I started reading comics in 1977 when I was 6 years old, first as a reader of Justice League of America and then (by 1979) becoming primarily a reader of Marvel superhero comics like Avengers and Captain America. (I posted at length about that here.) In mid-1983, shortly before I turned 13 years old, I got bored with Marvel and began buying non-superhero comics published by Archie and Charlton. In the process I became a big fan of Steve Ditko, whose work was appearing in comics by both companies at the time. (I posted about that here.)
In the 1980s my visits to comics shops were infrequent, around four or five times per year (if that) and when I did go there I tended to focus more on back issues, particularly the discount bins. Most of my new comics purchases were at local convenience stores like Lawson's and 7-11, and local independent bookstores. My small town had two such bookstores throughout the 1980s (and a short-lived third bookstore in 1984). At that time, nearly every small town in my area had at least one bookstore that sold new books, and most of them had a comics spinner with the month's latest mainstream releases.
Despite all those options for finding new comics, I still somehow managed to never see some issues that I probably would have bought if I had seen them. Or perhaps I did see them at the time and forgot all about them because they didn't seem as interesting to me back then as they do now. And of course my spending money was limited, so it's possible that I passed them by for that reason alone (lack of funds), and then promptly forgot all about their existence.
Nowadays when I look through back issue boxes, or search the listings found at the Grand Comics Database (GCD), I'm sometimes surprised by comics from the 1980s that I had no idea existed. Most of the info and cover images below are from their GCD entries. I have also used the Newsstand feature at Mike's Amazing World of Comics, which is a bit like having a time machine to see what comics were on sale each week.
So, with all that background information out of the way, let us begin.
Probably the earliest comic book that I remember not getting was ACTION COMICS #500 (Oct. 1979) which came out when I was 8 years old. I was more into Marvel at this point, but still bought the occasional DC comic if it looked interesting. A couple friends told me that they had seen #500 at the local drugstore, and we were mainly impressed by the fact that a comic book had reached such a high number. Thor was the longest-running Marvel series and I made sure to buy Thor #300 when it came out a year later. I also bought JLA #200 (March 1982) when it came out. But I never did buy Action Comics #500, and still don't have that issue all these years later.
Two of the most acclaimed fan-favorite series during this period were also largely avoided by me at this young age. I was a fan of the most popular Marvel superheroes (Spidey, Hulk, FF, Cap) and tended to be less interested in the more obscure titles. I learned about two of the second-tier titles, Daredevil and X-Men, when I signed out a copy of Son of Origins from my local library, since that book reprinted their first issues. A friend had a copy of Daredevil #155 that I looked at, and when I saw #156 (Jan. 1979) at the local drugstore, I bought it and kept buying it. Frank Miller became the book's penciler with #158 (May 1979) which I bought new off the spinner rack, as well as the next issue. I think I missed #160 & 161, but I did buy #162 (Jan. 1980), a fill-in issue drawn by Steve Ditko, which was one of the first Ditko comics I ever bought. And I bought (and enjoyed) #163 & 164, too. But then something happened: I decided that the one title I would focus on "collecting" would be Captain America, and a neighbor friend offered to trade me some of his 1970s Jack Kirby Cap issues for my Daredevil issues. I accepted the offer, which caused me to think that there was no point in continuing to buy new issues of Daredevil now. So I missed DAREDEVIL #168 (Jan. 1981), the first appearance of Elektra and the first issue of Miller's long run as the book's writer. I did buy the next issue, #169 (March 1981), when I saw it at the local bookstore, but then I stayed away from Daredevil for nearly two years, missing the majority of Miller's run. I finally bought an issue again when I saw the striking cover of #189 (Dec. 1982) -- at a local supermarket, if memory serves -- and as soon as I read the first few pages regretted that I had not been buying the series all along. Unfortunately I missed the next two issues as well -- I guess DD was easy to miss on the stands back then -- which were the final two Miller-drawn issues. In 1983 I bought a mail subscription to Daredevil that began with #201 (Dec. 1983), but it was clear that I missed out on the mag's glory days. Although I let my sub lapse after a year, I began buying the series again with #226 (Jan. 1986), during Miller's return as writer, and therefore was largely able to read the classic "Born Again" story in real time and not later on via the back issue bins. (I say "largely," because I did miss #227, buying it several months later at a garage sale of all places.)
