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

Early Aughts

The comics show, last day, one hour before closing. The guys at a nearby table announce 75% off. You don't have to tell me twice! I saw it (it was new to me) and HAD to buy it. You would have too. Just look at that:



VF+ if not better, and about $3, baby.

It was a wonderful day when I realized: You know what, Michael? You're cool in your OWN way-- think of all the poor souls who would have NO CLUE what is going on in The Heckler, or Vext, or Major Bummer!

MY comic preferences were SO COOL, they were read by just a few people and cancelled quickly before they could get popular!

IT SHOULD BE NOTED DEPT: I later got into CODENAME: KNOCKOUT by Vertigo, but it was TOTES FUN. And currently enjoy the hell out of the poptastic IZOMBIE.

[gasp!]

All these years, I've thought it was just me! I admit a fondness for Gaiman's Mr. Punch GN, though. (Oh, and for Tori Amos' first album. After that, her pet mannerisms just got to be too much for me.)

I'm pretty sure that's Teeds in the very back!

I *am* hungry...for more stories!

(I like the commentary too.)

Here\'s the first comic I bought for myself as an adolescent/teenager.

I let all my Star Wars comics go, with real regret, about 5-6 years back. Except this one. I was too superstitious to get rid of it.

Avengers 375, 1994



It was the end of an era, and all too symbolic for Crystal to be weeping in the final panel. Bob Harras & Steve Epting were wrapping up their grand Avengers vs Gatherers epic, which I had been following religiously. It didn't disappoint me in the least. There hasn't been an Avengers issue since then that has fully satisfied me.

Darlin, I love your taste in Avengers comics.

Why this issue Dev?

Good question. This was not the first issue of the Bug that I had ever read. I had the DCCP with the subs, I had the Action Comic issues.

Thisone is special to me, for many reasons. I was taken to the comic store by my dad most of the time, and he was always a great sport about it. My mom hated it, but it was something that helped me get throught developing Diabetes a few years earlier. So, my dad took me to the store, and there on the shelf was another Ambush Bug appearance. I was iverjoyed.

I loved the humor of the last couple of stories, and appreciated where they had taken the character...from villian (even in the Subs issue, he was still considered a villian) to a funny as hell guy that ran amok in the DCU.

When other comics were getting grimand grittier (Crisis was coming. The Flash killed someone and was going through his trial. Even the LSH had killed of Karate Kid,) Ambush Bug was a beakon of fun in comics.

So for my awkward teenage self, this was a freat sight. Ambush Bug and Superman versus Kobra. Whatever I thought I was going to find inside the cover of fthisbook could nat have prepared me for what I did find.

This book is one of the, if not the single funniest single issue stories of all time for me. I have friends tht do not understand my fasciniation with this character...but I know that I have a brother in the Bug army on these very boards who would stand tall with me anywhere and anytime to proclaim the greatness that is Ambush Bug.

DC needs comics like this. Not every month...but these types of books are needed to lighten the somber mood of most comics these days.

In a time where two of my favorite characters would die...Karate Kid and the Flash...Having an Ambush Bug comic was a joy to be cherished...this issue however, should be read by everyone...IMHO. I mean if watching Superman running around the Earth flailing his arms isn'nt enough to make you laugh, I feel sorry for you.

Your brother in Ambush-arms says: A wonderful choice! I myself was not even AWARE of the issue until YEARS (decades, I think) later, made aware here on this very board of this issue and 2 of the 3 ACTION COMICS issues I didn't know about. (One of which was sent to me by fat Cramer after my search for it proved fruitless).

One of many reasons to love Legion World.

EDITED OUT

I have NO idea how that happend.

Instead, I will just post this:

awwww ...

Thank you, kind sir.

A little addendum to the Avengers 375 story...I remember a Superman discussion in this forum where Lardy said he loved the Ordway/Simonson/Stern/Jurgens era of Superman so much that he honestly couldn't see himself ever loving Superman that much again. That pretty much sums up how I feel about that Avengers era.

When this issue came out, it was the single most important comic to me that I'd ever waited for in 'real time'. The Dane / Crystal romance essentially inspired my perception of tragic love. And the complications! Sersi, Pietro, even the Vision. Every time Sersi or Pietro did something to make me hate them, they redeemed themselves.

