Jesus F Christ
Finger Lickin' God
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Where It All Started

Star Wars #8

The first comic I remember having was Star Wars #8 from February 1978 which my parents bought for me because I was a huge star wars fan. I had a few other Marvel Star Wars comics but this was the one I remember since it had the bunny guy on the cover. I was 3 years old when I got this.

G.I. Joe #1

The first comic I saw and specifically asked them to buy for me was Marvel's G.I. Joe #1 from 1982.

G.I. Joe #21

The next important comic I got was G.I. Joe #21, the silent issue that had no dialogue and introduced Storm Shadow. This was important because It was the first time I could really grasp all of the story just from the pictures, and it showed me that there was continuity. This was #21 which meant there were a whole bunch of other comics after #1. I started trying to find all those back issues after that.

Who's Who in the DC Universe #8

The last one I'll mention, probably the most important, was one that ironically had no story or action: Who's Who in the DC Universe #8. I got it during the summer of 1985 while on vacation with my family. It had Firestorm on a cool wraparound cover with a bunch of other characters and I liked him from the Super Friends cartoon so I bought it. When I opened it up I found that it was all just entries telling me about different DC super-heroes. But this issue was important because it covered most of the "F" entries. Not only did I get to learn about Firestorm but I also read about two (TWO!?!) Flashes from different Earths, the Fatal Five and Ferro Lad from the 30th century, Freedom Fighters from Earth X where they still fought against Hitler and lots of mentions to "the recent Crisis". This really piqued my curiosity and I tried to find every issue of Who's Who I could to learn all the back stories of all the characters. Once I'd done that I bought back issues of Crisis on Infinite Earths which was my first proper exposure to the DCU. I wasn't confused a bit and I grasped it all. The rest of my comic collecting youth was spent reading DC, unlike most of my peers which seem to have started reading Marvel heroes. For me it was Crisis on Infinite Earths.