A new podcast that has fun with comic book related audio, especially old radio shows.  Enjoy the adventures of Superman and the Fantastic Four plus a lot more. (40:03)

For me as a kid, the normal edition of Overstreet's price guide was way out of the scope of my small allowance, so when the first edition of the smaller, cheaper Price Guide Companion came out, I got it as soon as I was able.  It was a revelation to see all the different titles I'd never heard of.  I looked at and studied this guide so much that the spine split into two halves.  I still have it, though.  From there, I graduated to borrowing the normal editions from the library until I was finally able to afford to buy them.  I buy a new Overstreet guide every few years, but it never has the same effect as that first little abridged pocket edition.

The Comic Book Heroes: From the Silver Age to the Present by Will Jabobs and Gerard Jones.  I bought this book when I was a kid and DEVOURED it.  It was the first history of the comic book heroes I ever read, and it was so intensely fascinating, I can't even put in to words how valuable this volume was to my young comic-reading mind.  Its history only began with the Silver Age, but I wasn't complaining; up until this book, the only history I got to experience was issues of Marvel Saga and reprint comics.  Highly recommended then and now.

Collecting Comic Books by Marcia Leiter.  I got this book at a yard sale as a kid, and it helped shape the comic collector in me at an early age.  I learned all the basics of comic collecting, including the terminology, the grading system, and the ways one could hunt down comics (at least 20 years ago). 

Make Your Own Comics For Fun and Profit was a book I read a lot as a kid.  It was among the books in the library where I went to 6th grade, and I checked it out again and again.  As a youngster, I made my own comics-- hundreds of them.  This book was an inspiration to my young comic-creating mind.  As an adult, I found this book secondhand and bought my own copy. 

I talk about Firestar #1 ('10).  (11:46)