My Famous Firsts: Flash - issue 208.

Back in 1971 when my 11-year-old self was deciding on what comic to buy, the subject matter of any comic had to conform to stories about super-heroes batting monsters or super-villains. So, upon seeing a comic cover featuring our hero running past a church with a nun praying in the background was on the face of it, not going to appeal to me. However, that wonderful cover (by Neal Adams) just looked so good to my childhood eyes that I just had to make The Flash #208 my first US Flash comic. The addition of the Elongated Man illo above the Flash logo, made me want this comic even more as I don't think I was aware of this character at this point and new characters at this time fascinated me.

In this issue the Flash seeks to help a young man who worked for a drug dealer. Realising that he wants "out" from the gang he decides that he will try to track down the drug dealer's hidden loot and return it , with the help of his sister, who is a nun and prays for St. Jude to assist them. The Flash assists the young man in tracking down and defeating the gang by vibrating his body at superspeed and thereby not being seen and the event being attributed as a miracle.

Like many of DC's comics from this time they also contained some great fun back-up tales. This issue was no exception and featured a zany Elongated Man tale where criminals dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland during a parade in order to steal a rare, first edition of the book. The crooks are caught out by the Elongated Man who recognizes that the crooks are wearing costumes based on the cartoon adaptation and not the original book. Like I said "zany", but a wonderfully illustrated tale by Dick Giordano - I have been an Elongated Man fan ever since reading this story.

In the 1970's we really got value for money as this issue rounded up its 52 pages of content by featuring a classic Flash /Kid FLash tale from 1964. A tale that is now 60 years old but in 1971 was only 7 years old..... I feel so old!

My Famous Firsts: Fantastic Four issue 150 - Ultron & the wedding of Crystal & Quicksilver

Although I had been aware of the Fantastic Four since the 1960’s when they appeared in the British weekly comics “Wham!” it wasn’t until 1974 when I picked up my first US Fantastic Four comic. And it was a pretty decent issue to be my introduction to the colour adventures of the FF with a cool villain (Ultron) that I don’t think I had heard of until then , the Inhumans, and of course the marriage of Quicksilver and Crystal. This issue was one of Marvels earliest cross over adventures with part 1 appearing in Avengers issue 127. I recently managed to pick up a new copy of this issue last week (my original issue looking more than a tad tired) and found myself getting lost in the pages of the story ( something I rarely do now is properly read a comic) and for a brief moment I was transported back to Tthe 1970's, which as readers of this blog will know is a passion of mine.

My Famous Firsts: Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, X-Men, Flash, Cap America & others

I normally bore you all to death on here by talking about how I bought the first issue of a specific comic book title back in the day. However, the truth is that apart from on a few occasions, the event was usually marked by myself simply walking into a newsagent in my old home town, seeing a comic I wished to purchase, and buying it. Of course, there was always the fanboy elation at finding that first US issue but if you are a comic book fan then you know that feeling. Below are a few of my “famous first” purchases that have no specific memory or story attached to them. these along with my first US "Fantastic Four" comic (above) - #150 from June 1974 – cover by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia, still hold memories of a diffenrt time. Enjoy:

Above: Ghost Rider #7 - Cover by John Romita and Gasper Salindino - from May 1974.

Above: X-Men #79 cover by Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia - September 1972 (I know I need to buy a replacement copy, this one is a bit tattered but it's my original)

Above: X-Men #96 - Cover by Marie Severin & Sal Buscema - December 1975 - I was never a fan of the original X-Men (I missed the Steranko and Neal Adams issues first time around) and my "first" X-Men issue 79 was a reprint, so this is my second first issue of the title. I really enjoyed the team of Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum on this title -This is a replacment copy as I read my original so many times that it is falling apart.

Above: The Flash #208 - Cover by Neal Adams - August 1971.

Above ; The Mighty Thor #205 - cover by Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia - August 1972.

Above: Warlock # 5 - cover by Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia -January 1973.

Above: Captain America #121 -Cover by Gene Colan and Joe Sinnott - October 1969 - This was one of the first US Marvel comics that I ever purchased (around 1970) and it is still a big favourite of mine.

Above: Teen Titans # 34 - Cover by Nick Cardy - August 1971 - Another classic comic book from the bronze age.

Above: The Demon # 13 - Cover by Jack Kirby - October 1973 - I was never a big fan of Kirby's 1970's stint at DC, but the Demon (and Kamandi) were pretty decent.

My Famous Firsts: Conan the Barbarian issue 26

As I have mentioned many times before 1973 was my favourite year for comic books. Every month the spinner racks seemed to bulge with amazing new comics book and one of my very favourites was the above issue of Marvels “Conan the Barbarian” (above cover by John Romita, John Buscema and Ernie Chua). I was 13 years old and was on what was to become a legendary comic book finding weekend holiday break with my family to Blackpool when I came across this comic book (along with “Kull the Conqueror” issue 9) in a market stall. My knowledge of Conan up until this point was restricted to those enticing half page adverts that appeared in Marvel comics, to say they whetted my appetite to find a Conan comic was an understatement, and what an action packed issue to become my first introduction to Conan the Barbarian. Below are some pages from this excellent issue:

Although I didn’t know it at the time this issue marked the end of the ongoing saga of the “War of the Tarim” which had spanned several issues and featured the art of nine artists and one writer, Roy Thomas. In this issue “The Hour of the Griffin!”, Roy was joined by artists John Buscema, who had just taken over the job of penciller from the legendary Barry Windsor-Smith with issue 25 , and inker Ernie Chau (later called Ernie Chan).Buscema would of course go on to make Conan his (and Roys) own.

