Comic Con also in the Dayton area (April of every year.)

Bill has literally HUNDREDS of great comic stories....and he told me this great story about a rainy day in the fifth grade when he read a friend's copy of Amazing Spider-Man #122 and #123 as well as Uncanny X-Men #94 !!! WOW!!! What a great couple of books to start out reading comics with! He also had a really awesome story about when he bought a copy of Incredible Hulk # 181 at the once legendary but now long closed Dayton comic book store, The Bookie Parlor.

The next time you're in the Dayton area, stop in and see Bill....at Fearless Readers Comics 1613 Huffman Ave.
Great Guy. Great Store.

In the mean time....let's hear some stories about some Great Comics !!!

Watch for Life In Four Colors #2 Friday, June 20th. It's gonna be called "Bring On The Bad Guys." I know what you think it's about.....let's see if you're right.

[ChuckMoore]

Here's some of my earliest memories of comics and the ONE BOOK that changed my life...

I grew up in a restaurant family. My parents ran a Frisches Big Boy in Portsmouth, Ohio, a little town (pictured right) nestled on the Ohio River. It was the kind of family run restaurant where everyone was pleasant and there was a great little candy counter as you checked out. Sometimes, when I was very young, my dad would take me with him when he picked up candy to restock that counter. We would visit a small, locally owned distributor just down the road that in my eyes could have put Willy Wonka to shame with the bevy of treats they had for sale. On one visit, I noticed they had small stacks of out of date comics tied together in blocks with thin rope. They were selling comics by the pound. No joke, they weighed them as you checked out to determine the final price. Since each stack was tied, you never knew what you would get until you made it to your car. I always loved discovering what new titles were in the mix and every so often, dad was good enough to treat me to a pound or two. I can still remember my excitement cutting the string and leafing through those covers. Who needed candy, I had comics!

My dad may get bragging rights for introducing me to comics, but it was my mom who takes the prize for making me a collector. She always had an eye for detail, style and encouraged my creativity. One day, while helping clean out an old attic with a friend she stumbled across a comic which she gave to me. I was maybe eight or nine at the time. I still have it to this day. It was a single issue of Fawcett Magazine's Captain Marvel Adventures. A very old copy of the February 1944 issue number 32 to be exact. That book, quite honestly, changed my life. It wasn't just the comic, but rather the mystery that it could be valuable that hit home with me. I've never parted ways with that issue, have no plans to ever sell it and never looked back from the dawn of a hobby I now love.

With all the respect I can offer a single comic, here's a cover scan (click it for the full size image) of the issue that made me a comic collector. Thank you Captain Marvel. Shazam, like my family, will always make me smile...