I've been a comic fan for years, and a fan of super-hero comics ever since I picked up Legion of Super-Heroes #274 and 275 (The Exaggerated Death of Ultra-Boy). Why those issues? Because they were both on sale at my local grocery store. I figured I should get two issues together, in case the story continued to the next issue (which it did).

I didn't know anything about the characters, they had weird code names, and even weirder real names (they are mostly aliens, after all), but I was totally hooked. My next books were probably some JLAs around issue #174. I know I had 174 and it's the first JLA I remember. I also discovered I loved team books.

I'm sure these first super-hero books are what lead to my love for all things DC. If DC published a super-hero book, I want it. Currently, I have over 13,000 DCs in my collection, and it continues to grow as I work my way back to the early '80s.

In the mid-80s, I got out of comics altogether, like many people do at that age. I sold off my entire collection of 730 books and didn't look back. At least, I didn't look back until college, when I discovered a comic store near my dorm. The book that sucked me back in? The new Legion series (at the time) taking place after the five-year gap.

Since then, I haven't really looked back. I've been getting every DC super-hero book since about 1992 or so, with a couple-year exception around the time I got married. Funds were just too tight then.

Good things for comic collectors
Comicbase collection software
Drawer boxes - if you don't have these, you are probably nuts
E. Gerber mylar bags