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james castle Devil in Cell-Block D
Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 1999 Location: Toronto, Ontario
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 3:03 pm Post subject: 20 Years of Daredevil |
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Well, for me anyways.
The first DD comic I got was #247 - "The Backwards Man" by Ann Nocenti. I got it as a prize for doing a good job delivering flyers. Looking back on it, issue #247 is potentially the worst introduction to the character a young boy could ask for. It's in the sewers, Daredevil doesn't figure too largely in it (I can't recall if Matt Murdock even makes an appearance but my bet is that he doesn't) and there's bizarro, Ann Nocenti sci fi/political commentary all over the place. There's a touching/dark love story in there but I'm going to assume it blew by my young mind.
Yet, for no reason I can imagine I decided that Daredevil was my character and I went out and bought the latest issue which turned out to be #258 - "Does the Jungle Breath". It's not super clear to me how Nocenti's fairly blunt (and dare I say ham fisted) commentary on war drew me in further but it did.
In any event, I looked the issue up in the datebase today and apparently the cover date was September 1988 which (if one ignores the fact that cover dates are wrong) means I've been reading DD for 20 years. That kinda blows my mind. I assume others on this board can blow that number into pieces. Anyone one at the 30 or...could it be true?...40 year mark? _________________ JC
So why can't you see the funny side?
Why aren't you laughing? |
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Francesco Underboss
Joined: 08 Jun 2006 Posts: 1307
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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This supports my personal theory according to which you don't really need these "perfect jump-in issues" they talk about so much these days to start reading a book and eventually fall in love with it. |
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Blind Alley Tree of Knowledge
Joined: 06 Nov 2004 Posts: 292 Location: Lyon, France
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:37 pm Post subject: Re: 20 Years of Daredevil |
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james castle wrote: | It's not super clear to me how Nocenti's fairly blunt (and dare I say ham fisted) commentary on war drew me in further but it did. |
I think this issue was a fill-in by Nicieza...
Happy "20th" anyway ! _________________ Visit the Red Shaker |
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jumonji Guardian Devil
Joined: 23 Sep 2007 Posts: 636 Location: Too close to the Arctic circle
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:00 pm Post subject: |
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I just hope that the character will still be in print by the time I've been a DD fan for twenty years. Also, is this the thread where we're supposed to guess your age?
Anyway, happy 20th! _________________ The Other Murdock Papers |
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blacktyphoid Playing to the Camera
Joined: 10 Aug 2007 Posts: 137
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:31 pm Post subject: Re: 20 Years of Daredevil |
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james castle wrote: | Well, for me anyways.
The first DD comic I got was #247 - "The Backwards Man" by Ann Nocenti. I got it as a prize for doing a good job delivering flyers. Looking back on it, issue #247 is potentially the worst introduction to the character a young boy could ask for. It's in the sewers, Daredevil doesn't figure too largely in it (I can't recall if Matt Murdock even makes an appearance but my bet is that he doesn't) and there's bizarro, Ann Nocenti sci fi/political commentary all over the place. There's a touching/dark love story in there but I'm going to assume it blew by my young mind.
Yet, for no reason I can imagine I decided that Daredevil was my character and I went out and bought the latest issue which turned out to be #258 - "Does the Jungle Breath". It's not super clear to me how Nocenti's fairly blunt (and dare I say ham fisted) commentary on war drew me in further but it did.
In any event, I looked the issue up in the datebase today and apparently the cover date was September 1988 which (if one ignores the fact that cover dates are wrong) means I've been reading DD for 20 years. That kinda blows my mind. I assume others on this board can blow that number into pieces. Anyone one at the 30 or...could it be true?...40 year mark? |
That's a nice story. Thanks for sharing.
Dare I say it? I'm a 40 year collector.
My introduction to DD goes all the way back to the Wally Wood days. Damned if I can remember which specific issue, but it was definately during Wood's run. A friend of my older brother collected Daredevil and Fantastic Four. My brother collected Spider-Man, which I inherited when my brother abandoned comics for girls. Through my brother's comic collecting friend, I got to see the Wood Daredevils. As a little kid, I was attracted to them.
A couple years later, at a used comic book store in Toronto, called Memory Lane, I remember purchasing a few Wally Wood Daredevils for about $3.00 apiece. Those were the only Daredevil comics I owned, and treasured, for several years.
