The last 20 years collecting comics has been a wild ride for me. Compared to most who may read this, I’m comparatively young for the comic book industry. Not the youngest, mind you, but my first set of comics were bestowed upon me were a couple of random issues of Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog at the prime of Sonic Adventure 2 on the Gamecube (around 2003?). I had known about the spikey blue boy through prior games but it was a whole new world to engage with the comic world. If anyone asks, I totally did not drive to New York to purchase a Shadow the Hedgehog game because the comic with him in it was so cool. Regardless, those books were read cover to cover so many times the staples fell out, and were eventually lost when I moved to college.
The first real comic book store experience I had was while I had no money and no business buying comics, but my local shop had a promotion on Wednesdays where you could get four free books with any purchase of a new book. Boy, I fell into that! We’d slink over, buy a book, go through these beat up back issues on the floor and pull everything we could find that looked fun. The Manager was cool, the staff was awesome so naturally my friends wanted to play board games there. Because of this I was exposed to early issues of Saga. I vividly remember seeing Saga #1 on the wall for $35 dollars a year-ish after its release and to this day I kick myself over not buying it. Saga is a fantastic sci-fi drama written by Brian K. Vaughan with art by Fiona Staples. To see where it has gone nearly 10+ years later is astonishing. Please give it a read if you haven’t!
Soon after I attended my first comic convention and purchased some Nightwing books followed by landing a job at the same comic store I’d been attending as a customer. I could write a dissertation on Nightwing but I’ll just say that I started my first pull list and got every issue of New 52 Nightwing I could get my fingers on. That wasn’t many because the series ended and Grayson had started, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the book! The fact that most heroes only need to glance at his backside to identify Dick Grayson while he’s disguised is pretty hilarious.
From blank covers I’ll never have anyone draw on, to key first appearances, I’ve purchased many comics through the years, mainly independents and DC comics with a few Marvel titles sprinkled in. As 2024 begins, I hope this inspires folks to reflect on their years based on what they collected. There’s a lot of talk of what the future holds for comics, but I’ve come to find that a lot of gems are in the past, not to mention the memories of why we love comics so much. Sometimes it’s not so bad to reach back and take a look, crack open a few issues that may be classic to you and have a laugh. And I hope that little bit brings you joy in the days to come. Next time I promise to write that dissertation!
