My First Comics

So I did some digging the other day and uncovered a few childhood treasures: my very first comic books. I remember carrying them around with me everywhere I went. They are now wrinkled and faded, but still in pretty good shape. Check 'em out:


This is my very first comic. It is dated 1988, which means someone bought it for me when I was a wee lad of 2 years. This may come as a surprise, but I was somewhat illiterate as a 2 year old, shameful I know, but I enjoyed looking at the pictures all the same. I was a big Ducktales fan; if you weren't, I don't think I like you very much.





This is a Marvel "What If?" comic from 1991. These are stories about alternate realities and the theoretical storylines that might emerge from them. Pretty substantial stuff for a 5 year old to try and grasp. Wendigo combined with Wolverine? Punisher/Iron Man? Of course, I didn't have any idea what was happening here. But I knew this book had Captain America in it and he threw his shield at some guys, so I thought it  was pretty cool.





Here's an "Uncle Scrooge" comic from '92. My love for talking ducks continued, and I remember liking this one. Especially the cover. It's funny that even though I'm older, I appreciate old "Uncle Scrooge" comics much more than I did as a little tyke. Carl Barks and Don Rosa were great storytellers. The famous rumor states that George Lucas was directly inspired by many of the adventures in "Scrooge" comics when creating Indiana Jones! 





Ah, my first Batman comic book, dated December '92. Most Batman comics were very dark and not necessarily geared towards kids, but this book was based on the newly emerging "Batman: The Animated Series" and was child-friendly. The show was awesome and so were these books, so I collected this series for years. You may notice the odd pen drawing and subsequent Scotch tape over Joker's nose. This comic suffered inadvertent misfortune when I accidentally placed a discarded piece of chewing gum on the cover. I discovered what I had done later, and much to my dismay, the old gum was now fused to the cover. . . IRREVOCABLY. I pulled the gum off, ripping off a piece of the cover, and ripping my heart in half as well. Fortunately, I had an artistic mother who took the time to recreate Joker's face and tape it in place for me. And then I could live again.