[narfstar]

One of the reasons I was made a mod was because I was one of those that gave a welcoming note to newbies. No form letter feel to mine. I try to be a little clever based on their comments and names. My GA start was the JLA/JSA crossovers and Fantasy Masterpieces. My first GA comic was Exciting #40 I believe. I always hope the newbies take the time to become "friends." Within our GCD we have like a place to stay all across the country and world even in each others home. If I can make it to Europe I have a few different people in a few different places I am welcome to stay. Several of the people here would probably feel the same way. I would love to have some of you drop by if you were ever in the Chattanooga area.

[Yoc]

A lovely gesture Narf. 

I thought you were made a mod because of your top-secret Superbowl Chili recipe? 

[phabox]

The first Golden Age stories I ever read was the reprints in Superman 80 Page Giant_183 followed by Fantasy Masterpieces/Marvel Super-Heroes and loads of IW/ Super Comics books, though at the time I did'nt always realise how old some of those stories were.

I REALLY caught the 'G.A. Bug' in the 1970's with the coming of the DC Super-Spectaculars and the reprints in the back of many of the then 52 page DC Books.

-Nigel

[darkmark]

I'm not sure, but I'll bet the first GA stories I read were the ones reprinted in the SUPERMAN 80 PAGE GIANT, which I think came out a bit before FANTASY MASTERPIECES #3, though I could be wrong.  Didn't get to read THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES by Feiffer for some time, but I did read the Signet BATMAN paperback in 1966 with its reprint of Batman's origin from BATMAN #1.  But the first two JLA's I picked up were #21 and 22, both of them with the first JLA / JSA crossover, and it fascinated me that there was another age of super-heroes from before my birth.  Not long afterward, a faux Captain America appeared in the Human Torch strip in STRANGE TALES.  I had to know more about this lost age of heroes.  I've never stopped learning.

[phabox]

Other good sources of GA Material used to be the 'Flash Giants' sometimes not just a GA Flash reprint but also a Johnny Quick story, even Hawkman_025 had a hidden treat in the form of the GA Hawkman story from Flash Comic_012

The Giant-Sized range of Marvels during the mid 70s's would also now and again yield something of interest.

By this time I had read not ony Les Daniels 'Comixs' which also reprinted some choice Quality, DC, Timely,Lev Gleason and EC stuff but also both the Steranko Volumes so I began kidding myself that I was then something of an 'expert' on the Golden Age.

In the mid 1980's I discovered Comic Marts and on one mad day found and bought an almost complete run of the black and white 'Flashback' reprints many of which I still have to this day.

Not sure what would count as my first 'Real' Golden Age Comic, would it be a copy of Mister District Attorney from 1951 which I found in a second hand book shop for ten pence sometime inthe late 70's ?

Maybe it was the very last issue of the Boy Commandos that I paid

[darkmark]

You're right, Phabox!  My first exposure to an actual GA story must have been FLASH ANNUAL #1 in 1963, with its reprint of a Golden Age Flash story.  Thanks for helping me remember.  I loved that comic.

[phabox]

'63' was a little early for me, I think at that time the only comics I ever saw was the rather childish british weekies.

Its thanks to the Batman TV Show early in 1966 that I first found out about American Comics and for me the Superman Giant came before Fantasy Masterpieces but I seem to recall at that time that the DC's were getting here a couple of months ahead of the Marvel Books.

Round about 1968 the DC's and Marvel's began turning up with the same date, before then I can recall a couple of glorious months when two or three issue of my favourite Marvel titles all arrived together after which the time lag was closed.

-Nigel

[narfstar]

Thanks for bringing back the memory of those 52 page DC comics with the great GA backups. I got to see some never before seen by me characters. Who can forget BB 61-2 with Starman and Black Canary as well as Showcase 55-6 with Dr Fate and Hourman. It still brings a thrill to my heart when I look at their covers and momentarily relive a youthful pleasure. I must mention the exceptional thrill of experiencing for the first time MLJ when the Mighty Crusaders featured "Too Many Superheroes" It was not too many for me. All those colorful characters together with the corny Joe Simon dialog that I loved at the time. If only Reinman had not been rapidly hacking out the work. I hated his SA work and thought he was incapable. Since I have seen from his GA material that he actually could draw, I realize he was cranking it out for the Ultra Heroes. I have stated I was more a character/story fan than art fan. Reinman's art almost pushed me away. If my ancient memory serves, I think I did stop getting Flyman until it became Might Comics. Speaking of Flyman, in a later incarnation it was Ditko's art on the character that drove me away. I did not feel that he had his heart in it and it looked far too Ditko. I recognize Ditko's talent but also feel that he can wear thin. Distinctive gets old with repitition.

