What was your entry point into comics

My entry point was Infinite Crisis which is probably one of the worst entry points possible. Not because its bad quite the opposite in fact I fucking love Infinite Crisis despite having some issues with it. Its because of its status as an event comicthe series is so entrenched in the DCU that on my first reading, a lot of things went over my head. To me, a sign of a good event or team book is that it makes you want to learn more about the characters and their history and IC definitely succeeds with flying colors in that regard. After that I got into 52 and that cemented me as a DC fan

I think for me it was when I started reading Fables. I had been interested in comics before having read the few in my elementary school library when I was younger (Spider-Man, Bone, Calvin & Hobbes) I had also been into manga (mostly from watching anime) but reading Fables led to me visiting my local comic store somewhat regularly and checking out more comics like Batman, the Flash, and many others.

Edited by Bec66 on Feb 13th 2019 at 12:47:38 PM

Daredevil. I found a copy of the final issue of Brian Michael Bendis' run, in the floor in a school library. (the one in which he goes to prison for vigilantism) It made go back to the very first issue of Daredevil (I didn't understand comic writer runs back then, don't judge me) and read all the way back to Ed Brubaker's run which was going on currently. It was the only comic I really read until I discovered Annihilation by way of Moondragon. (she appeared in Daredevil, that was enough to follow her on to an event) This lead to me experiencing the cosmic side of Marvel, and being present for the modern incarnation of Guardians of the Galaxy. Once again I went back to the first issue of Guardians, (again, don't judge me) and became infatuated with the character of Star-Lord (an infatuation which is still present to this day). Overtime, these experiences pretty much jumpstarted my interest in comics. From The Invisibles to Blueberry to Hellblazer to Stone Ocean, i've had a particularly interesting view of the medium.

Edited by KeironCioran on Feb 17th 2019 at 2:50:57 AM

Mine was a hardcover copy of one of JMS Spider-Man stories, unintended consequences. At the time, i was still fresh from seeing Spider-Man 2 and BTAS reruns, so i wanted to hunt down a comic. When i read it, i was amazed at the status quo like Peter and MJ were married and Peter was a teacher. The back up story always stuck with me, it was a story where one of Peter's student's brother was arrested by Spider-Man. That is one of the best examples of two identities colliding i ever saw in a comic.

I'd read The Beano and the odd Asterix album as a kid, but it was really Watchmen that got me into the medium.

I discovered Watchmen due to it being regularly brought up on Atop the Fourth Wall and TVTropes, and that really showed me how comics could have artistic merit.

My introduction to comic books was some old comics from the 60s and 70s that my uncle left me, my favorites being the Legion of Super-Heroes comics featuring Superboy (the original Superman as a boy), an old Batman comic about a guy who cut off his girlfriend's head with an axe and shrunk it because of jealousy issues and also featured Catwoman, and a Shazam! comic from back in the day when he was known as Captain Marvel, which had a Captain Marvel Jr. side-story about a Vanishing Village. I also had plenty of exposure to other superheroes thanks to the Saturday Morning cartoons and live-action shows I used to watch as a little guy, including the Fantastic Four, Superman and Superboy.

Edited by Dravencour on Apr 19th 2019 at 4:18:37 AM

Spider-Man, age 6.

Pixar's Cars. Age 7.

I was introduced to comics through my dad's collection, so that meant a lot of late eighties and early nineties Punisher, Batman, and Wolverine. One of the earlier comics I "read" (I mostly looked at the pictures) was an hardback that had Batman Year One and The Dark Knight Returns.

Edited by BigMadDraco on Apr 20th 2019 at 8:11:35 AM

Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man. I was around 14 at the time checking out Graphic Novels from my local Public Library and those volumes caught my eye.

Edited by Lionheart0 on Apr 21st 2019 at 3:10:13 PM

I once saw a cool ship and two women flying in Superman style, an X that blows up like an atomic bomb, a man with claws (and The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You), etc; and a heavy metal riff in the background that sounds like a "tarara dada, tarara dada", and the rest, as they say, is history. Then, I started buying the comics of the TV series, and soon I moved to the actual comics.

