[Will Carper]

For me it was Tintin, Asterix, and an old (color) reprint of Chris Claremont's first issues on the X-Men (Giant-Size X-Men, plus maybe 5 issues after that). My Dad would get them for me out of the library when I was a little kid and we'd read them together. The X-Men comics, plus some other early ones like Batman, got me into superheroes, and when I was older, Grant Morrison's run on X-Men got me into more adult stuff, like Watchmen, Sandman, and The Invisibles. Though I still love superheroes.

90s cartoons like Batman: TAS, Superman: TAS, and X-Men also played a big role and informed a lot of my obscure comics knowledge.

[Ron Mays Jr]

Uncanny X-Men #275 was the book that got me hooked.

[Mike Cooper]

In 1977 I was 8 years old, and reading Star Wars Weekly black and white reprints from Marvel UK, after the movie had come out and blown my mind. The backup strip was Jim Starlin's Adam Warlock.
This lead to the Marvel UK Fantastic Four reprints, which mixed contemporary 70's FF (Reed and Sue's separation, Medusa, Thundra etc.) with the original Lee and Kirby stories as backup.

I've been hooked ever since.

[garjones]

I have always read comics. My mother got me somethig called Magic when I was about 3 and when that folded I moved to Whizzer and Chips and then Eagle and 2000ad and just carried on reading.

[Andrew]

Prior to the release of the 1989 Batman film, a TV station here decided to show the 1960 Bats TV show just in time for kids coming home from school. My pals and I were hooked, and with the following year's release of the TMNT animated series (and later on, film), one of the few comic shops in Sydney actually had a TV commercial on air - I pestered my folks into taking me into town one weekend (quite a long train trip) and although I hadn't recorded the shop's address anywhere I figured it'd be easy to find as the TV spot showed the shop exterior (bright yellow, 2 storey building with a Thor mural) and the Sydney Monorail passed in front of it.

We followed the monorail track on foot around the city until coming across the shop.

9 year old me picked up a US edition of MAD magazine, the then current Mirage TMNT issue, the TMNT movie adaptation from Mirage and Batman: The Killing Joke. So it began...

[Jim Ohara]

Wizzer and Chips, Buster, Beano, Dandy, Eagle and Battle mainly.

Secret Wars got me into Marvel. JLI got me into DC.

[The Lorcan Nagle]

Like Gar, I've been reading comics longer than I can remember, though it was Eagle and Transformers UK and not 2000AD that were my regular reads.

[garjones]

The Lorcan Nagle, on 15 July 2010 - 07:06 AM, said:

Like Gar, I've been reading comics longer than I can remember, though it was Eagle and Transformers UK and not 2000AD that were my regular reads.

I read those ones too. By the time I was about 10 I was buying just about everything Marvel UK and IPC put out, when comics cost just 20 - 30p it wasn't hard.

[Paul F]

I've been reading comics for as long as I can remember. Started with the Beano and the Dandy, moved on to the excellent Sonic The Comic, before going on to the UK reprints of Spider-Man and the X-Men. A comic shop opened in my town when I was 15 or so, which is when I started getting all the US stuff.

[Chris S.]

I think it was 'The Get Along Gang'

From it moved to the Beano, Oor Wullie, The Broons, and then Dandy (which i liked less). There was also the usual groups of comics like Whizzer and Chips and Buster, probably others which escape me right now. There was also Asteric and Tintin (although I found Tintin too straight laced - I thought he was a wee poof).

I developed an almost unhealthy obsession with war comics at a very young age - These books were all readily available as my uncles Warlord, Victor, Hotspur etc.
I was encouraged to read at a very young age, i was quite a hyperactive child so i was lucky that i had this all thrust upon me to keep me quiet. My Desk at primary Schoool was stuffed with Commando's and War Picture Library's. I couldn't get it shut. I was also given Action and Tales of the Trigan Empire by my stepdad, who had read these with his brothers when he was younger.

At the age of 10 (i think) my mum came in from the local convenience store with 2000ad issue 529. My life changed from that moment on. Over the years following that I was introduced to US comics by the older brother of a girl in my class. 'Death in the Family' and 'The Dark Knight Returns' and 'The Punisher' opened my eyes to the world of US comics.