BTW: I do make a great chili. A hit at all the church pot lucks. Not a secret though as I gladly share the recipe. If any of you make it to the Chattanooga area just remind me and I will invite you over for some for dinner.

[phabox]

I believe that the writer of "Too Many Super-Heroes" was a certain Jerry Siegel, now where have I heard that name before ? 

-Nigel

[OtherEric]

I know I've told this story before, but I don't remember if it was here or not:

My first exposure to the Golden Age was when I was in high school in the late 1980's; I was at the library and happened to look for comics.  They had a copy of Crawford's encyclopedia of Comic Books.  I have since learned that that particular book is almost pure garbage as scholarship.  Which means it doesn't get nearly enough credit for how good a job it does conveying the sheer wonder and joy of the Golden Age; I wanted to see some of those books.  I still remember just how excited I was at finding a copy of Mad #20 so I could finish reading the Cowboy story. 

[narfstar]

I believe that the writer of "Too Many Super-Heroes" was a certain Jerry Siegel, now where have I heard that name before ? 

-Nigel

my bad

[Yoc]

Ah memories...
I've told this story somewhere on-line but I can't recall where...

Each summer my parents would drag me to northern Ontario for a week or two for a vacation.
The 6-8hr trip (longer when the vehicle would fail which happened a few times) they would let me load up on comics along the way.  I mostly bought Scrooge McDucks, the odd Donald or Beagle Brothers and Marvel Fun and Games.  (I was young, shoot me.)  Up north I'd read all of my cousin's Archie Digests.

In the summer of 1979 I went with a dollar to the local milk store that still had a spinner rack.  Remember those?

I stood at the rack a good while. I wanted value for my money.  The first book I picked out was Ghost Rider #26 which had Dr Druid fighting GR on the cover.  Later I'd learned he was a holdover from the Atlas era.  I would collect every appearance of GR including the western reprints which I immediately fell in love with.  Dick Ayers was amazing on the book!  I still love them!

My second pick was another Archie digest - Archie's Super Hero Comics Digest #2 to be exact!  Neal Adams' Black Hood cover hooked me and inside along with Pureheart and Superteen there was a bunch of strange heroes I'd never seen before -
The Shield, The Fly, The Jaguar, The Hangman , Black Jack, Steel Sterling, The Fox and my favourite - the poor henpecked Web.
These were mostly campy SA Mighty Comics reprints of Paul Reinman material along with a Simon & Kirby Pvt. Strong.  The much more modern Black Hood story by Gray Morrow knocked my socks off.  I would always wonder if there were any more done.  There wasn't.  But from that initial exposure I always had a soft spot for the MLJ heroes.  I quickly learned about Mighty Comics/Radio Comics and the Mighty Crusaders buying every used copy I could find which wasn't easy.  I then found the Belmont Books reprints at a convention for $2 each and then one day I found perhaps the biggest influence on my GA comics tastes -

The Overstreet Price Guide of 1981 with L.B.Cole cover art.  I'd never heard of Cole but he was Good!

By this time I was aware of GA books but hadn't been bitten by the bug yet.  But once I got a look at all those fantastic postage stamp cover repos inside I was hooked!  I pored over that guide for hours with a magnifying glass.  And the one book I wanted the most to read? 
Silver Streak #6 - what a cover!   
A classic Cole horror drenched vision that scared me but also seduced me with its gore.  Who was this Claw?  The guide told me he was the foe of DareDevil.  But not the Marvel one - an older hero with a super cool costume that used boomerangs!
Other covers that hooked me - Pep #9, Detective #1, Action #52, Master #27, Mystery Men and Fantastic Comics both #3...