Atop the Fourth Wall was my gateway series to comic books(I have been a fan since almost the beginning), but my first comic book from a main publisher was Infinite Crisis from a book store. And I started going to the comic book store when Blackest Night was nearing the end. Teen Titans was the first comic book-related material I really absorbed period, and researching it on Wikipedia for the comic book versions is what made me aware of the superhero genre. But the Bongo Simpsons and Futurama comics were the Ur-Example for me

[Sigh] Didn’t want to admit this, but it was Deathmates. Yes. THAT Deathmates. The crappy intercompany crossover that not only almost killed the industry but also killed an entire company in Valient.

When I was an 8 year old I found two of those books stored in my Nana’s basement. When I read that shit I was excited to read about these new heroes I have never heard of as they were nothing like the Marvel and DC heroes I see on tv. It was basically my introduction to indie comics like Image and Valient. I thought this was a badass book that I found which inspired me to read others like this in the future.

Nowadays I realize how shitty that story is and now have to walk this sinnful planet with the cringe knowledge that without those comics I would of NEVER be the comic book nerd that I am today.

The works of Manuel Garcia Ferre!

Transformers. Marvel's Transformers.

Optimus Prime was a father figure for me growing up, honestly.

I didn't really have an "entry point" that can be remembered. I'm old enough to have grown up when Superman & Batman comics were sold in rotating racks next to the convenience-store cash register ("STILL JUST 35¢!"), and they were just something your parents might buy for you while they were at it. And since I was already reading/writing before I was three, suppose you could say that comics consumption feels nearly innate to me.

Hah, I started out in the worst possible time: Amazing Spider-Man #409... Right in the middle of the infamous clone saga. So, I decided to read it until the saga ended (to find out how it went - exactly the mentality creators were banking on), and that meant buying back issues, crossovers and so on... then, when I was around 12, my brother and his friends took all of the comics to keep in storage (since we all believed they'd be worth a fortune in the futuree ) and I pretty much stopped reading until college.

I was a Batman fan before I could properly speak words, but, I would consider what got me into keeping up with actual comics stuff was the first book i specifically bought and owned for myself, Superman/Batman #24. Its a little confusing without the previous issues for context, but the art and cover were what drew me in, and It ended up having an effect on me for years. That book ended up being one of my favorites and every time its brought back and has good people on it, my world's a little brighter.

Elfquest. I grew up with a snooty attitude, probably from listening to people who automatically equated "comics" with "merchandise driven nonsense." I didn't know that anything other than PG-rated superhero comics or G-rated newspaper comics existed. Then a friend lent me a hardcover collection of the first five issues of Elfquest. It opened my eyes. I spent the next two decades searching for similar comics that were just edgy enough, not too mainstream but not too arthouse.

Transformers More than Meets the Eye. After reading about it some on Tfwiki.net I started reading it online.

Thunderbolts. And Ultimate Spiderman,since I got on the ground floor there.

I saw some Untold Tales of Spider-Man in the summer school when I was 6 and it was basically one of my first introductions. There were also the Spider-Man cartoons (Spectacular and Ultimate) and the Batman: TAS episode I saw when I was a kid. A Spider-Man film in TV when I knew Spidey was Peter Parker and the old DC Super Hero Girls show. Nothing else, I think.

Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman run. I love it. Part of what made it impress 12-year old me so much was that Clark and Lois were married, something that didn't fit the Pop-Cultural Osmosis stereotypes about Superman I had previously heard.

Edited by StarformDCX on Oct 12th 2020 at 12:11:04 PM

Crisis on Infinite Earths, hell of a comic to start with.

Super Sons and the Superman (Rebirth) run under Gleason and Tomasi. Fun, bombastic stories that managed to be touching and memorable. Jon is still one of my favorite new comic characters. Fun, cheeky, a goody two-shoes who's kind of a little shit. Watching him grow has been one of my favorite parts of the run.

They weren't perfect, mind you. Lois doesn't get enough to do, the "respect America and veterans" message was a little heavy-handed, parts got derailed as part of intercomic crossovers (Super Sons of Tomorrow was awful outside of the parts involving Jon and Damian). But I still enjoyed them and do enjoy them a lot.

Edited by reppuzan on Oct 12th 2020 at 6:21:58 AM