snell's Firsts!

I'm feeling nostalgic for some odd reason, so let's take a little trip down memory lane. Let's visit the halcyon 1970s, at look at the first issues of various titles that young snell bought brand new for himself (as opposed to being presents, or finds at garage sales, or what have you).

It all started, of course, in 1976, and a trip to local shopping emporium/everything store Meijer Thrifty Acres. My mom wanted to shop without me bugging her. So she gave me 50¢, and I had a choice: blow it all on the latest issue of Mad Magazine, or buy 2 individual comic books.

The rest, of course, is history:

Hooked. For. Life.

The other comic I bought that day?

For some reason, that one didn't stick...who can say why?

But only a few months later, I bought the first comic that ever made me cry:

And I was a regular Hulk buyer for quite awhile.

It took a couple of months, but it wasn't long until I was a full-fledged Marvel Zombie. Soon I picked up my first Spider-Man:

Yow!!

And my first Avengers was not too far behind...

Ah, Kirby floating heads narrating the scene...oh, 1970s covers!

I really have no clear memory of what my first issue of Captain America was, or why I took so long to hop on board. I think it was this one...

I not quite sure about my first Iron Man, either, although I'm a little more certain that this might have been where I came on board:

I'm much surer of my first X-Men:

By this time my parents had bought me Origins Of Marvel Comics, and Son Of Origins, and even young snell recognized this as an homage to the cover of X-Men #1. and I was intrigued.

That wasn't the first X-Men I bought for myself, though.

A regional discount chain, Zayre, regularly had big old tables/bins where they would sell off huge quantities of recent comics for 10¢ each.

And there were dozens, probably hundreds, of copies of this issue:

And I bought one. Just one. Only one. Nope, not all of them, nor many of them, nor lots of them. Merely one.

Oh, for a time machine and a bunch of dimes...