All of these were also featured in a remaindered copy of Richard O'Brien's Golden Age of Comic Books that I found at a Coles Bookstore that has long since gone out of business.  A short history of comics with 40 full colour repos of the above covers 'suitable for framing.'  Eisner, Fine, Wolverton, Novick, Raboy, Cole, Biro, Everett, Beck, Harry G Peter all in colour and I didn't have to get a headache just to look at them!  Best $2.99 I ever spent. 

I never got to see the giant DC and Marvel books people here have mentioned until decades later.  In fact I went after the 60s X-Men books before I did the GA.  Marvel had a reprint series - Amazing Adventures - that reprinted half an original #1-10 book and tossed in a later origin story from the later X-men issues. You'd need to read two issues to finish the SA book but they were just Great!  But they stopped the title on #8 of the originals.  It took me until the 90s to finally read the whole run of the X-Men.  By then I was reading Byrne on the title, Miller on Daredevil and Perez on Avengers and later Teen Titans books.  But I drifted away from comics by the mid 90s and the era of Image Comics.

Then in 1999 I finally got onto the internet and found such great sites as Steve Rogers' 'The Golden Years', Shawn's MLJ focused 'Gold Comics', PR's 'Good Guys and Gals of the Golden Age', and Bill Nolan's 'Prescription for Excitement!' as well as several Yahoo groups.   I learned about a LOT of old publishers, heroes and artists that I'd only seen hints of in that Overstreet Guide or across the tables at conventions.  And i met other collectors like myself that loved those old books.  One particular older friend let me read his entire EC collection where I developed a taste for 50s horror and crime comics.  Kamen became a name I looked for and that eventually led me to Matt Baker whom I consider among the very best of the genre.

GA comics have been a wonderful hobby for me and through them I've met a great number of fellow fans whom almost all of them seem like very decent people.  Some have become quite close friends to me like LoftyPilot Dan here whom I've known since 2004, and Phabox whom I've known even a bit longer than that.  Both wonderfully nice guys always ready to help out when they can.

And I've met many new people here on GAC which has become a focal point for me.  Despite being confused by the site at first (where are the books anyways??... oh There!  D'oh!) I soon found it a daily destination for me and while I still had unlimited bandwidth I uploaded several gigs of scans to help the cause.  When Aussie asked for help after 'the big crash of March 2008' I knew I wanted to do my bit and you guys have been stuck with this ugly monkey ever since!

Sorry to ramble on - I hope that everyeone - especially the newbies - will chime in and join the fun.
-Yoc

[narfstar]

It is good to see that LastQuestion has chimed in on the boards. Keep coming LQ

[rez]

The Golden Age. How DID I get involved with those things? : o)
Can remember seeing glimpses growing up of The Justice Society in what must have been the JLA with that different flash with the weird brimmed helmet and a GreenLantern in a different uniform.

And that old Human Torch with a little sidekick guy that always kept me wondering what it was all about. Never got to actually see one of those books.

Remember seeing that 80page Giant with supe on the cover holding, what was it, an Action #1? And saying something to the effect that 'some collectors will pay $300 for a copy of this'. But those old Superman always looked kinda funny. heh heh

Then as I branched out and started exporing my comicbook horizons drove to my first show in the 70s and it was all over. Managed to score a slew of Adventure Comics with the Legion that I'd never seen before and they were only like $2 a piece and the guy just had them lying haphazard on a table 'take yer pick'! I was in heaven I was!

I can still remember seeing this heavy set fella there with a huge Jewish Star of David necklace hanging down who was speaking loudly like a carnival barker selling Jack Kirby original artwork pages, 'Come get 'em!'. If I'd only known.

I was somewhat in a daze as I walked the aisles peering at all this books I'd never even heard of. Freaking got lost in the place! 'Gawd, look at that old Mystery in Space! and those Tomahawks!'

Don't know what got into there but I bought a book out of a guy's bargain box and took it across the aisle and sold it to another dealer at a profit. What's with that I'll never know.

Watched one guy bring in a paper grocery size bag full of comics to a dealer for sale. Dealer just stuck his hand down there for a quick flip thru them and said $75. Seller said OK and that was that. Always wondered what all was in that bag.

The seed was then planted and over the years managed to score one here and there and of course working in a couple comic shops one ends up having greater access to them than before.

Ah, I'm roaming here so I'll shutup.

