Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Tell your story about ONE purchase of a comic book!

I'm waiting like a debutante, which means NOT VERY PATIENTLY.

When I was five ... I traded Alpha Flight number 1 ... with the neighbor boy ... for ... a random Defenders issue.

Here's the thing ... this kid was a frickin scam artist. He had this whole speel ... where he said he didnt want any gooey stuff ... (no romance or kissing) and he hates books like that ... and he never had any books like that. He wanted to make sure alpha Flight #1 had no romance ... was all action ... he really grilled me on this ... and totally lied and said his random issue of Defenders didn't have any. (yet ... somehow I didn't get to look through the comic before we traded)


So after we traded ... I open this random issue of Defenders ...





AND HE WOULDN'T TRADE BACK.

he ran back into his house and shut the door.

I still hate that kid with the fire of a thousand suns!!!!


I was much sweeter then, see what happens to sweet generous kids if they get screwed over enough.





I wonder what happened to that little ass! He was my age .. maybe six ... and had already perfected how to lie and rip people off!


I never played with him again. I avoided him. That is punishment!

You only get to rip off Power Boy once! 5 years old or not!

Send JH around to his house.

I never traded comics. I was more of a mindset that every issue was important and I didn't want holes in my collection.

PB's story reminded me, though, that I became a scam artist of sorts.

I didn't plan to be; it just worked out that way.

When I was nine or ten-ish, just after I started to get into comics, I was close friends with Jeff, who lived in a corner house about a block away. (I also lived in a corner house; that seemed like an important connection at the time.) Jeff distinguished himself by owning a Batman action figure with a removable cowl, revealing Bruce Wayne's face underneath. My Batman action figure featured a painted-on cowl.

Jeff also had a comic book I coveted. I can't remember which one--it probably featured the Legion. (It might even have featured the reprint of Adv. 313, the Satan Girl story, which I've since remembered as belonging to another boy.) When Jeff moved away, I asked him to give me that comic so I could remember him. Jeff agreed. But a few days later, right before he moved, he approached me on the way home from school. He said he couldn't find that issue, so he went out and bought three new comics to give to me. One was Amazing Spider-Man # 103 (featuring Gil Kane art), the second was a Sub-Mariner, and I can't remember the third. Not exactly what I'd asked for, but, hey, it was a nice gesture.

A couple of years later, when another friend moved away, I used the same strategy of asking for comics to remember him by. This time, he gave me the issues I wanted--Adv. 368 ("The Mutiny of the Super-Heroines") and Adv. 372 ("The School for Super-Villains").

I was too young to understand that, when someone moves away, you usually give them a parting gift instead of the other way around. I also don't think I fully understood Jeff's gesture of friendship of going out and buying new comics. However, comics were cheap at the time--only 20 cents--so it didn't seem like that big of a deal for him to pick out a few things while shopping with his parents. Still, it was nice that he thought about me and bought three issues to make up for the one he couldn't find.

I never tried to "scam" anyone else out of comics, though I did learn that the best comics are usually the ones that are given or found. (Around the same time, I found an issue of Challengers of the Unknown in my back yard. I knew who it belonged to, but he didn't want it back.)

Today, I'm FB friends with Tim, the boy who gave me the Adventure issues. A few years ago, I wrote to thank him for the comics and to tell him I still had them. His response? "Cool."

As for Jeff? He returned to the neighborhood about a year later to visit some other boys. Apparently going along with their bullying ways, he leaned forward and pretended to whisper a secret into my ear. Instead, he spat. Some of the other boys followed suit, so I walked home with a lot of saliva dripping down the side of my face. I never saw Jeff again.

Still have the comics, though.

JH has another stop or two to make.

Sorry, Set has no story to tell. My comic book shopping history has been deadly dull.

Collecting was never really an option when I was young, since comics could only be gotten on the spinner rack of the local supermarket, and you pretty much got whatever was there, or in three-for-one bags at the Wal-Mart (which, if you worked real hard, you could poke a tiny hole in one corner and roll a comic up and slip it out, and do the same with another bag, and end up with a three-for-one bag that had three comics you *wanted* in it, instead of three random comics).

As a result of being unable to get comics reliably, I preferred team up titles, like Marvel Team-Up or Marvel Two-in-One, that had more self-contained one-shot stories, and there was born my love for second and third-tier characters, like the Paladin or Brother Voodoo, who might end up teamed up with the Thing or Spider-Man for an issue of their team-up titles, but would rarely, if ever, get their own.

Set is tap-dancing so hard he's surely hiding something. You were Mr. Young America, weren't you? Admit it. Confession is good for the soul.


A-ha! Set probably also French cad Marcel!

Anyway: close but no cigar. One purchase, let's hear it.

P.S. As for collecting, remember Ambush Bug's rule #1: "After you've read your comic books, don't throw them away."

You too, Ester.



Go buy a comic RIGHT NOW if you have to.

On a whim I visited a newly-opened comic book store near where I work...

... and pawed through the back issue bins, not daring to hope...

... but I ended up with a copy of LEGION LOST #1!!!

Pb will be joining him ... those little brats!

X-Factor vol. 3 #1



2005 was wrapping up, and it had been a rollercoaster year for me. At the beginning of 2005, I had started getting into comics again after being away since 1997. For a while, I was enjoying DC more than Marvel. The buildup to Infinite Crisis -- Adam Strange, Green Lantern: Rebirth, Rann-Thanagar War, Return of Donna Troy -- had been exciting. But then, Infinite Crisis #1 came out, and I felt like I had been played for a fool. My enthusiasm for DC leaked away like air from a balloon.

Marvel didn't look much better...but wait, what was this? Peter David wrote a Madrox solo mini-series that I had missed? And now it was being turned into a full-blown X-Factor revival? I couldn't wait.