The other fan-favorite Marvel title of the 1980s was X-Men, and it's a similar story there, with me coming to the party late. The first issue I recall buying was #124 (Aug. 1979), during the middle of the famous Claremont-Byrne run, which I bought at a local drugstore when I was 8 years old. I bought the next issue, too, also at a local drugstore. But then I learned that a local comics shop was buying used comics (for, I think, 5 or 10 cents each -- this was back when the cover price of a comic was 40 cents) and I sold those two issues to the store. So, having apparently decided that Uncanny X-Men wasn't good enough to keep in my collection, I didn't buy it anymore. But then Amazing Adventures #1 (Dec. 1979) came out, and I began buying it every month from the first issue. This series reprinted X-Men from 1963-onwards, the Lee-Kirby issues with some later origin recaps in the backup slot, which were an excellent introduction to the concept of the comic. Unfortunately, the series was short-lived and AMAZING ADVENTURES #14 (Jan. 1981) was the last one published, but I never saw it, nor the issue before that. The last one I had seen and bought was #12. (To this day, the only issue I need to complete the run is #13.)
Gradually it must have dawned on me that Amazing Adventures was no more, so I began buying Uncanny X-Men again with #142 (Feb. 1981). Unfortunately this was the next-to-last issue drawn by John Byrne; I had missed out on buying one of the most popular series being published when the issues were new. This fact soon became apparent to me, probably because of the buzz surrounding the death of Jean Grey in UNCANNY X-MEN #137 (Sept. 1980) which was already going for higher than cover price in the back issue market -- and I had missed out. I ended up buying #137 at a local comics convention circa 1982 for $5.00, the most that I had spent on a single comic book issue. I bought Uncanny X-Men regularly from #142-on, missing only the occasional issue, until late 1981 when I got a mail subscription that began around #154 (Feb. 1982). I eventually started to get bored with Marvel and let my X-Men sub lapse with #168 (April 1983). I started buying it again with #172 (Aug. 1983), the era when Storm got her mohawk (which I loved, finding it a refreshingly modern change from her previous look), but dropped it again for good with #177 (Jan. 1984), having found John Romita Jr. hard to accept as the book's artist. (I was a Paul Smith fan.) I wouldn't buy another issue of the series until #205 (May 1986). If someone ever asks me, "When did you stop buying X-Men?" my answer is 1983, although I did buy the occasional issue in later years.
Even as a pre-teen, I was a fan of the art of George Perez on Avengers, but his final issue on that series was #202 (Dec. 1980). Perez moved over to DC, but I ignored NEW TEEN TITANS #1 (Nov. 1980) when it came out. It's possible I never even saw the issue, but I do recall looking briefly at an early issue of NTT on the spinner rack and putting it back, not liking the inking by an unfamiliar name, Romeo Tanghal. I was heavily into Marvel superheroes at this point and not about to follow Perez to DC. In 1981, I got a mail subscription to four of the main Marvel titles, my sub to Avengers beginning with #209 (July 1981). Evidently the loss of a favorite artist was not enough to keep me from buying every issue of a favorite Marvel series; at that age, the characters meant more to me than the creators. However I did like the Mego action figures of the (pre-Perez) Teen Titans, especially liking Kid Flash's costume, and eventually started buying NTT regularly two years later with #25 (Nov. 1982). By 1983 I had subscribed to NTT (I think the first issue of my sub was #38), and had dropped Avengers from my subscriptions. (I eventually let all of my mail subscriptions lapse in 1984.) I never did buy an issue of the direct-sale Baxter-paper NTT series that began in 1984 and stopped buying the newsstand version in 1985 when it switched to reprints of the Baxter series. I guess I figured that I'd buy the Baxter issues someday and didn't need to buy the reprints, even if they were easier for me to acquire. Anyway, it all worked out for the best, since I was able to acquire most of the issues I missed in discount bins in the late 1990s.
I enjoyed Jack Kirby's Marvel work, including the comics he wrote and drew in the 1970s like Captain America and Machine Man, but when CAPTAIN VICTORY #1 (Nov. 1981) came out, I ignored it. For one thing, I was mainly a Marvel reader at that age (around the time I turned 11 years old) and for another thing I think I was suspicious of the hype surrounding the release of this "independent" comic. I seem to recall seeing the issue (or one of the early issues) prominently displayed near the counter at a local comics shop, as if I was expected to want to buy it, and this promotional strategy backfired on my stubborn self. So I never bought a copy brand-new, finally acquiring #3-5 in a discount box a few years later at a local comics shop. As it happens, I never bought any Pacific comic brand-new during that publisher's brief existence. The final Pacific Comics releases were dated August 1984, during a period when the only "independent" comics I had ever bought were from Archie Comics' Red Circle line. I would eventually buy a lot of indie titles, and come to prefer them to the mainstream offerings by the end of the decade, but 1984 (age 13) was a year too early for me to think that way, so I missed out again.
