I don’t remember how I got my start in comic books, but I do remember my mom would take my brother and I to the comic book store whenever she had time off on a Saturday (which was rare for a woman that worked 12-14 hour days 7 days a week).
We would walk into the awesomeness that was The Classic Movie and Comic Center and would spend the next 30-45 minutes doing circles around the place gently carrying our comics so that we wouldn’t bend them.
I was solely into Marvel, specifically the X-Men books. My brother was a Marvel guy too, but was also into independent books: Robotech, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc.
As with most comic book collectors when they got older, it was difficult and expensive to keep up with the habit of spending $15-30 a week, not to mention the additional cost of maintaining the books — mylar bags, comic boxes, and backboards — acid free, of course.
Not only was it expensive, my overall interest ebbed and flowed as I became involved in other hobbies.
Obviously, I no longer go into a comic book store on every Thursday to buy stacks of individual comics, but every 4-7 months I’ll browse around online to see what’s getting buzz, good reviews, and order a slew of graphic novels (which are generally 4-6 single issues collected into one) in hopes of finding the next Walking Dead, Authority, Identity Crisis, Marvel Zombies, Y the Last Man, or Civil War.