X-Factor #1 came out, and it renewed my faith in comics. Mere words cannot describe how much of a tonic it was. My favorite members of PAD's original X-Factor run -- Madrox, Guido, and Rahne -- joined by the devilishly adorable Layla Miller, and a now-powerless Rictor, who is convinced by a Madrox dupe not to jump off a building, only for said dupe to admit he's the unpredictable side of Madrox, the fly in the ointment, the X-Factor, and promptly shove Rictor off the roof. To Be Continued.

It got even better the next issue, when Rictor survived, and the delightfully snooty Monet, who was on the cover of #1 but didn't appear, entered the picture. But that's another story for another time.

I was passionately into X-Factor for 35 consecutive issues, but something happened after issue #28, and the comic never quite scaled the same heights again. X-Factor finally ended this past Wednesday, after a near-eight-year run, very healthy in today's market. I just wish the run had been better as a whole.

But I'll always remember how good the first issue made me feel.

How was the final issue? I flipped through it but saw it was only Layla and Madrox and passed on it ... I feel like I probably had to read the last story arc to get something out of it.

I thought it was very good, a nice upbeat wrap-up and it didn't rely on having read the last five issues (In fact, all six issues are pretty much self-contained.) And it wasn't just Layla and Madrox. Theresa was in it, too.

I like Theresa ... I always think Madrox and Theresa should be together.

Are Guido and Monet just hanging out in Hell then?

These questions should really go in the X-Factor thread, where Set and I recently posted about the final arc. But in answer to your most recent question, Guido is still ruler of Hell, but Monet's happily living in Las Vegas with Darwin.

I actually have a couple I can share here, so here is one of them...

I must have been 8 or 9 years old, and was still into comics like Richie Rich and Mickey Mouse. I was at some sort of festival in Poseyville, Indiana with my grandfather. There was a table set up that was overflowing with comic books. (This was in the early 70s, when people would give away their old comics.) Being so young, I didn't have any money on me, of course, but grandpa saw me spending a lot of time looking through them. He then told me I could get some if I wanted. I asked, "How many can I get?"

He replied, "How many do you want?"

I replied, "How many can I get?"

He replied, "How many do you want?"

I think this went on for a few more iterations, when I finally realized I had struck the mother lode. I selected 20 or 30 comics, I guess, and I still remember how happy I was that day.

This is one of my favorite memories of grandpa.

Here is another story...

I was perhaps 12 years old. The local fall festival had a table of used comics, and you could pay cash for them, or use tickets that kids at school had been selling for weeks. I, however, had saved up almost no money that year. So, here were all these comics, and I could not buy a single one. I was walking around, moping, with my head down - when that very act paid off. I spied a huge wad of tickets on the ground and quickly snatched them up. I headed straight to the comic table and picked out maybe 50 or 60 of them.

Quite a haul!

Now we know why Lance perks up whenever he hears the word festival.

Excellent stories, Lance! More, more! Next one about one specific comic, please. (I'm now betting with myself whether you'll pick a story from childhood, or more recent years.)

I don't recall the first copy I bought, but I remember going back to the spinning rack later (while it was still a new arrival) and buying several more copies. I thought it was a good "sample" comic to give away.

I don't think I converted anyone (to comics or Promethea) but maybe the recipients enjoyed the rather atypical issue? (Too long; don't remember.)

Promethea just barely passed me by because I didn't return to comics until shortly after its run ended, but I bought the five trades last year and loved them. I find I'm a lot less anxious about things like spirituality and the apocalypse after reading it.

Now we also know why lance mopes around so much.

Note - posting from my phone and can't find scan of cover...but welcome anyone who can to post it.

At the onset of the 90's the concept of characters from different universes / companies progressively went from being something rare and special to being a dime a dozen. But before the novelty was lost, there were a series of really great crossovers that provided that awesome mix of still being new, cool and special. The industry was past the initial team-ups of Superman / Spider-Man, Batman / Hulk, Teen a Titans / X-Men and Superman / Muhammad Ali. Now we began to see some more odd crossovers taking place...and the 14 year old me couldn't get enough.

The one that really blew me away first was Batman versus Predator. The concept seemed so awesome and so out of left field to me; subsequently, Batman would meet everyone ever--but at the time I couldn't fathom how he'd beat a Predator. Plus, it was a major switch from superhero meets superhero. Instead, it was the best superhero meets the coolest movie monster of the 80's. I couldn't wait.

The series delivered in spades. Phenomenal story & art, with a tour de force on how you tell a suspenseful action story of man versus monster. Even today it holds up in a huge way. Of course, it was Dave Gibbons and the Kubert brothers doing the delivery. There were many sequels and this is probably what kicked off a slew of Batman team-ups and Dark Horse team-ups (another fantastic one was Robo-Cop versus Terminator).

There was something to the timing of it all from a personal standpoint. I was the right age to think it was the coolest thing ever. And it was the right time in the industry to make it so special. I was thrilled beyond belief to discover it existed. Every so often I'll feel that: "this is so cool that this exists! It's so cool that someone thought of that!"

When comics deliver that feeling to me, I'm 14 years old again. That's what I'm chasing when I'm collecting. My tastes continue to change, and crossovers and team ups have long ago lost their appeal. But I know that magic feeling is just underneath a cover waiting to be found somewhere else.

Every now and then comics surprise me. I was at a used bookstore in the area, and was flipping through the "indy" (meaning, not the big 2) stuff and came across this beauty.

I never even knew this comic existed. I knew that there was a comic that you could get with a version of the DVD, but not that they had released it as a one shot. Being a huge Bruce Campbell fan, this was a no brainer.

Thank you 2nd and Charles.