[uctech004]

My first Golden Age exposure was when I was 8 years old. I remember reading a stack of Blackhawk comics I found at my grandfathers house. They were in a box with all of his navy stuff when he served in WWII. I wish I had those now but I younger my cousin Glenn got ahold of them some years later and completly destroyed them. 

uctech004

[Yoc]

I trust you kicked Glenn's butt for that right U? 

[darkmark]

Actually, come to think of it, that's the way I was, too.  My first GA exposure probably came circa 1961, a couple of years before I even turned to super-hero comics.  My uncle Don, now passed away, had a small stash of comics from circa WW II including ishes of CANNONBALL COMICS, MILITARY or BLACKHAWK, ACTION, LOONEY TUNES, BIG SHOT, and possibly others I've forgotten.  (Hey, I was probably 6 at the time.)  I was more into funny animals at the time and I didn't dig them.  Years later, when I could have appreciated them, I learned that my aunt had given them away to neighbor kids.  That's all right, too.  Guess that trumps FLASH ANNUAL #1, but not if we're talking about Golden Age stories you really read and appreciated.  And as far as Golden Age character exposure, I probably read and loved JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #21 and 22 before that.

[cimmerian32]

hmmm...  mid 70s...  I was a Batman fanatic as a child...  my first exposure to him was in Batman #234 (still have it )  I remember being at a record convention with my Dad, and there was a guy there selling comics, who I talked to for most of the day, with him showing me all these cool comics from when my Dad was a kid...  Talked my Dad into buying his Batman #1...  Think it was a couple of hundred dollars (I had to promise my allowance for the entire next year!)...  It was all over after that.  From then until I was roughly 20, I built a massive collection of Golden Age and current comics (never had any use for the Silver Age whatsoever...  still don't, really)...  That collection was stolen by a roommate while I was away on vacation...  Came home to an empty house... 

I am currently working on my fourth collection.

[John C]

It feels a little like a confession, but while I've always loved the Golden Age characters, I've only had first-hand exposure to them relatively recently.

Basically, as I'm sure I mentioned elsewhere, I sort of ended up at the Golden Age through the "back door."  Being born in the early '70s, I was also obligated to love the Batman TV series as a kid, and that lead (once I started paying attention at the local convenience store) to Batman comics.

Eventually, I somehow decided to expand to other books.  So, I picked one with Batman on the cover and as many other characters as possible, this being (by luck of the draw) JLA#208, mid-way through the longest Justice Society crossover and guest-starring the All-Star Squadron.  So, whereas a lot of the group older than me wondered about the weird old Flash or Green Lantern, I managed to see them first.

From there, I started collecting All-Star Squadron, forward and back.  When I finally got the first issue, that lead to the All-Star Comics revival and the Adventure Comics issues, the other JLA/JSA crossovers, and pretty much every "modern" appearance of DC's Golden Age stable.  Anything older was very far beyond my means, even though the prices were FAR lower than they are today.

I snapped up the reprint volumes as quickly as I could (and still do, though with less gusto), but probably never got a look at the original books until, well, probably the very same torrents that encouraged Serj to open up this site.

Heh.  Embarrassingly, people offered me their old comics, once or twice, and I turned them down because they were teen/animal/whatever non-superhero books.  Honestly, to this day, I'd rather read a superhero story, but it's sort of a shame that I didn't bother to expand my horizons at the time, since I now know that there's some good stuff down that road.

[misappear]

Like Nigel, Superman #183.  This comic introduced me to the Sikela-Dobrotka-Burnley style which defines GA Superman for me.  Wayne Boring, however, is my personal Holy Grail of artists. 

I remember getting my socks knocked off by The Mummy's Ring, which I read in the early 80's.  I was so impressed by Barks that I went out and bought that 10-volume library.  Even have The Fine Art of Donald Duck which reprints the paintings. 

--Dave

[Yoc]

Cimm - OMG!  The bastard!  Must KILLLLLLLLLL him!  (half joking)

John - it's funny, I didn't like the Batman show when I saw them in the 70s but they've grown on me now.  At the time I would have rather read a Bark's duck story.

Dave - now YOU are a Barks fan.  My hat goes off to you.

