Throwback Thursday: First Hunt.
For collectors around the world, the hunt for those elusive issues, those rare and often insignificant middle issues that may mean nothing to most, but would complete that mini series, that run, or that collection. For this week’s Throwback Thursday, I thought I’d share with you my very first hunt.
First, the exposition. I had never really read comics beyond a few isolated stories that my uncle had purchased and he let me read behind my parents back. I cut my teeth on a leather bound edition of The Dark Knight Returns and Batman Dracula. That all changed in 1995 when I turned ten years old, and my grandmother bought me a suitcase, an entire suitcase, of miscellaneous comics.
At first, this purchase was a blessing. Hundreds of glossy covers, characters I had never heard of, stories playing out beneath my fingertips, it was an excellent Christmas. Soon, however, I became board reading just snippets of larger grander stories. I read a cliffhanger regarding the death of XO Manowar and the moment Harbinger got caught and returned to his special school, but I never found out how any of it ended.
In this miasma, I dumped out my comics and discovered I had four of the issues of Legends, a DC mini series from 1986. It’s story was amazing and something my ten year old mind had never considered before. Heroes being hated by the general public? How innovative! How unexpected! How…does it end? The issues I had were #1-3 and 5.
Now being ten years old with a three-dollar a week allowance and an impoverished household, my options were limited. I didn’t even know where to look for comics, having gotten the two or three I had owned previously from the super market. It took me two years, the amazing discovery of the store Books Galore, and a lot of bike rides to places I wasn’t supposed to go, but eventually I found that final issue, which for me was #4, and the amazing feeling of accomplishment that comes with completing a hunt.
Despite the confusion of reading the series alongside another series I was reading (Guy Gardner Warrior) I was so proud of the set that I took it everywhere with me, showing it off to friends at school at church. It is truly unfortunate that I chose to do so at church, because our minister not only confiscated them, but put them through the shredder in his office. But for a brief shining fort night, I had felt like Kraven on his Last Hunt (minus the untimely shotgun to the face).
That was my First Hunt, how about yours? Did you have a series that captured your imagination that you just had to find the ending to? A challenge from a friend that a particular issue was impossible to find? How about discovering a character on his last few issues and NEEDING to learn more about his story? Comment your stories or send them to davidhinspeter@comicbooked.com and you could be featured in next weeks Throwback Thursday! We will also send the most impressive hunter a comic book goodie bag, courtesy of Comicbooked.com!
ah, nothing better than the old back issue hunt. that’s part of what makes this such a great hobby in the first place!