Batman Family #12

One of my first exposures to my favorite artist Jim Aparo was this cover to Batman Family #12 from August, 1977. I was instantly impressed with his unique style. Unfortunately he didn't have any art on the inside. I enjoyed this issue anyway though. In addition to a Batgirl story and a cool Marshall Rogers drawn Man-Bat story, there was a cool Irv Novick drawn Robin story. This was probably my first exposure to another of my favorite artists growing up. Although I liked him better on The Flash, I thought Novick was a very good Bat artist, just not as good as Aparo. With cool books like this coming out at the time, it's no wonder I became a DC guy at a very young age.

Superman Family #182

Another great book I got from the first year I collected comics is this great Superman Family from April, 1977. Superman was (and is) my favorite character from day one and 80 pages of Superman related stories was a no brainer for me. Not to mention a gorgeous Curt Swan/Neal Adams cover. Right away I knew that Curt Swan was something special. He was the perfect artist for the Man Of Steel. Another great Superman family artist was Kurt Schaffenberger. At the time I wasn't aware of his work on Lois Lane from the Silver Age. It was a great experience discovering his work in these late '70's dollar comics. This issue also featured work by Mike Vosburg, Marshall Rogers, and John Calnan with scripts by Cary Bates and Denny O'Neill, and E. Nelson Bridwell. I'd savor these 80 page wonders for the whole weekend. Great, great stuff.

World's Finest #244

Every day something reminds me that I'm getting older. One of the major things is that this year celebrates my 30th year of collecting comics. My dad started buying me comics when I would go see him every other weekend after my parents divorced when I was seven. One of the first books I remember getting is the first Dollar sized World's Finest, #244 from April-May, 1977. I remember my dad thinking that a dollar was a lot for one comic considering they were .35 at the time. This particular issue was one of the better ones in the dollar run. Behind a great Neal Adams cover there were 5 great stories featuring such great heroes as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Vigilante. The main Superman and Batman team up featured the unique creative team of Bob Haney, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, and Murphy Anderson. This book will always have a special place in my comic loving heart. I'll post some of the other Dollar comics that I was fond of in the upcoming days.