Around the same time that Captain Victory #1 came out, another first issue was released, and that one I did buy: Dennis the Menace #1 (Nov. 1981), published by Marvel. I had enjoyed the Sunday newspaper comic strip (which appeared in my local paper, The Detroit News) and was happy to see a comicbook version of it, done in the same style as the strip. But for some reason I never bought another issue of the series, which ended with #13 (Nov. 1982). So why didn't I buy DENNIS THE MENACE #2 when it came out, as I had #1? It's possible that I never saw it on the stands. After all, Dennis comics had previously been published by Hallden, the comics imprint of Fawcett, up to 1980, and I have no memory of seeing them on the racks either. Looking back, this was around the time I had tried to get my little sister into comics collecting by steering her towards comics aimed at younger readers like those published by Archie and Harvey Comics. She briefly "collected" Richie Rich, two of her earliest purchases being Richie Rich #194 and Richie Rich Gems #32, both cover-dated September 1980. Looking at the covers of Harvey issues published at that time, I think the last new issue she bought was either Richie Rich #206 or 207 (cover-dated Sept. and Oct. 1981 respectively) -- a month or two before Marvel's Dennis the Menace #1 came out. Did I buy the issue to interest my sister in the comic, or did I buy it for myself to enjoy? It's possible that I bought it for the former reason but kept it in my own collection for the latter reason. Anyway, I didn't buy another issue, since at the time I was a little leery of buying "kiddie" comics. It's too bad, because I missed out on the opportunity to buy many Archie and Harvey comics of this era that I have since had to acquire as back issues.
Unfortunately Harvey went on a long hiatus in 1982 (their last issues cover-dated Dec. 1982) and wouldn't re-emerge until Richie Rich #219 (Oct. 1986), which I bought when it came out -- this time for me, not my sister. Although I was glad to see Harvey Comics back, and had the awareness now that I ought to buy them (unlike back in 1982), for some reason I didn't. By 1987, I was 16 years old and more interested in the edgier comics being done (like Watchmen, whose first two issues I bought in one purchase at a local comics shop, around the same time that I bought Richie Rich #219). Harvey continued to publish new comics into the early 1990s, including my particular favorites Little Dot and Little Lotta, although many of them consisted of reprints of older material (not that I would have minded). Surely I would have bought a copy of HARVEY HITS COMICS #1 (Nov. 1986) if I had seen it on the stands, right? Well, it's hard to say. This was at the height of DC's revamping of their entire line following the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and thus following many of the new DC titles (including ones I had never bought before, like Wonder Woman) would dominate my attention and pocket money. In retrospect, I think I would have been better off buying every issue that Harvey was putting out in the late 1980s, since buying the post-Crisis DC titles eventually became a joyless exercise.
One of my comics-buying regrets is that DC cancelled many of their "mystery" anthology titles just a year or two before I became interested in such comics, and thus I was not able to buy them new off the stands. Between 1979 and 1982, the majority of comics that I bought were superhero comics, mainly ones by Marvel, but in 1983 I began to grow bored with Marvel and began branching out and trying different genres and publishers. The first "independent" comic that I ever bought was Mighty Crusaders #3 (July 1983), soon followed by Black Hood #2 and Shield #2 (both Aug. 1983), published by Archie's direct-sale imprint Red Circle (more about that later). I also began buying DC's All-Star Squadron regularly with #25 (Sept. 1983), the second DC series that I was buying (after New Teen Titans). I was becoming nostalgic about the past, beginning to listen to old-time radio shows and reading about comics history (outside of Stan Lee's Marvel books on the subject), and All-Star Squadron's 1940s setting appealed to me for that reason. Plus it had terrific art by someone that wasn't drawing for Marvel (Jerry Ordway), making me realize what I'd been missing by being so Marvel-focused for so long. I was also buying 1970s reprints of old 1950s Marvel horror comics in the cheap bins, where I also found 1970s Charlton ghost comics, and my tastes were expanding beyond superheroes.