-Yoc

[OtherEric]

That Superman 183 gets around, doesn't it?  I remember finding a not great condition copy in a quarter bin back in the 80's, along with about a dozen other similar age books.  The gem was a Superman 128 in that haul,  it was a great day for me.  (This was so long ago that the 128 was the inexpensive book between the first Titano and the first Lori Lemaris; now it's worth more for its Red Kryptonite and Batman cameo.  It also has the distinction of having the last appearance of the Earth-2 Superman until they defined the multiple earths.  Fun book.)

I think my earliest exposure to the older Superman stories was a copy of "Superman from the 30's to the 70's" my Uncle had (and my Aunt still has) when I was even younger.  I would pour over that like crazy when I was young; but never connected it to anything "real" until much later.  It was its own thing, if that makes sense.

[phabox]

I got that Superman 30's-70's book myself when it first came out, interesting to note how the intro avoids mentioning the two guys who actually created the character  !

Not such a problem with the Batman Volume that came out at the same time as regards giving Bob Kane FULL credit although Bill Finger, Jerry Robininson and Dick Sprang DO get namechecked  .

I knew that there was a similar Captain Marvel/Shazam Collection released round about the same time but don't know if it was ever reached the UK as I had no luck tracking it down in the 1970's.

I did finally get a look at it some 15 years later at a London comicsmart although I passed on it at the time as it was going for 'silly' money.

More recently I picked up a scanned version from one of the Yahoo Groups.

-Nigel

[OtherEric]

I've never seen the Batman Volume; I did see the Shazam collection because my local library system had a copy.

I've actually got the updated, 30's-80's version of the Superman book; it's not as good as the original.  Still neat, but the 'updated' story choices don't really impress me.

[moondood]

I have several impressions of my exposure to GA comics...not sure which came first.  I pretty much got "into" comics around 1972 when I was 12.  I had a few comics from '66 or '67--Batman comics, naturally enough...but not enough to call a collection.  Then in 1972, a neighbor kid intro'd me to Silver Age Marvels--only a few yrs old at the time...but I was hooked.  I think then my cousin gave me a copy of The Great Comic Book Heroes...my brother and I pored over that book and read and reread all the early adventures.  I especially fell in love with the Capt America origin.  That book literally fell apart along the way.  Soon after, I bought a coverless Fantasy Masterpieces (though I didn't know that since the indicia was on the missing inside front cover)--the one that reprints the Torch-Subby battle from MMC.  I knew it wasn't an original since it printed the "originally published in" info on the first page, but it felt like some kind of Holy Grail to me...like it was worth a million dollars (I guess I'd heard the old ones could be worth $$).  Years later I bought a mint copy for maybe $2, but at the time, that coverless copy was like treasure.  Soon after, Shazam was launched by DC and I knew Cap from the Jules Feiffer book.  Same with the Warren Spirits.  And of course the 100 pagers that DC put out.  I pretty much drifted to the DC stuff right off and have preferred them to Marvel ever since.  I loved the Quality reprints: Doll Man, BlackHawk, Plastic Man...wow!  Started the con circuit in '74 and went pro with DC in '85 when I lived in NY City.  I could swing by the offices and drop off and pick up work.  My first job I picked up, Gil Kane was in the elevator.  I was starstruck, but I didn't say anything.  Still kicking myself.  Got to visit Jack Kirby at his home a few times after I moved to Los Angeles, so I don't feel too bad about Gil.

Don't know what my first GA book I owned was, but my mom did the antique show circuit and all her dealer pals knew to offer any old comics to me first.  I had a Zoot Comics, a Wings Comics, a few other non-DC, non-Marvels.  I found a pile of Marvel Mysteries and Black Cats at a church bazaar, but the seller took them off the table when some dope told him they "were worth some money."   As much as I love the GA, I never had much at any given time--less than a hundred books.  As I got "new" ones, I'd sell some...so it was always sort of a revolving collection.

When I found this site a couple yrs back...it was like finding that coverless Torch-Subby book all over again.  I was selling a handful of GA stuff on ebay and I thought I'd scan 'em before I mailed 'em off so I could still read 'em after selling 'em.  Wasn't long before I wondered if anyone else had thought of that, too.  Within a few days, I discovered the scanning community--and boy, am I glad I did.

Moondood