Once upon a time I was a very avid reader of superhero books. That's not to say that I don't enjoy the them now and then. A little chunk of my reading is always set aside for them every month and I don't see myself ever quitting them completely. Without getting too high minded about it I'd say some of the fascination is that I still believe that superheroes at their best challenge and reinforce the beliefs of those who most need to be reassured and challenged. Couple that with the energy and imagination and bottled up sexual energy and it's a potentially powerful mix.

Talk of old comics is inevitable at comic conventions, and as that most people I know who do comics have at least cut their teeth reading a super hero book or two they end up being a big topic of discussion. A couple such post-HEROES CON discussions (particularly one with Dean Trippe and Cliff Chiang over beer and pizza) coupled with an interview with BRUCE TIMM about his influences gave me the urge to go down memory lane. So aided only by my memory and the internet I spent an hour or so compiling some of the issues that really wound me up as a kid. I have a bunch of modern favorites, and my superhero reading has become a lot more esoteric over time (as it did with anyone who's stuck with it at all), but to focus it I decided to go with stuff from before I graduated High school. Some of these are chosen purely for art, some for the stories, others for the ideas. I in no way present this stuff to serve as a defense or condemnation of my taste. This is just stuff I was into, and stuff I still carry around in my skull. If you think it's crap or creamsicle then so be it.

BACK BINS
By the time I opened my first comic I was well aware of superheroes as a genre. 60's BATMAN, SUPERFRIENDS, SPIDER-MAN CARTOONS, you can't be a child of the 80's and not have some memory of this stuff.

A box of my Dad's old books, mostly DC HORROR and WAR comics, was handed down to me and in it were a handful of superhero books. I was completely torn between terror and morbid curiosity with those, and to this day seeing some of those covers sets me off a little inside. But again, the superhero stuff was the key to my comics addiction most notably this MACHINE MAN Jack Kirby issue and a handful of issues where MACHINE fought THE HULK.






Over time I became really interested in all the moving parts, so in that regard MARVEL SAGA and THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL U were invaluable. I still credit those books for inspiring my creativity, helping me to gain an appreciation for some of the artists who were out of favor at the time, and in creating this damnable encyclopedic knowledge of pre-90's Marvel history. Hell most of the time the journal entries and condensed storylines were better than the real thing:






CONNECT THE DOTS
The first major contemporary comic I can remember getting into was X-FACTOR. I'm sure it was because of the MARVEL SAGA stuff which featured the old-Lee Kirby X-MEN. But it was also because I was instantly hooked on WALT SIMONSON.

X-FACTOR


And of course X-FACTOR lead me to the back bins and THOR:
THOR


which also lead to BYRNES FF, which I think really does account for a lot of my interest in Kirby MARVEL. I was really into BYRNE or some time. He was a great torch bearer, even if some of it nearly qualifies as bad fan fic.



CLASSIC X-MEN was not only educational but it had great ART ADAMS covers (Later on early MIGNOLA)


FALL OF THE MUTANTS
X-FACTOR obviously lead to X-MEN. I could post X-MEN covers all day, but the first stuff I really flipped for was FALL OF THE MUTANTS but I really enjoyed a lot of the art around the AUSTRALIAN X-MEN era.

I was a particularly big fan of RICK LEONARDI. This issue still exists in the back of my mind as a great stand alone story:


Silvestri at the top of his game:


Jim Lee on his way to superstar status:


X-MEN lead to NEW MUTANTS. This issue was (I believe) more great LEONARDI interiors wrapped in ART ADAMS


I'm not sure but I think this issue tied into that X-MEN cover by LEONARDI.


I couldn't find any Bill Sienkiewicz that was representational of my memory, but he really sorta blew my mind and freaked me out. I could have posted a ton of ART ADAMS as well. Particularly ASGARDIAN X-MEN and X-BABIES.

EXCALIBUR is a no brainer. This stuff was sort of a tepid introduction to the wild ALAN MOORE Captain Britain stuff. I still love WARWOLVES and TECH NET and ALAN DAVIS drew some mega saucy ladies.




ODDS AND ENDS
Seeing red and silver IRON MAN still makes synapses pop. Great BWS cover (which lines up in my mind with that Wolverine story he did)


This second IRON MAN is notable for the STEALTH armor and also because in 4th or 5th grade I was allowed to do a comicbook for a final grade. So I wrote and drew an issue of IRON MAN that essentially ripped this off. The funny part is that I thought I could do it better. 4 foot boy. 20 foot ego.



More HULK. I think I own more HULK issues than nearly anything else. I'd still love to get my hands on that book someday.





I missed the boat on FRANK MILLERS DAREDEVIL. But the LEONARDI issue where WOLVERINE shows up and they hunt BUSHWHACKER stands among my favorites. JOHN ROMITA JR'S issues also stick out because I loved the rough quality they had.





COSMIC ODYSSEY is maybe my favorite old school superhero book pound for pound. And was the book where I really flipped for MIGNOLA for life.





Not a great SPIDEY COVER but memorable for the interiors being LEONARDI and featuring X-FACTOR. Plus I think I still aesthetically prefer the black suit deep down.



This was kind of old school to my taste but I still responded to the drawing:


Could have picked a dozen McFarlane Spideys. They don't do as much for me now, but I can't deny they're exciting. Really remember loving his Sandman.



BYRNE sort of MARVELED up DC and I was a nut for his SUPERMAN. These are the first two issues I remember buying of it. The second one is MIGNOLA, and was probably my first look at his work:



DARK KNIGHT is the book that I didn't love but couldn't put down. It's a favorite now. I'd be remiss not to post the cover of the trade I had.



Probably the CLASSIEST comic I was into art wise was the MOEBIUS take on SILVER SURFER. I got into MOEBIUS thanks to an article in COMICS SCENE magazine, which was this great (for the era) mag that had lots of raw art in it. There was an article on MOEBIUS with all kinds of movie concept art, looks at Euro comics, and his new foray into some stuff for MARVEL. Blew my mind. These issues are still near my art desk today.




And finally the 90's came and I sort of stepped away for a while. I sort of missed the IMAGE boom for the most part but the Batman Cartoon and books like MADMEN kept superheroes accessible and sort of provided a gateway drug to other stuff.



Anyways, I could have posted ten dozen more covers, and I will admit there was much much more junk in the diet. But this is the stuff that's still in me, actively alive and refusing to let go.

MOre soon...