Unfortunately, by the time that change in my tastes occurred in mid-to-late 1983, DC had already cancelled most of their "mystery" anthology titles, preventing me from buying them new off the shelves. The last issue of Secrets of Haunted House was #46 (March 1982). Ghosts #112 and The Unexpected #222 (both cover-dated May 1982) were the last issues of those long-running titles. The war series The Unknown Soldier ended with #268 (Oct. 1982) and Weird War Tales (a particular favorite of mine, when I found them later in the discount bins, in the 1990s) ended with #124 (June 1983). And finally, THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY #321 (Oct. 1983) was the final issue of that series, coming out only a month after I had bought All-Star Squadron for the first time. I was just beginning to buy more DCs, but the number of series that I might have bought was being cancelled before I knew I'd want to buy them.
DC was still publishing the western series Jonah Hex (ending with #92, Aug. 1985) and war comic Sgt. Rock (which lasted until #422, July 1988), but curiously I never bought either series new. I did buy a few issues of G. I. Combat off the spinner rack: #267 & 268 (July & Aug. 1984), #277 (May 1985), #280 (Nov. 1985) and possibly #284 (July 1986). The final issue was #288 (March 1987). I was inclined to like G. I. Combat because it was an anthology series (providing more variety) but unfortunately it was dominated by the Haunted Tank feature, of which I was not particularly a fan. It was great to be able to buy a brand-new war anthology comic, though, like the kind that had existed for decades before publishers catered more to the interests of superhero fandom. I think I suspected even then that G. I. Combat was not likely to last long, given that DC had already cancelled their other anthology comics.
In 1983, I began buying 1970s Charlton ghost comics that I found in a local comic shop's "5 for $1.00" boxes. I had been ignoring the "new" (all-reprint) Charlton comics on the spinner rack at the local 7-11, etc., but in late 1983 I finally began buying them. My earliest purchases were Ghost Manor #72, Haunted #71 and Scary Tales #42 -- all cover-dated January 1984. Charlton was also publishing a line of war comics, and the first that I bought was Battlefield Action #85 (Feb. 1984) and Fightin' Marines #173 (March 1984) -- which were the first war comics that I ever bought, period. I was soon buying practically every "new" Charlton comic I saw on the stands, but even I missed some of them. For example, Charlton's western comic GUNFIGHTERS was still being published at this time, but I never saw it in my area. The final issue, #85 (July 1984), mentioned on the cover that it was reprinting work by Simon & Kirby -- so I know that if I had seen it, I definitely would have bought that. No such luck. (And I still don't have that issue.)
I was buying every ghost series Charlton published, but somehow never bought a copy of BEYOND THE GRAVE new off the stands. I have a vague memory of seeing a copy on the spinner rack at a 7-11 far from my usual store, but not buying it for some reason. I missed my chance, and the final issue was #17 (Oct. 1984) -- another comic that I still don't have.
In the summer of 1984, Charlton began to cancel their long-running comics. For many years I thought the final issue of GHOSTLY TALES was #168, because I had been buying every issue since #165 and never saw one on the stands after #168. Years later, when looking at a comics index, I was surprised to learn that the final issue was #169, which I never saw (and still don't have). I'm sure that if I had seen it, I would have bought it, due to its eye-catching Mike Zeck cover. I did buy the final issues of Ghost Manor, Haunted and Scary Tales, however -- although I did not realize it until a few months later, of course, when no further issues appeared.
I have a memory of debating whether I ought to buy Fightin' Army #172 (Nov. 1984) when I saw it on the spinner rack, since it consisted of a full-length story and I was more interested in the variety offered by the multi-story anthology format. But being a Charlton fan, I bought the issue without knowing that it would be the last issue of the series to be published. Had I known that, my decision to buy it would have been a lot easier.
Charlton published a few one-shot "funny animal" comics that summer, and for years I thought I had bought both of them: Funny Animals #1 (Sept. 1984) and Zoo Funnies #1 (Dec. 1984). Once again, it wasn't until years later, when perusing a comics index that I learned that I had missed two of them: ATOMIC MOUSE #1 (Dec. 1984) and FUNNY ANIMALS #2 (Nov. 1984). There's no way that I would have passed them by if I had seen them on the spinner rack back then. These were among the last comics that Charlton published in 1984 before going on hiatus for nearly a year. (I finally bought Atomic Mouse #1 a couple decades later at a comic shop, but still don't have Funny Animals #2.)
