[Matropolis]

Hi all,

I'm Mat, pretty new here. I love discovering new comics and my favourite type are costumed heroes whether they are powered or non.

I was wondering what was the first comic you read as a kid? For me growing up in the 90s it was Bucky O'Hare (we had 20 issues in the UK compared to the 5 released in the US) which is also my favourite cartoon. Other comics I had were the Animals of Farthing Wood and the odd Batman comic. But Bucky & Farthing I had subscriptions to. I've recently collected all the Bucky comics back as they were thrown out.

Would love to hear everyone else's.   

[narfstar]

Mine was too far back to remember my first. My cousin began passing her comics on to me after she read them. She got all the Archie and Harvey comics plus Superman comics. So I would have had a batch of those. It was the LSH in Adventure comics that turned me into a major fan.

[Matropolis]

I haven

[Florian R. Guillon]

The very first comicbook I've ever read is the 19th from the French series Les Tuniques Bleues (known in English as The Bluecoats): Le David. That was when I looked at the pictures of this album that I found out I could actually read. And boy, how have I read since then! So in the next days/weeks, I started reading all the comics that I could read at home: Ast

[SuperScrounge]

No idea. My dad began reading comics and cartoons to me when I was three. My earliest memory of getting a comic was Fantastic Four #83.

[The Australian Panther]

No real idea, but thinking about it now, I probably started with reading the strips in Newspapers. Used to read the paper every day for Mandrake, Dagwood, and mostly comedy strips, many of those Australian. Sunday was color supplements in one paper, with Flash Gordon (I now know that I was looking at Mac Raboy's stuff) Yes, I am talking about the late 50's and yes, I am that old. And the other paper had a mash-up one page of the entire weeks Dick Tracy. Also Prince Valiant was still good then. The Phantom was a regular in my mother's 'Women's Mirror' and Mandrake in the 'Women's Weekly'. [Falk and Phil Davis were on a roll with Mandrake at this time - really imaginative SF stories]  In retrospect I think my Grandfather may have been a comic fan - would never have dreamt of speaking to him about comics when I was a child. He was of Deutsch descent and Kazenjammer Kids (which I never really warmed to, and which we all probably know later split into 2 strips, the other version being called, 'The Captain and the Kids') was still a quite popular strip in the 50's and he always had papers lying around with this strip in it.
He also had a very old copy of this in his library.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter
His parents probably used to scare him with it. A very weird book with an interesting history. I think there is a copy somewhere on CB+ under a slightly different name. As you can imagine it made a strong impression on me as a young boy. 
First comic I read was probably a Disney, We used to have to drive about 100 km regularly to visit family. Mum used to buy me comics to give me something to do in the car. Was introduced to modern SF when Dad picked up a hitchhiker (because he was in Army Uniform) and he left a book and an issue of IF magazine in the car.That couldn't have been any later than 1958.
Sorry to be so long-winded. The question triggered memories.  Good memories.             

[misappear]

World

[Matropolis]

The very first comicbook I've ever read is the 19th from the French series Les Tuniques Bleues (known in English as The Bluecoats): Le David. That was when I looked at the pictures of this album that I found out I could actually read. And boy, how have I read since then! So in the next days/weeks, I started reading all the comics that I could read at home: Ast

[Matropolis]

No real idea, but thinking about it now, I probably started with reading the strips in Newspapers. Used to read the paper every day for Mandrake, Dagwood, and mostly comedy strips, many of those Australian. Sunday was color supplements in one paper, with Flash Gordon (I now know that I was looking at Mac Raboy's stuff) Yes, I am talking about the late 50's and yes, I am that old. And the other paper had a mash-up one page of the entire weeks Dick Tracy. Also Prince Valiant was still good then. The Phantom was a regular in my mother's 'Women's Mirror' and Mandrake in the 'Women's Weekly'. [Falk and Phil Davis were on a roll with Mandrake at this time - really imaginative SF stories]  In retrospect I think my Grandfather may have been a comic fan - would never have dreamt of speaking to him about comics when I was a child. He was of Deutsch descent and Kazenjammer Kids (which I never really warmed to, and which we all probably know later split into 2 strips, the other version being called, 'The Captain and the Kids') was still a quite popular strip in the 50's and he always had papers lying around with this strip in it.
He also had a very old copy of this in his library.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter
His parents probably used to scare him with it. A very weird book with an interesting history. I think there is a copy somewhere on CB+ under a slightly different name. As you can imagine it made a strong impression on me as a young boy. 
First comic I read was probably a Disney, We used to have to drive about 100 km regularly to visit family. Mum used to buy me comics to give me something to do in the car. Was introduced to modern SF when Dad picked up a hitchhiker (because he was in Army Uniform) and he left a book and an issue of IF magazine in the car.That couldn't have been any later than 1958.
Sorry to be so long-winded. The question triggered memories.  Good memories.           