It was maybe ten years later, when I was about 17 or so, I took half the money I made from summer camp as a counsellor and I purchased the first 100 issues of Daredevil (minus the aforementioned Wood issues) from a friend for the princely sum of $100! (That's probably the best investment I ever made. Who knew I'd get dumber as I got older?)
I have been collecting Daredevil on-and-off since then. I've had a good run of late, collecting every month for the past 14 years and successfully filling the holes to my collection. As a result, I've got the entire set of both Daredevil volumes.
___________________
blacktyphoid |
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james castle Devil in Cell-Block D
Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 1999 Location: Toronto, Ontario
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 10:29 pm Post subject: Re: 20 Years of Daredevil |
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Blind Alley wrote: | james castle wrote: | It's not super clear to me how Nocenti's fairly blunt (and dare I say ham fisted) commentary on war drew me in further but it did. |
I think this issue was a fill-in by Nicieza...
Happy "20th" anyway ! |
You're right. It's weird that his fill in issue fit in politically with Nocenti's run. I should have known it wasn't Nocenti. She's never blunt nor ham fisted. _________________ JC
So why can't you see the funny side?
Why aren't you laughing? |
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Kuljit Mithra Hardcore
Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 1530 Location: Canada
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Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:37 pm Post subject: |
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I started collecting monthly with #219 (Badlands by Miller/Buscema) in 1985... I had no idea what was going on and what it had to do with Daredevil. The only thing I knew was that this Miller guy was the same guy who had written some DD issue I had read (I think 183) that I had got in one of those 3 for $1 packs that Marvel used to have. The only exposure to DD I had before this was the paperback of Marvel Illustrated that had two Wally Wood DD's in it. So, 23 years later, I've got all of Volume 1, Volume 2 and some web site. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before, but I picked up the book and comic pack at a store that used to be in Canada called Bargain Harold's. I picked up issue #219 at a store that was in Thornhill Square, a mall which eventually was torn down. Before it was torn down, it was featured in the Dawn of the Dead remake. _________________ Kuljit Mithra
www.manwithoutfear.com |
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Pete Fall From Grace
Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 417 Location: Liverpool, UK
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Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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I first came across the character in a weekly Marvel british reprint anthology title along with the Hulk and the FF. Luckily my first issue of this title was #20 which just happened to be the first issue Daredevil appeared in, replacing Spiderman who proved so popular he got his own weekly title that week. So my first glimpse of the character was the Lee/Everett DD #1 splash page. Love at first sight.
This was 1973, so I'm in my 35th year of following the character, a fact that makes me both glad and completely bewildered in equal measure. Lots of other comic related stuff /characters/concepts have fallen by the wayside in that time. They got dull, I got bored, I moved on, they didn't etc but this guy is still there in my life , primarilly I think, due to the talent on the book over the years. Some very, very good writers and artists back there. |
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train Guardian Devil
Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 659 Location: Hell's Pantry
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 10:08 am Post subject: |
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it's been 23 years for me. issue 223. i can't really say why i picked it up. perhaps the tag line "man without fear" and the cover pic of him shuddering in fear had something to do with it. turns out that was a great story and i've been hooked ever since. |
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Jim B. Playing to the Camera
Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 124 Location: Woodstock Ontario
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Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 7:56 am Post subject: |
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23 years for me too. I bought comics a bit when I was really young but it wasn't until I was 12 years old in the summer of 1985 that I really seriously got into collecting them (by then I was bored with collecting action figures and hockey cards) so comics turned into my new thing so to speak. My friend was really into comics and told me all about Daredevil and how great he was and that I had to buy it. I was skeptical at first believe it or not but I remember being in a comic store in Kitchener when I visited some family that summer. I bought DD #125, 144 and 148 for 50 cents a piece. I remember loving the action and the villians we're great (well Deathstalker and Copperhead we're great, Man Bull was kind of on the lame side) and I remember just loving the look of DD. He just seemed to have something that Batman and Spiderman didn't have even though I was really into them too. Later that summer I bought my first monthly issue #222. It was my first exposure to the more darker DD which I was instantly attracted to. Denny O'Neil and David Mazzuchelli also fast became favourites of mine which has stayed until this day too. Of course I fell for the Black Widow too who was in this issue I always enjoyed when they teamed up and thought they made a great team. I bought the comic every month steady until around the Vision Quest storyline where I decided to take a break from it because I was not enjoying it anymore but got back into the comic with Ed Brubaker and have gotten some of the Bendis run in trade. _________________ "This isn't hell, but you can see it from here." -The Crow |
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