I think my lack of grounding in spandex books is behind my preference for more realistic characters now, such as Batman, The Punisher and Daredevil. I tend to gravitate more to these books as well as the anti-hero stuff. Although still enjoy Superhero stuff, I need to see more than Superman flying around punching things. That grows tired very quickly.

British comics seemed to have more substance behind them, I believe they still do. The raft of British writers who have moved to the US have without doubt raised the bar and created a more sophisticated medium. Even modern day greats such as Jonathan Hickman and Geoff Johns have clearly been influenced by the likes of Alan Moore and Grant Morrison.

[Norbert F]

My uncle was "into" it, so when I went to vist him I read old translated pockets of early Avengers, Conan (still one of my favorites) and Spider-Man.

There was also more than enough Asterix, Donald Duck (big weekly in the Netherlands), Lt. Blueberry (Moebius), and Storm (not X-Men) lying around.

Speaking of Storm. Some of the best artwork I have ever seen. Check this out:



Back on topic, when I started buying comics for myself I read (Dutch) reprints of:

Spider-Men by Roger Stern, and PAD on Spectacular
X-Men - beginning of the Mutant Massacre area
New Mutants by Sienkiewicaz
Secret Wars
Byrne Fantastic Four
Byrne Superman

Not bad, heh?

[Mark Peyton]

My Dad who was a comic fan long before I was born. So I grew up reading the Marvel pocketbooks, Perez Justice League, 2000ad, Asterix etc.

[Youri Zoutman]

The 90s X-Men cartoon. But I probably read Asterix and Tin Tin way before that.

[brucegray666]

Same stuff that's been mentioned above: Beano, Dandy, Asterix, Tintin, etc. Remember getting a massive pile of Commando comics from a cousin of mine too - they were fantastic and it still bothers me that my mum threw them out when I moved out from home...

They thing that got me into buying comics (about 2003/2004) was one of my workmates who lent me his copy of Punisher: Welcome Back Frank, Watchmen and his complete run of Hitman. That started my trade buying habit and buying complete runs of things on eBay. 2007 was when I started buying single issues from my LCS - the Hitman/JLA crossover being the first thing I bought.

Hadn't really thought about TV series getting me into comics but I do remember watching the X-Men cartoon on Saturday morning telly as well as the 60s Batman series and the Tim Burton movies.

EDIT: reading Alan's post below I feel really bad I forgot about The Broons and Oor Wullie - there's still dozens of those books lying about in their house.

[Alan Taylor]

When I was really wee, it was Oor Wullie, The Broons and The Beano (didn't like The Dandy).

As I got older I went on to stuff like Asterix and Tin Tin, and was given 2000AD and Viz by my older cousin.

The cartoons in the nineties got me into the US characters, with X-Men, Iron Man and Batman.

When I hit my teens it was Spawn, not sure how I found out about it though.

But I only started buying singles and properly collecting trades about 5 years ago around the time I got Wanted, Sin City and Watchmen. So I went out to find all Miller, Millar and Moore's stuff I could.

Civil War (which I think was a bit of an odd place to start) was the book that really got me into Marvel.

[Ben Gilboa]

Read comics here and there, but what really got me to actually follow and buy them was the Ultimate line, back when it was all on Marvel.com for free.

Thanks, Mark!

[Steve O'Connor]

Superman The Movie - It's what got me into comics when I was a kid. It's still my favourite movie. I have dim memories of my first comic being a Superman comic with Vartox and Lana Lang in it. I probably thought it had something to do with the movie at the time. It hooked me though! Justice League of America shortly after that because it had so many heroes in it. I read nothing but DC for years!

[al-x]

Hello:

The Byrne/Claremont run in X-men, back when it was
just one title. The stories were epic and I thought
all comics were like that.



Al...

[Oliver Selby]

Nobody's mentioned the joy that is Peanuts, so I'll bagsey that.

Also, Commando, Giles, all the brilliant cartoons from Punch (my family had a complete set from 1899 to about 1956) and Hoffnung (the musical cartoonist).
Then later on IF by Steve Bell, Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed, Doonesbury, Viz, 2000AD and so on.

Superhero comics? Its all Walt Simonson's fault in the first place, then the swines that are Millar and Hitch for Ultimates getting me addicted again.