Glad it was able to bring back those memories for you 🙂 Thanks for replying, it was interesting reading that. We all have very different backgrounds with comics it seems!

[Matropolis]

Thanks for the replies all. Very interesting to hear!

[paw broon]

Not a clue.  Could have been Jack and Jill or similar.  I did start reading comics at a very young age. 
Some of us are getting on a bit so that's along time ago for me, also.

[crashryan]

This is a great question, but try as I might I can't recall my earliest comic book. I fell in love with comics in general through newspaper strips. As a five/six-year-old in the Philippines I followed the Sunday comics in the English-language Manila Times. The strips I remember best were Brick Bradford, The Phantom, and Flash Gordon. When we moved to Alabama circa 1957-1958 I started reading comic books, often bought by my parents. The earliest I remember were Walt Disney's Comics & Stories and Dell movie and Western comics.

[Drahken]

Impossible to say really. I've been reading in general since before I can remember, and I've had some comic books since before I can remember. I know I had an issue of richie rich (richie rich jackpots #33), some archie comics, and some superman comics in my earliest collection. According to what I've been told, the first comic that I owned would have been one of the superman ones (action comics if you want to be technical). According to the story, I was 1yr old, we were shopping, as we checked out the cashier said "what about those?" as she looked down at me, it turned out I had grabbed a couple comics from the rack without anyone noticing. My parents were "oh! how cute! we have to buy them for him!".
I don't know for certain which issues those were, but my collection included action comics 473-482. (I still have most, if not all, of those btw.)
Upon further inspection, I also had one or more of 460-462, as I recognize that ronald mcdonald/joker love child, though I don't recognize a specific issue.

[misappear]

My mother must have been aware of the comic book controversy in the 1950

[paw broon]

I'd already said that I wasn't at all sure as it was so long ago - early '50's most likely, but I do remember having an Ace Hart comic when I was at primary school and that would be mid '50's. It would have been an issue of Superthriller and most likely a Foldes Press printing, before WDL took over.
As we didn't have American comics - nowhere near an American base - the only things I would have seen were American or Canadian newspaper comic sections, as relations in N. America would occasionally send papers over here.
As for Classics Illustrated, I was never that interested till recently when I bought a few of the SF or detective adaptations and enjoyed them. We had our own printings of CI and I don't remember ever seeing American priced issues when I was young.  The indicia on some British editions shows they were published by Strato, distributed by T&P, by permission of Gilbertson; or published and distributed by T&P.  The few British editions I have are priced at 1/3d and they are a smaller size than the American editions. Despite having the British guide, I don't know much more about them.

[bowers]

 As a lad, I discovered comics by  reading the Sunday comics and perusing my sister's "Katie Keene" collection. The first comic books I owned were Batman 112 and Detective 247, both from 1957. These were given to me by one of my sister's  boyfriends. He obviously knew how to keep prying little brothers occupied! Cheers, Bowers

[comixboonk]

I think mine might've been Darkstars.

[Captain Audio]

First comic I remember owning was a classics illustrated issue of "War of the Worlds". One of the most memorable covers ever.

[The Australian Panther]

That cover and the interior art is by the great Lou Cameron.
His work from Classics Illustrated, he did several of the science fiction ones, is burned into my retinas!

