Captain Wolverine...hand the man a cigar.
The first comic book I remember picking up was during a long, long car trip from Minnesota to Arizona. I snatched up
Captain America Annual #8 from the newsracks of some random convenience store between the two destination points. For some reason, I associate the experience with an oversized Wiley Coyote lollypop, which I can only surmise today that it was also purchased around or at the same time of that pit-stop.
Captain America Annual #8 had a cover far too action-packed to ignore: a depiction by Mike Zeck of Captain America raising his shield above his head in attempt to deflect a slashing attack by a clearly ticked-off Wolverine. The story (by Mark Gruenwald) wasn't so much about Captain America and Wolverine duking it out (however great of a cover it made); rather, it was more in regards to an unlikely pairing of heroes with two utterly different ethical perspectives to fight a common enemy much in the fashion that Batman and Superman made famous in the DC world. In the case of this eighth issue, the common enemy was a Sentinel. As far as I can remember, the issue was my introduction to Wolverine, and the first panel showing Logan enjoying a cigar and a pint of beer while the rest of the barmates ripped apart the joint in an over-the-top brawl behind him made it impossible for me not to find out about this new character.
The comic book that got me interested in collecting was
Incredible Hullk issue 364 (volume one) written by Peter David and pencilled by Jeff Purves. Sure, my youth had the occassional comic book land my way, but none of them invoked a rational in me to start actually collecting. I was fine with what I remembered of my
Spider-Man and Friends or
Super Powers reruns, and I was more content with inventing new adventures with my GI Joe figurines. In fact, I remember only having a single dollar burning a hole in my pocket, and I had to pick between some Snake-Eyes, who ---let's face it--- was the Wolverine of the GI Joe team, saga playing out in a Marvel published comic book or the said
Incredible Hulk issue that was subtitled "The Countdown." I had to find out how long my much beloved television star had been gray, and the choice was made. Play time with dolls (did I say that? Gee, I meant "action figures"
) was over, and reading that of the fantastic nature had begun.
Of the last comic book I picked up, I must admit that I haven't done so for a long time. I remember picking up a few back issues of
Marvel Comics Presents when Sam Keith did the covers about a year or so ago, but that is about it.