Mighty Crusaders #13 is another childhood yard sale buy, and it introduced me to Archie's universe of heroes.  As listeners of the podcast know, I'm a fan of these characters (especially in the 1960s series), and Archie is once again bringing the Mighty Crusaders back in 2012.  This comic was so intriguing to me at the time because it was full of colorful, old-timey heroes.  It was drawn in an older style thanks to Dick Ayers pencils, which I enjoyed.  As I said, it was colorful, but in such a way that the colors were full, bright, and fun.  I even loved the lettering stlye by Bill Yoshida.  There was a main story, which the cover advertised, and a back-up story focusing on The Fox by the same creative team.  This was the last issue of this particular series, but I've always been on the lookout for the first twelve issues, of which I own about half as of this writing.  Despite it looking like a kid-targeted series, you can bet I'll be giving the new Archie series a try.

Invasion #3 from DC Comics.  Whe I was a kid, I walked into the grocery store one day with my family, and there on the magazine rack inside the door was Invasion #3.  I hadn't seen the first two issues before that (not that I recall, anyway), and this one made my young jaw drop.  All those heroes on the cover!  All those heroes inside!  United to face a global threat of alien invasion! So many ill in a full page shot of hospital beds!  I would hunker down there beside the rack and flip through the pages, so excited about this comic.  As I said, the magazine rack (more like shelves) was right beside the entrance to the store, and I remember many times hunched there getting a blast of cold air whenever someone entered the store in winter. I don't know if this was one of those times, but if it was, I wouldn't have noticed as entranced as I was.  I have since bought issues 1 and 2, but as yet haven't read them. 

Outlaws of the West #84 from Charlton Comics.  This was probably my first western comic; if not, it was my first Charlton western comic.  This issue was given to me (or traded for something) by a friend of mine back in grade school.  It's one of my favorite comics merely because of the memory/nostalgia of it; I remember little about the contents.  What stuck out to me at the time was the details of the Charlton printing when this comic was made: the colors were a bit blotchy and the bottoms of the pages sometimes had serrated cut patterns.  I also remember the western dialect used in the stories was heavy.  Overall, probably not a great comic, but it'll always stick in my mind affectionately.

If you were a kid in the 70s/80s, book and record sets were fun because everytime you heard a chime it gave you permission to turn pages.  How authoritarian! Of course, the only thing better than a book and record set was a COMIC book and record set.  When I was very young and listening to my grandparents' big floor model record player, I'd occasionally get comic book/record sets to listen to.  At some point, someone gave me Star Trek: Passage to Moauv, and I enjoyed listening to it many times. I probably haven't heard it since I was a kid, but it is still stored with my collection, joined by many other comic book/record sets.  Considering my later love of Star Trek, this one deserves to be dug out of storage and re-experienced.  If you'd like to experience some of these sets (and find mp3s of the records), here's a link you might want to try: http://powerrecordsplaza.blogspot.com/

The Sensational She-Hulk #7 was the first issue of this series I picked up at a local gas station when I was young.  The depiction of an old Marvel monster on the cover made me buy it.  Once I read it, the book was a revelation.  The old fourth-wall-breaking gag was in full effect as part of this book's makeup.  John Byrne was having tons of fun being humorous with the readers as She-Hulk would talk to them and integrate conventions of the comic book into her story. 
It was also fun to see semi-obscure characters given something to do, as U.S.1 (from his own short-lived series), Razorback (from old Spidey comics), Blonde Phantom (a golden age character), and Xemnu the Titan (the old Marvel monster who also appeared in issue of Incredible Hulk and The Defenders) all played a part in the tale.
I couldn't afford to keep buying this title at the time, but I have since sought out and read most of the rest of Byrne's She-Hulk issues.  He worked on #1-8, then took about 20 issues off before returning to do another 20 issues. 

Here's a link to a former blog entry for The Amazing Spider-Man paperback book reprinting the first several issues of that title, as well as Amazing Fantasy #15:
http://comicbookattic.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=214294
As the entry says, this is where I first read Spidey's first several issues, although I had previously read the origin story elsewhere.  I remember being a kid in the family vehicle reading this little paperback full of old Spider-Man stories.  Fond memories are wrapped up in the first appearances of Doc Ock, Lizard, The Tinkerer, and Sandman... and it was in color, unlike many other paperback reprints.

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe vol.2 (Deluxe Edition) #16 was the 3rd issue of this series I bought when I was young.  I was and still am obsessed with character handbooks thanks to these Marvel Handbooks.  This issue began a five issue spotlight on the "dead" Marvel characters.  At the time, I thought it was the coolest thing to read about these characters' histories and how they died-- especially since I hadn't heard of many of them.  I waited quite impatiently for each new issue of the "dead" to come out.  So, in the spirit of Halloween, I present this as one of my old favorites.  It's still fun to go through these five issues and see how many of the characters have remained "dead," and how many have returned from the grave...

Here's a link back to the earlier blogpage covershot of Amazing Spider-Man #202: http://comicbookattic.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=154455
As the link headline reads, this was my first comic (as far as my memory tells me).  When I first received this comic, it would have been new.  It has a March 1980 cover date, which means it probably came out near the end of 1979.  I would have been 2 years old and quite unable to read it.  However, I was allowed to look at it.  Believe it or not, it is still in great shape-- most likely because my family wouldn't let me mess it up.  Several years later, when I began collecting comics for real, this was a jewel of the bunch. 

Here's a link to a previous blog posting of mine showcasing the cover of another of my favorite comics, The Adventures of Jerry Lewis #105:  http://comicbookattic.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=157238&comments=on
I got this book as a kid at a yard sale with some Superboy issues, a Land of the Giants issue, and an adaption of Disney's Jungle Book.  (Some of those may pop up in this feature some day.)  The thing that made this issue kinda weird when I read it was the guest appearance of Superman.  A "serious" character crossing into a silly comic was fun, unlike the bizarre raised-eyebrow crossover of Archie and the Punisher.

West Coast Avengers vol.2 #20.  This was the first issue of this series that I bought new off the stands.  I've probably mentioned this comic before on the podcast, but this Steve Englehart scripted tale was part 4 of a lost-in-time storyline for the team.  Different members of the team were lost in different time periods and interacting with other Marvel characters from those time periods.  Great stuff-- but then again, I'm a sucker for time travel stories.  I remember asking my family to pick this one up for me when I was 9 years old.  They brought it home from a Sheetz convenience store, ready to be devoured by my eager comic-reading eyes.