[Captain Audio]

That cover and the interior art is by the great Lou Cameron.
His work from Classics Illustrated, he did several of the science fiction ones, is burned into my retinas!

Cameron served in the 2nd Armored Division (Hell on Wheels) in Europe during WW2. I suspect this experience helped greatly in visualizing the combat scenes of War of the Worlds. He would have been very familiar with the weaponry, not that much different than that of WW2 , and the harbors and shipping one might encounter in England.

[misappear]

The science fiction stories in Classics Illustrated were incredible to my young mind. I was mesmerized by Frankenstein, First Men in the Moon, The Time Machine..........so many wonderful memories. What a great run of comics.

[crashryan]

I'm another reader who was thrilled by the Classics Illustrated science-fiction titles. Cameron's War of the Worlds was awesome, as was his Time Machine. His Martian war machines are still my favorite non-movie design. Another Cameron Classic was his adaptation of The Bottle Imp. It was a brilliant choice not to show the Imp...I dreamed up all sorts of possible appearances.

[Robb_K]

Hello everyone!  I'm new to this website and forum.  Great to find it.  I grew up in Canada and The Netherlands, reading comic books in both places, starting with my grandparents, and parents reading them to me from the age of two, and then at three, I started reading back to them.  That's how I started reading at age three.  I can't remember a first comic book, because I had many, even from the very start.  I lived in a large extended family compound, and inherited all the comic books I could want from four older male cousins, who didn't care about keeping their comics after reading them a few times.  So, I got most of the "Funny Animal" comics from the major US studios (Disney, WB, MGM. Walter Lantz) from the start of the 1940s from them. They had Superhero and Western comics too, but I didn't care about those.  I started asking my parents to buy me my own, new comics at 3 in 1949. They were mainly Disney (Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and Walt Disney's Comics & Stories).  In Canada, after WWII, we had US comics.  I made sure to get ALL the Disney comics (through my cousins, and my parents and grandparents). 

I started buying my own comics in 1951. I spent summers with family in The Netherlands, and bought Dutch comics there.  I was happy when they started printing Disney comics there in 1952.  I kept those with my cousins in Den Haag. I already had several thousand comics by age 14, when I thought I'd grown up, and was too old for them.  So, I gave away everything but the Disney books (which I couldn't bring myself to relinquish).  I still have all my 1935-1963 Can/US Disney books, and most of my 1952-current Dutch books (I continued with those because I started working as a storywriter/storyboarder and cover sketch artist for Dutch Disney Comics (Donald Duck Weekblad) in 1985, and have many friends who were or still are colleagues. I collect all their stories, as well as mine, -and got the books for free, anyway.

I love the work of Carl Barks the best, but also like Floyd Gottfredson, Ken Hultgren, Walt Kelly, Jack Bradbury, Gil Turner, Tony Strobl, Daan Jippes, Ben Verhagen, Mau Heijmans, Jan Gulbransson, Freddy Milton, Paul Murry, Dick Moors, Romano Scarpa, Victor Arriagada Rios(Vicar), Daniel Branca, Lynn Karp, Al Hubbard, Don (Aar) Christensen, and many, many others, as well as several other funny animal and cartoony Human figure comedy artists including the funny animal art of Frank Frazetta, Howie Post, and others who drew in various genres.

My most memorable early comics were Carl Barks' Donald Duck "Lost In The Andes", "Voodoo Hoodoo", "Luck of The North", "Christmas On Bear Mountain" and "Sheriff of Bullet Valley", and Floyd Gottfredson's "Mickey Mouse Outwits The Phantom Blot" All from 1939-1949.

I am on this website to fill in my collection mainly with scans of the Sangor-Hughes Studios (Creston/ACG-Giggle, HaHa, Funny Films) & Better.Nedor/Standard (Barnyard, Coo Coo,Goofy, Happy, Supermouse, Merry-Go-Round, and also other funny animal titles, I still am missing issues from series like Super Duck, Fawcett Funny Animals, and Frisky Fables. And I also want to read some comedy stories from older series I never knew about from the mid '30s to the early 1940s from Wm. H. Wise, Centaur, Chesler, King Features, Quality, and Fox Features.