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Below are a couple of those "enticing" house ads that appeared in Marvel comics in the 1970's for Conan.

My Famous Firsts: Incredible Hulk issue 137

Although I had been aware of the Hulk through the pages of the UK weekly comic “Smash” where his stories had been reprinted since 1966, it wasn’t until 1971 when I saw and purchased my first US Hulk comic, the above issue 137 (cover by Trimpe and Marie Severin). At the time of his appearances in Smash! I wasn’t a fan of the character mostly because his strips seemed poorly produced with pages looking crammed (Smash would print 4 US Hulk pages into 3 UK pages etc) and of course I was only about 6 years old at this time and superhero stories weren’t of that much interest to me then. However, by mid-1971 my fascination with the superhero genre was starting to emerge and those elusive US Marvel comics (DC’s weren’t that hard to find) were starting to be a priority purchase for me.

My first memory of seeing the Hulk was on the cover of my brothers copy of Smash! Issue 17 which featured Jack Kirby’s cover for Incredible Hulk issue 1. Sadly the Hulk was printed in flesh tones as Marvel only supplied Odhams with black and white artwork forgetting to tell them that the Hulk was green (or even grey as he appeared on Kirby’s US cover). Cover from the Grand Comic Database.

It was on a trip to my local newsagent around July 1971 where I spied Incredible Hulk issue 137 which I immediately purchased. I held onto this copy of the Hulk (and issue 136 which I purhased a few weeks later) for decades until I I left a large box of comics containing these issues sometime in the early 1980's, when I moved house. It wasn’t until a holiday visit to Liverpool around 6 years ago that I saw a nice copy of issue 137 (and 136) for sale at the very reasonable price of £3 each.. As soon as I saw the cover of issue 137 my memory went back to the day I first purchased it and remembered (before I opened my copy) the above strange character from that story which must have made a strong impression on my then young mind.

Issue 137 was the final part of a two issue tale called “The Stars, Mine Enemy” that began in issue 136. The story lends heavily from Herman Melville’s novel “ Moby Dick” where the Hulk is forced aboard a ship of aliens who are hunting the alien creature Klaatu. There he meets the Abomination who is First Mate aboard the vessel where as expected the Hulk and Abomination begin fighting. The captain of the space ship Cybor, hires Xeron the Starslayer to help him hunt down and destroy Klaatu who was responsible for destroying half his body. As the hunt progresses Cybor harpoons Klaatu, but gets pulled into the sun killing him and seemingly destroying the monster as well (50 plus year spoiler : Klaatu returns) . As the Hulk and the Abomination continued their fight, their blows bring them closer to Earth's atmosphere where they are pulled in by the planet's gravity sending them into a free fall to the planet's surface. Some of my favourite pages from this issue are noted below:

The above cover (by Herb Trimpe and Sal Buscema) to issue 136 was the first part of this tale called “Klatuu! The Behemoth from Beyond Space!” I first purchased this comic a couple of weeks after buying issue 137 in the same newsagents and found it "fun" that I found this and issue 137 together in a market stall in Liverpool some 50 years after I first bought them in Glasgow.

My Famous Firsts: Amazing Spider-Man issue 80 - although it was really Pow! issue 1?

January 1967 was a momentous time in comic book history for most kids in the UK as this was when Odhams launched a new comic called POW! to accompany its already successful comics Wham! and Smash! So, what was so special about POW you may ask, well its lead strip was the Amazing Spider-Man, and this would have been the first time that most kids in the UK were exposed to Peter Parkers alter ego. Move forward 3 years to 1970 (it seemed so much longer than that when I was a kid) POW had ceased publishing (around September 1968) and I hadn’t read a Spiderman comic in what seemed like a lifetime (it was probably less than a year) and on a trip to the local newsagents with my family I spy the Amazing Spider-Man issue 80 which I quickly purchase and becomes my first US Spider-Man comic.

The cover to POW! issue 1 – My first introduction to Spider-Man - Cover taken from Wikipedia.

Amazing Spider-Man issue 80 “On the trail of the Chameleon“ was initially a bit of a disappointment to me as I wasn’t a fan of the Chameleon, but I did enjoy the interaction between Peter Parker and Flash Thompson over Peters misunderstanding that Flash was in a relationship with Gwen, and I liked Gwen (I was 10 years old, I didn’t understand why but things were starting to stir!).

The story itself is full of coincidences starting when the Chameleon disguises himself as Gwen’s dad (coincidence 1) George Stacy in order to steal a painting while Peter and Gwen are at the museum (coincidence 2). Long story short in an attempt to steal more money in a sting set up by Peter to catch the Chameleon and clear Mr Stacy of the robbery, the Chameleon makes the fatal mistake of disguising himself as Petr Parker (coincidence 3) and is unmasked by Spider-Man thereby clearing George Stacy’s name. Not a great issues story wise but John Buscema's art and Gwen Stacy more than make up for that.

Although this wasn't the best issue of Spider-Man I console myslef with the fact that my first US Spidey comic wasn't issue 81 with the Kangaroo!