In the summer of 1985 (beginning with issues cover-dated Sept. 1985), Charlton briefly revived their comics line, and I bought all of them that I saw on the stands. Of the first four with September cover dates, I bought all four new off the racks. Of the eight issues with October cover dates, I bought six of them when new, missing only the two war titles. Of the four issues with November cover dates, I bought none of them. (One of those issues was DR. GRAVES #74, which I would have been likely to buy if I had actually seen it on the stands. My guess is that the November issues didn't make it onto the spinner racks in my area for some reason, or at least not long enough for me to see them.)
Charlton put out six issues with December 1985 cover-dates. I have all of them, and I know that I had bought at least two of them new (Charlton Action #12 and Iron Corporal #24). I think I may have got the rest, including Mysterious Traveler #15, as back issues at a local comics shop sometime later.
Charlton put out six issues with January 1986 cover-dates. Again, I have all of them now, although I'm unsure which ones I bought new or later on. I do think I bought at least two of them new, and the rest later.
Charlton put out only three issues with February 1986 cover-dates, and these were the last comic books that Charlton ever published. They are Iron Corporal #25, Prof. Coffin #21, and Punchy and the Black Crow #12. That last one I definitely never saw, and never saw later either. I was pretty deliberate in buying Charlton comics at the time, recognizing by this time that the company could perhaps go out of business (which they eventually did) and that any comic of theirs that I saw could be its last.
With Archie Comics, it was a different story. Some of their titles had been around since the Golden Age, and it never occurred to me that a comic like Jughead would get cancelled. The comics they published that didn't involve the Archie gang, however, seemed to be in a constant state of change during the period that I paid attention to them (mainly, 1983 to 1985). Their direct-sale Red Circle superhero line morphed into a newsstand-distributed Archie Adventure line beginning with issues cover-dated February 1984. This was fine by me, since it meant that I could now buy them at local convenience stores and bookstores rather than at comics shops (which were few and far between).
By the end of 1984, most of the Archie Adventure titles had been cancelled, and I bought some of these last issues -- like Steel Sterling #7 (July 1984), The Fly #9 and The Original Shield #4 (both Oct. 1984) -- without realizing that there would be no subsequent issues of those series. I avoided the Mantech series that was introduced that year because it had a "kiddie toy" look, unlike the other Archie Adventure comics. I had been buying Mighty Crusaders regularly, but after #9 (Sept. 1984), I didn't see it on the stands for a long time. The next one I saw, #12 (June 1985), was now drawn in that "kiddie" style that I didn't like. I bought it anyway, simply glad that the series was still being published. I also bought #13 (Sept. 1985) which would be the last issue published. Somehow I had missed #10 (Dec. 1984) and #11 (March 1985) when they originally came out. MIGHTY CRUSADERS #11 had introduced the new "kiddie" look, and I'm still missing that issue from my collection, all these years later.
In 1984, I was not only buying Archie's superhero comics, but their humor comics as well. As I wrote about in a previous blog post, I'd read in Comics Scene #11 that Bob Bolling would be taking over as writer/artist of ARCHIE AND ME with #141 (Oct. 1983). Unfortunately I didn't see that issue (and didn't actually buy it until 2022) but I did buy Archie and Me #142 (Dec. 1983) when I saw it on the spinner rack at the local Lawson's store. This was the first Archie humor comic that I ever bought new; I enjoyed it a lot and began buying more of the Archie line. I bought Archie and Me #143 (Feb. 1984), but then missed #144 (April 1984), #145 (June 1984) and #146 (Aug. 1984) -- presumably because I never saw them. I did buy #147 through #153, missing only #149 (Feb. 1985). But I didn't buy the series after #153, perhaps because Bob Bolling's contributions had become less frequent. The GCD entry for #152 says, "This is the last story from Bob Bolling's memorable run as writer-artist on Archie and Me (though he would draw, but not write, some later stories for the title)." Bolling actually had work in every issue after #152, except for #153 (the last one I bought new) which had no Bolling work inside. I guess I figured that Bolling had left, and so I left as well, not buying the series again and evidently not even looking inside any new issues that I saw to see if he had returned. As it happens, Archie and Me #161 (Feb. 1987) was the last issue of the series -- although it would become one of the rotating features in the Archie Giant Series Magazine (more on that below). Had I known that the comic would be cancelled soon, I might have kept buying it after #153, to see it through to the end.
