In Figserello's blog about DC One Million, both John Dunbar and Jason Marconnet state that they stopped reading comics in the early 90s and reconnect in the late 90s. As not to threadjack that discussion, I thought that I would relate that the same thing happened to me. By 1993, I had been reading comics for twenty years, practically since I was able to read since Justice League of America #103. By then I was 28 years old and, quite frankly, was burnt out by the hobby. Not on the hobby, by the hobby.
I was caught by the Gimmick Age and its collectible covers, crossover events, numerous #1s and explosion of titles. I bought two copies of every special cover, annuals and miniseries. Three to four copies of EVERY #1. Multiple copies of Batman, Detective, Amazing Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men and several more. And I was collecting more and reading less. Once I was indexing titles regularly, then it was too time consuming. And the stories got darker and the heroes grimmer. Then this happened:
In 1994, they turned Green Lantern into a murderer. Hal Jordan went insane and a new Green Lantern, Kyle Raynor, was introduced. Interviews at the time said that the Readers of Today deserved their own Green Lantern. And that my time as a valued fan was over. It wasn't so much the fact that they had been systematically replacing the heroes I grew up with with new versions and new characters since Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 but they seemed intent on corrupting/mocking/destroying their own past which was a huge part of my past. A couple of months later, I realized that I was no longer getting any pleasure from my weekly comic pull so I quit. Cold Turkey. I still went to conventions twice a year. Still bought MAD. Still bought Batman Adventures and its various forms as these books based on Batman: The Animated Series were more closer to my Batman than the then-current one. I also bought Marvel's Heroes Reborn: The Avengers because it was the Avengers!
I was not buying any DC book regularly or irregularly except for one.
As I was no longer going to any LCS, there was only two places in College Point that sold comics: Genovese Drug Stores carried about twelve titles which included Batman Adventures and The Avengers. The other was a little stationary store that got about six or eight books a week, mostly the big names like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and the Hulk. Surprisingly it carried Starman starting with #0! Now I never read Zero Hour so I had no idea who this Starman was but I was pleasantly shocked to learn that he was the heretofor unknown second son of the Golden Age Astral Avenger! Out of curiousity I bought the #0 issue and everyone after that. But I never bought any other title. For two years I was completely cut off from the current product of the hobby I loved. I still read Wizard though so I knew what was happening and what was on the way. For two years, nothing came out to convince to return and usually only confirmed my decision to stay away. (Guy Gardner: Warrior, Gunfire). Until mid 1996 and
THIS:
I could not resist Kingdom Come! It reaffirmed a lot of what I enjoyed in comics. As a seperate series, it rivaled Watchmen in my mind. It was in some ways the pinnacle of the Post Crisis Universe and its fitting conclusion. Its heroes weren't perfect but they had convictions. And at the end, there was HOPE. That had been sorely lacking in the DCU. After that I bought Justice League: A Midsummer's Nightmare, Batman: The Long Halloween, DC/Marvel: All Access, Batman/Captain America (by John Bryne) and, of course, JLA #1.
Soon after that I started getting into the regular series again. There were new concepts and versions like Impulse, Tempest, Supergirl and the Newer Teen Titans. By 1997, I was back in the saddle again but this time I was not buying everything that DC and Marvel put out. It was still a good size chunk of it but not everything! And to this day, I have not bought double issues of anything except on very rare occassions. I do not collect variant covers and have longed stopped buying every part of every crossover. I even drop titles now. I only get two X-series and only one Green Lantern series.
Am I still an excessive buyer? To some yes. Do I still fall back on reading certain titles? Sadly yes. But I am trying to catch up. But I do not let the collecting bug control me anymore. I pick up my books once a month and go from there. There are many new titles I would recommend and several that are excellant. And I enjoy reading them. I only wish that I had more time for them as I find myself reading older comics now. Whether it's nostalgia or remembrance, I accept that I am who I am. A comic book reader!
Hopefully later I can see where I was with Marvel exactly during this time.
What are your stories about getting out and coming back?
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The one real long time I was out of comics was when I entered high school. I gave up my paper route right before school started, and I didn't work all through high school and my first year of college. That was 4 years I basically didn't collect. The only comic I picked up regularly was LSH. Once I came back I came back full bore in October of '92. I was making decent money (well decent for a 19 year old) and bought a ton. I had no car payment, nor rent, plus comics weren't so expensive then so I could afford a bunch. I still went to a convention or two myself at this time, but for me it was more about playing RPGs and not comic books.
There were two other times. Once in 2004 when I lost my job, I was out for 2 months and that really helped me trim my pull list. What did I really care about? What did I miss reading? What did I basically forget about? Then about 3 years later I took another 2 month off just because I wasn't interested in comics at all, and completely redid my pull list again.
I Began my comics reading between 1956 and 1958 with the Carl Barks ducks, followed by The Superman and Batman titles. I started JLA with Brave and Bold 28, which led to Flash, Green Lantern, Atom, and Hawkman. My first Fantastic Four was #5. I stopped buying at (I think) 13 years old, and went back to comics at 15. My first Amazing Spider-Man was #9, and then I was back to more-or-less full bore. I had dropped the Superman and Batman titles until Schwartz took them over.
When the Army “joined me” in 1968, I kept buying, reading and collecting. When I was sent to Vietnam in 1969, I left my mother lists or comics to buy and estimated on-sale dates. Where I was, we had no running water but we had comics in the small PX! I mention this because I was forced to buy other than Marvel/DC comics, as the comics arrived at the PX about three months late, and they were ones I had already read. I got into a number of Charlton titles, ghosts and war. The Charlton war books (Fightin’ Army, Fightin’ Marines, Lonely War of Willy Schultz) were more realistic than the DC/Marvel ones. Shame about their print-quality and distribution. Their books deserved a larger audience.
I kept buying until 1979. My work and other interests caused me to be buying and not reading, so I quit comics cold turkey. I still went to the San Diego con for a few years (my first SDCC was 1972) and never stopped the Comic Buyer’s Guide, so I knew what was going on.
I returned to comics in 1989, buying Legends of the Dark Knight #1 at that year’s San Diego Comic-Con, which I had attended at the urging of my new wife. I only bought a single copy, no alternate covers. I’ve never bought more than one copy (except by accident) of any comic except Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1, because it was easier for me to file it in two places, being more anal at the time.
I read Sandman, Watchmen, and Starman in trade collection form, and selectively purchased hard- and soft-cover collections of old and new comics. I’ve recently pared back my comics reading because I hate piling them up and not reading them, but will not quit cold turkey again. My comments on this site are usually low on specifics, as I sold my collection of original comics several years ago.