[darkmark]

Come to think of it, my first real exposure to Golden Age stories, as opposed to Golden Age characters, was probably an ish of IW / Super's DOLL MAN.  I bought one of these for a nickel in '64 or so at a little neighborhood bookstore and liked the character fairly well.  (Didn't bother with Plastic Man or the Spirit because they were--yuchh!--FUNNY super-heroes!  Hey, I was 9 or so!)  The art and stories were great, and I grabbed the only other ish of it I could find.  I didn't know what era they came from, but I knew they were good.  So much for that.

[John C]

Hey, it could be worse.  My first exposure to Plastic Man was the cartoon, followed by DC's perpetual (failed) attempts to make him the star of a "hilarious" series.

Though of DC's tries at Plastic Man (not counting the rarely-seen Bob Haney version), the '60s series is actually kind of amusing in its way, and they even "protected" the original character by making the series star his son.  But my point is that the character seems to need a certain amount of maturity to appreciate...and that nobody at DC (except Haney) has that maturity.

[jfglade]

 I've been avoiding this question because I haven't been quite sure how to answer it. I was born in 1948, and I had a considerably older brother who brought home comics quite often; I also grew up in the Wyoming ranching community, where it was considered a sin to throw away anything that had been printed, the two exceptions being mail order catalogs which were fair game for use in outhoused and newspapers which could be used to start fires after they were a year or two old and it was unlikely that anyone would miss any news they contained. If you had visitors you expected, they would often bring a box of magazines, newspapers, paperbacks and, if they had kids and you had kids, comic books as a gift. When we visited people who knew we were coming we would do the same. Consequently, I was still reading pre-code comics in 1958 but not as many as I had been in 1956. I remembered things I knew were no longer published, and one of my earlier memories has to do with a comic book that was missing pages from the center; I eventually figured out that that book had been 'All-Star Comics' #51, and I must have been bitterly disappointed by the missing pages in late 1954 or early 1955. Let's say that I grew up with an awareness that comic books had been around for quite awhile, and that some things were no longer printed, but my sense of what had gone missing were comics that had featured crime down and dirty crime and horror stories, because I remembered a few of those books and the fact that they upset my mother. However, it wasn't as if I actually had any memories of the "Golden Age of Comics." I recalled parts of the "Atomic Age of Comic Books," but that isn't exactly the same thing.

In fact, I wasn't aware of the "silver age" until I saw the first 'Justice League of America' tryout issue in 'Brave & Bold' #28, and decided something new was going on. My older brother read my copy of that issue and told me about the Justice Society of America, as well as older characters like Submariner, Human Torch, Bulletman, Captain America, Dr. Midnight, Crimebuster, and the Ghost Patrol. A few years later I was excited by the first JLA/JSA crossover. Despite that, the single thing that made me overwhilmingly curious about the Golden Age was when 'Playboy' printed Jules Feiffer's introduction to his "The Great Comic Book Heroes," as a heavily illustrated feature article.

Exposure and interest are two different things, so I'm still not sure how to answer the question which is why I have gone on at such length.

[Guardian7]

My first exposure to Golden Aged heroes was well after I had already known about the Justice Society due to issues of the Justice League of America (you know... the good one).
I did not realize they stretched that far back... somewhere I have a Justice League with a reprint of the EVIL STAR storyline featuring the JSA. I was fascinated and after that tried finding out more (kinda difficult for a kid at that time... no internet). I did by finding other comics with backup features (But hardly enough). It was more articles from various Magazines about Comics that I found out the most.
Centaur (The company I favor the best right now), I discovered in the pages of "COMICS FEATURE" a three issue span article about these little known chara (and at the time of the printing of said chara in the magazine) with virtually no other avenue to find out more.
It wasn't until after the Internet cropped up... that I was able to do a search on information involving said chara (Which I had just re-read about from the same magazines I still have).

All in all... I think the Golden Age of all (well most) of the various chara from various companies is fascinating (It helps that I love stuff - especially heroic ideal stuff - from that particular period in history (primarily the WWII stuff).

In any case. It is all cool. Fun stories where it was truely escapism.