Archie and Me #142 was the only Archie humor comic with a 1983 cover-date that I bought new. I bought two issues with January 1984 cover-dates when they came out: Archie's Pals n' Gals #167 and Life with Archie #240. I enjoyed those issues, too, and this made me realize that non-Bolling Archie humor comics were worth checking out. I found them to be a breath of fresh air after having basically gorged myself on Marvel superhero comics for the previous five years. The Archie humor comics that I bought with February 1984 cover-dates were Archie and Me #143 and Archie at Riverdale High #95. I don't recall seeing KATY KEENE SPECIAL #2 (the first newsstand issue after the direct-sale special #1) at the time. The first issue of that series I bought was #4 (June 1984) and I recall being surprised to see it at a local bookstore, so I suspect I hadn't seen #2 or #3 at all. I had seen #1 at a local comics shop in 1983, but didn't buy it because I overheard the store owner offering to give this "girl's comic" (Red Circle's Katy Keene Special #1) to a customer's daughter for free, and I would have felt foolish buying a copy from him!
Of the March 1984 Archie humor comics, I bought Archie #328 and Pep #393. Of the April 1984 issues, I bought only Jughead #333. Of the May 1984 issues, I bought Archie #329 and Everything's Archie #111. As I look through the gallery of covers showing what came out each month, I'm intrigued by what I didn't buy each month. Why did I buy (and enjoy) Pep #393, but then not buy another issue of Pep until #401 (July 1985)? Would I have been more deliberate in collecting the series if I had known that #411 (March 1987) would be the last issue of this series that started in 1940? Another example is Archie's T.V. Laugh-Out, an anthology series that featured Josie and Sabrina backup tales in addition to The Archies lead stories. I bought only one issue of this series when it was new: #101 (June 1985). It wasn't until years later, looking at comics indexes, that I noticed the series ended shortly after, with #105 (Feb. 1986). I collect the series now, and wish that I had been more dedicated to buying it each issue, the way I tended to be towards Marvel and DC superhero series. It's a similar story with Archie at Riverdale High: I had bought #95, 97, 102 & 103 when they came out; #113 (Feb. 1987) was the final issue. It was the kind of series that I had assumed would always be around.
Curiously, the only BETTY AND VERONICA comics that I bought during the 1980s were the ones featured in AGSM. I can only conclude that I simply never saw the regular B&V series on the stands in 1984 or 1985, when I was actively buying new Archie comics. As it happens, their regular series ended with #347 (April 1987) and then returned a few months later with a new #1 (June 1987). I'm pretty sure I didn't know about this at the time, or else I would have bought it. (I was buying all those new DC #1's at the time, after all!) What's crazy to me, looking back, is that Jughead also got renumbered and I didn't know that either. I bought Jughead #333 (April 1984), #334 (June 1984), #336 (Oct. 1984) and #341 (Aug. 1985) when they came out. It turns out that #352 (June 1987) was the last issue of this series that had begun in 1949. Somehow I didn't notice Jughead #1 (Aug. 1987) when it came out, the first issue of a renumbered series that ran until 2012.
In 1984, when Marvel's Secret Wars maxi-series began, I avoided it, even though I had greatly enjoyed Mike Zeck's artwork on Captain America. To my mind (and I feel the same way now as I did then), Zeck and inker John Beatty were wasted on the bland Secret Wars. So, when DC published CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 (April 1985), I also ignored it despite my love for the artwork of George Perez. As can be seen above, my tastes at the time were leaning in the opposite direction, towards smaller stories aimed at a general audience, not big "events" serving fandom. I managed to hold out until I saw Crisis #7 (Oct. 1985) featuring the death of Supergirl. I set aside my prejudices and bought the issue, and didn't miss an issue of Crisis after that. DC was on fire and I was eager to watch the changes blazing across their line. I think this explains why I stopped buying Archie comics after 1985, since DC was a more exciting alternative to mediocre Marvel.
In 1997, after having taken a break from buying new comics for most of the 1990s, I began pre-ordering comics via Diamond's Previews catalog through a comics shop that was within a 20-minute walking distance of my home. Had that been available to me in the 1980s, my comics-buying experience might have been very different. On the other hand, being forced to look for alternatives to Marvel on the newsstand (rather than the wider direct-sale selection) caused me to buy some comics that I might otherwise have not tried. So for that, I guess, I'm grateful -- despite all the comics I missed along the way.
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