The first comic book I ever bought was Amazing Spider Man #151. I paid twenty five cents for it at my local drug store when I was six years old. My life was irrevocably changed after that as that day marked my entry into the comic book collecting world.
There wasn’t anything earth shattering that happened in the issue. Spidey had just finished up his long struggle with the Jackal and the original clone. It was the first part of a tussle with the Shocker and had all the usual (and very wonderful) teen angst that was characteristic of that time in Peter Parker’s life.
Yet, it was my first comic book so in an autobiographical way, it was special for me and that’s all that really matters. I’ve always thought that the best issues in comic history are reader driven, not hype driven, and that can and always should vary with each individual. Every fan remembers the first comic they ever bought and what it meant to them. For me, it was seeing Spider Man leap out of the pages thanks to the talents of penciller Ross Andru. Andru will always be the best Spider Man artist in my view because he made the character larger than life, in many cases literally, as panel restrictions were cast aside and readers would often see red boots dripping over into the white spaces of the page.
I go back and read this book at least twice a year, breathing in the great smell of old comics paper and letting the memories of my dash to the comics rack every Sunday after church wash over me. Even though it was over forty years ago, I feel like I am right back there again and my heroes are waiting to take me on another amazing journey.