By now I was engrossed with the series and had even write Bob Harras a letter (and even called my Dad at work to tell him Hank was Giant Man again).

Those final panels broke my heart...but oh, how Dane was so noble!

Also, best Herc EVER including the Silver Age and Stern. They even got me to like Thunderstrike (I'd grow to like Eric in later years when I read the entire Thor run).

The revelation of Proctor in the issue prior blew my pre-teen mind!!!

This was my Uncanny X-Men #138.

Well said, Cobie. I agree 100% with everything in your post.

The early 80s... (VERY early, IIRC)... I was just a little kid... I had read and enjoyed the 70s revival Teen Titans (who seemed WAY older than me) and the LSH (Grell era... WAY older/sexier than me or my peers)... I was a teen on the verge!! Things were happening-- to my body!! NOBODY WILL EVER UNDERSTAND ME OR WHAT I AM GOING THROUGH!!!!!

Then the NEW MUTANTS graphic novel came out, and thanks to my grandmother, who is more fabulous than I can EVER CONVEY TO ANYONE (and STILL is), I got to buy it, read it and love it (and STILL own it)! THEN came THIS issue:





I bought it on one of my weekly weekend trips with Granny to pick up her sister (my Mimi), who lived quite close to the comic shop.

Of course it was a great book, with great characters, who --unlike those DC "teen teams" (that I j'adored, don't get it twisted)-- actually seemed to be REAL CLOSE to my age, just a smidge older!! But all that doesn't matter.

What REALLY matters here, is me remembering reading it in her living room-- or whatever you wanna call it-- a separate room from the den, anyway-- in an awesome rocking chair as the sun shined through the window... a memory, for some reason I have never forgotten.

I have already decided to make this actually-superflous room a library one day, when the house is mine.

And any opportunity to thank Granny (and more indirectly, Mimi) for me becoming the fan I am is welcome to me. My Granny is the SOLE REASON I have both the music AND the comic collection I have. She gave me the funds necessary to have both, and only occasionally flinched at what I bought... (let's just say she isn't the Tanya Tucker fan *I* am, tee-hee).

Mimi may be gone now, but Granny STILL helps me read so many comics every month, I like to tell her whenever I've been to the CBS... and she's always happy I have something to read. I'm her baby and always will be.

One song Granny DID like (I suspect for both the mention of Mama and the crazy blue eyes of my Poppaw, who she has now been married to for over 70 years):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlq5e19PuIQ

I have the 45 still. This is for you, Granny.

Love the Granny story, Lash! Those specific memories, even when really brief, can be so comforting when you need a little smile.

I wonder if Granny would even remember telling me how much she liked that Lacy J. Dalton song now? Probably so if I played it for her.

The only other real song-commentary memory I have with Granny is when we were going somehwere in her Taurus (which she STILL has and only has like 60,000 miles on it), and I was playing a mix tape I had made. She said this song was pretty, but really really sad (this was the angsty early 90s):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGXuJKWjoYM

This song has another mention of "Mom". Granny cared for her Mama until the very end (which I remember a little bit of). She loved her Mama a LOT.

Anyhoo, I know this is off-topic. I was somehow compelled to document this somewhere I love and with people I care about, so thanks.

Does that cover have anything to do with the interior story ?

CODENAME KNOCKOUT : GOGO FIASCO.

awwww I miss GOGO.

After all these recommendations, I may have to hunt this down ...

hmmmm

Lash, your stories are wonderful. As Harbinger (God, I miss her) would say: more, more, more.

Yay Peebs!

I would recommend, though, reading the entire Harras/Epting run chronologically. Leaving out the fill-in issues by other creators, the run consists of: 334-339, 343-351, 355-369, and 372-375. They're all easy to find cheap. Happy reading.

Fanfie will know the issue number, but an even better issue than the above one, which occurs about mid-run, is the one with the huge confrontation with the Kree soldiers that have a nega-bomb. Dane, Crystal & Herc are all captured and its when Hank becomes Giant-Man again for the first time. It may just be my single favorite Avengers issue of all time. That's the issue that made me write Bob Harras a letter (with pen and paper--I was 11 years old).