G7/Les

[Captain Audio]

When I was a small kid there was a shoe repair store next to my uncles dry cleaners shop, the proprietor kept a couple of tables with stacks of old comic books that you could purchase for three cents and when finished reading you could return for two cents cedit on the next comic, so you got to read the comic and study it at home for one penny or keep it for three cents.
No doubt almost all those I returned for two cents are worth hundreds or even thousands today. Of course few were in good condition.

Also at about that time there was an old barn near my school. I found I could climb to the hayloft doors and on exploring I found a huge trunk filled with old newspapers in perfect condition. I spent many hours there reading the old comic strips, I remember the Katzenjammer kids the best.

[narfstar]

Not GA but two local barbershops had comics in the SA. They did not care what books they had so allowed me to trade whatever I wanted.

[Yoc]

Wow, that's a fun story Cap! 
In my city babershops were mostly gone by the time I needed one. 

[narfstar]

We still have barbershop in TN. Different requirements from beauty salon.

[Yoc]

Beauty salons will be around long after people start speaking in binary or something!

[Mr. Izaj]

 In my case, my first exposure to the Golden Age was in 1974 when - at the age of nine - I bought a copy of Justice League of America #113. Not only did I learn of the existance of the Justice Society of America, I also got the chance to read one of classic stories from the 1940's ("The Case of the Patriotic Crimes" which was reprinted in that issue). But a few other books  acquired around that time - copies of Detective Comics #442 (which reprinted Golden Age stories featuring Batman, Black Canary, Doctor Fate, and The Newsboy Legion) and World's Finest Comics #226 (which reprinted a Simon & Kirby Sandman story) - both started me on the road to being a comic book collector and a serious fan of Golden Age DC comics.  And it only increased with DC's Famous 1st. Edition reprintings of landmark Golden Age DC books and my finding a copy of Jules Feifer's The Great Comic Book Heroes in my local library. But what sealed it was acquiring my first Comic Book Price Guide in 1976 and seeing the covers of many obscure 1940's comic books. After that I was a Golden Age fan for life. Only the high prices and rarity of many a Golden Age comic kept me from purchasing too many during my active years of collecting comic books during the mid to late 1970's and 1980's.

It was only in recent years that my passion for comics' Golden Age has been rekindled. Thanks in large part to DC's excellent hardbound book The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told and such harbound books as DC's Archive editions and the Golden Age Marvel Masterworks that I'm back into collecting comics again. And the advent of the Internet and such sites as this that I was finaly able to read all those rare comics that in my younger days I could only look at from behind glass cases.

[MikeV]

My first exposure to Golden Age characters was when DC used to publish the 100 page spectaculars in the early 70s.  I used to love to read old Dr. Fate and Wildcat stories.   I knew nothing of the history of Fawcett or Quality, I had just assumed that characters such as Captain Marvel, Kid Eternity and Blackhawk had simply been dropped in the fifties and sixties due to lack of popularity.  Now with the wonders of the Internet I now know a bit more of the courtroom battles between the publishers and what led to the demise of these once great publishers.

My interest has only recently been rekindled thanks to this site.  I could not believe the amount of comics that were at my finger tips.  Since I joined, I have been kept busy being reacquainted with some old friends and being introduced (belatedly) to new ones.   Long may this continue.

[narfstar]

If you check some of the most obscure and oddest comics you may see them from narfstar. Many mine as that is my collecting interest, others scanned from JVJ's collection. The scans here are great but man what a cool feeling to hold them in your hand.

[DennyWilson]

My first exposure to the Golden Age was the reprints in BATMAN FAMILY's early isues - as well as the reprint volimes BATMAN : 30's to the 70's and SHAZAM! : 40's to The 70's. ALL-STAR COMICS and
tabloid reprint was my first look at golden age comic complete.

I'n the early 1980's I sanged up every 100-page DC Comic I could get my hand on - and in those days you could still get them for 50c or $1 in Medium and High grades!

