What comic or character got you into comics in the first place?”
Was it a book, a cartoon, a movie, or one specific moment?

Great question, but hard to answer for me because it happened so long ago. But I'm pretty sure what started my lifelong interest in comic books was a Spider-Man comic book.

The newspaper comics, when my dad used to read the Sunday paper, it came with a small section just for comics, with a few panels. I used to collect them until my dad gave me my very first comic, a Woody Woodpecker one. Later, a neighbor gave me a really old Superman comic, well, she didn’t exactly give it to me… I remember I had to pretend to be her boyfriend so she would give it to me. And that’s where it all started. Lol, what a trip down memory lane.

18 hours ago, JoanPault said:

The newspaper comics, when my dad used to read the Sunday paper, it came with a small section just for comics, with a few panels. I used to collect them until my dad gave me my very first comic, a Woody Woodpecker one. Later, a neighbor gave me a really old Superman comic, well, she didn’t exactly give it to me… I remember I had to pretend to be her boyfriend so she would give it to me. And that’s where it all started. Lol, what a trip down memory lane.

Now that you mention it ... this is exactly how I got into comics too. Now, I remember it clearly ...like you, it was the Sunday comics section ... a sort of comic book in its own right ... that was left after others in my family grabbed the news, sports, and lifestyle sections. I was drawn to the Spider-Man strip but also Beetle Bailey, Hagar the Horrible, Prince Valiant, Family Circus and the one with Dagwood Bumstead - I think it was called Blondie. Thank you @JoanPault for unlocking that memory!!!

I always read the funnies in the newspaper when I was a kid. Then my grandfather and uncle opened a comic shop and brought home a few boxes of comics and I was immediately hooked!

On 2/6/2026 at 8:38 AM, FantasticJerome said:

I always read the funnies in the newspaper when I was a kid. Then my grandfather and uncle opened a comic shop and brought home a few boxes of comics and I was immediately hooked!

Wow! To have a comic shop in the family would have been a dream come true for me as a kid. I'm a little present-day envious of your childhood past 😳

Actually as a kid my Dad got me into it as a reward for going to the laundromat to help him do laundry it was also a soda shop and a pharmacy and general store all wrapped into one. He would buy me one to read and one to keep in the plastic for a keepsake he would also get me a match box car as well they were on display in this tower type garage display with hundreds to choose from it was caravana for match box cars ! So needless to say I have a trunk full of comic books unopened as well as a collection of match box cars!

I'll echo a lot of other voices here that it was the funny pages in the newspaper, but that gave way to collections of Calvin and Hobbes becoming a staple. That said, the 90s animated shows for Batman, X-Men, and Spider-Man opened me up to superhero comics in a big way, too. So I have to give them both equal credit.

Someone my family knew growing up delivered comics to shops and newsstands so every week they'd bring over a box of whatever came out that week. Hard not to get hooked when you had a wealth of 80s and 90s books at your disposal.

yeah I honestly its hard to say a specific moment - my uncles who were like my big brothers were always giving them to me to read and I can remember my mom reading me comics as far back as when I was like 4. Mostly Marvel books but definitely some Batman and Wonder Woman thrown in there to. I definitely learned to read via comic books as a kid

On 2/10/2026 at 6:46 AM, Mike C said:

Actually as a kid my Dad got me into it as a reward for going to the laundromat to help him do laundry it was also a soda shop and a pharmacy and general store all wrapped into one. He would buy me one to read and one to keep in the plastic for a keepsake he would also get me a match box car as well they were on display in this tower type garage display with hundreds to choose from it was caravana for match box cars ! So needless to say I have a trunk full of comic books unopened as well as a collection of match box cars!

That's great that you kept them! I know a lot of people lose their old comics and toys from childhood, but that's cool that you were able to keep up with them all this time.

3 hours ago, Drewr15 said:

yeah I honestly its hard to say a specific moment - my uncles who were like my big brothers were always giving them to me to read and I can remember my mom reading me comics as far back as when I was like 4. Mostly Marvel books but definitely some Batman and Wonder Woman thrown in there to. I definitely learned to read via comic books as a kid

That's a great tradition of reading comics to kids to get them interested in reading. I do that with my kids as well.

On 2/10/2026 at 4:12 PM, Nicole Drum said:

Someone my family knew growing up delivered comics to shops and newsstands so every week they'd bring over a box of whatever came out that week. Hard not to get hooked when you had a wealth of 80s and 90s books at your disposal.

Lucky! I bet that was fun! I have a similar story; my grandfather and uncle opened a comic shop when I was little and would bring home random boxes of comics. I was hooked immediately : )