[narfstar]

I have several many bought off the stands because they were such a great buy

[darkmark]

   My Grandma knew nothing of comics when I was a child, but knew a bargain when she saw one.  Israel Waldman's illegal reprints came 3 to a pack and were cheap, so that's what she got for me and my two little brothers.  Plastic Man?  Black Dwarf? Who dat?
  It was on this very site that I finally got to re-read that weird story about the short guy in the Zorro hat and his team of specialists!  My tastes have always run to the non-powered super-hero (Batman EARNED his uniform, unlike that elitist Kryptonian), and Black Dwarf stuck with me through the decades, long after I'd forgotten his name!

Black Dwarf was one of the oddest characters in comics.  About as tall as Harlan Ellison (and thankfully not as disagreeable), he had two big guns and didn't hesitate to use them.  He also had a couple of ex-criminal aides, the nitro-throwing Nitro and the sexy Arsenic Grimes, and, most importantly, the most hard-boiled dialogue this side of Robert Leslie Bellem.  And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Bellem was the scripter!  The art was by Pete Gattuso.  This strip was so oddball it was really fun!

[narfstar]

I agree Darkmark I always thought he was really cool

[Astaldo711]

A very nice character. Many of the heroes back then didn't have qualms about killing the bad guys. At some point, it became a rule that they couldn't kill anyone. I don't know why, but I always find it funny when I see the Comet life his visor and the baddies disappear in a cloud of smoke.

[annihilus1]

My first exposure to anything golden age was the purchase of my first OSPG (#11, 1981) with the feature on L.B. Cole. I was hooked on the art, but being a 12 year old living in Montana in the early 1980's and on a very limited budget, there was no hope of getting any Cole books, or really any Golden Age books for that matter. I made my bones in Silver Age and moderns for many years.

Fast forward 25 or so years and I found the CGC forums and some great guys that re-introduced me to the Golden Age. I'm still really new to the genre, but have picked up several low grade Cole covers (including my two favorites: Mask 1 & 2) which will never leave my collection unless I upgrade them.

For Christmas, I got myself the two Fletcher Hanks compilations and have had a great time reading them. I've collected comics for 31 years, but am still a big-time noob to the GA. Looking forward to expanding my knowledge here in the future.

[Astaldo711]

I think that was part of the reason but the other was because it seems like nowadays they use the villains over and over again. Most of the bad guys from the GA were gangland members, one of the Axis powers, or some other generic bad guy. Like the nameless drones they seem to have a plethora of in action movies that get mowed down.

[JVJ]

The art was by Pete Gattuso.  This strip was so oddball it was really fun!

I think that's PAUL Gattuso, DM. You're right, he was a very stylized and, well, "oddball" is a pretty good word for him. He also did a lot of pencilling for Nina Albright at Continental/Et-Es-Go.

For the record, and knowing full well that no one will EVER pay any attention to this, Holyoke and Continental were two completely separate companies. Putting them together is like calling it Fox/Holyoke because they both published Blue Beetle or Pacific/Eclipse because they both published Groo.

Just letting off steam, darkmark, the last has zero relation to your post. Sorry.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[darkmark]

"At some point?"
Comics Code Authority, dude!

Nope!  The good guys largely got out of the killing business (except for Nazis and Japanese) after the early Forties.  The Enemy gave 'em so many people to kill they didn't bother with criminals.  They were civilians.

[Jedifish]

The first exposure was a copy of Wanted. The World's Most Dangerous Villains #4 that someone gave me, and so I've always had an affinity for Kid Eternity and Alan Scott. Also, some Marvel Family reprints I read in the Shazam! 100 pagers that a friend of the family had for their grandkids.

[MikeV]

If you check some of the most obscure and oddest comics you may see them from narfstar. Many mine as that is my collecting interest, others scanned from JVJ's collection. The scans here are great but man what a cool feeling to hold them in your hand.

I agree that it is nice to hold a comic in your hand while reading it but I dare not add many more to the few thousand that I have stored in my loft.  I think it would mean divorce.  So my marriage has been saved and I am getting to read new material by downloading digital comics from this site (I can store them easier in my hard drive .

[Astaldo711]

It's a good thing the CCA came along! Since they cleaned up comics there hasn't been any violence or wars!

[skybandit]

Sieg Heil- I mean, um, God Bless America!