When did you start KEEPING your comics?

[Dandontdare]

I'm curious as to when you stopped reading comics and chucking them away, and actually started saving them up.

Most, if not all grown-up comic readers on here, would have been reading comics as a kid. We all went from the Beano/Dandy to Krazy/Whizzer & chips, through to 2000AD and Marvel comics. But all those Beanos got read and chucked, at least in my house.

For me it was 20000ad that made  me incapable of just throwing the thing away after I'd read it - I kinda snuck it past my folks - They were always generous with allowing us comics and magazines on the  weekly newsagent's bill. I was allowed 3 comics , and I remember ditching Whizzer & Chips n in favour of 2000ad.

I'm not sure what it was that made me hang on to these comics (which in those days were considered as disposable as newspapers), but 20 years later, My mum was nagging me to move all the hundreds of progs in her loft!

[maryanddavid]

I was always an avid Beano reader, 2000ad a little, my older brother used to give me money to buy it, he felt too grown up to get it.
An extended stay in hospital when I turned 11 really got me into all comics, relations asked what I liked, so I was brought comics by the armful, everything from Weeklies, Monthlies, Libraries, Funnies and Action, but no one brought any Superhero stuff, no idea why, there was plenty of Marvel UK around.
My late uncle really got me into collecting though, american comics or back issues of British comic were just not available here, he bought me a big bunch of american comis and more importantly the address of the mail order company, Conquistador! ,part of The book Palace eventually (I think). He then got me  the original Eagles, which were incredible to see for the first time in the mid eighties, compared to the poor quality newsprint from IPC, the were fantastic, and importantly the name Norman Shaw, who supplied me with a lot of comics in the late eighties.
I have kept most of what I have bought, and they have been read through by many kids over the last few years, my seven years olds favourite read at the min is Whoopee Monthly!

[Fungus]

The 2000ADs were all kept, Dan. Yes, loved the Whoopees and Whizzer & Chips and more interestingly, Krazys and Cheekys, et al. Read and binned them.

Things changed at 2000AD. After about... 9 months I would buy 2 copies a week. Don't know where the feck that idea came from. So my collection is split between read and bagged/unread. As you all know the bog paper progs were perforated and literally the pages remain stuck together until read. I find this pleasing. I am sure that in the 80's my thought process was that I would keep a 'good' unread collection. Even when shit, the prog is a hard habit to ditch and (as mentioned before) it turns out I bought 2 copies for about 4 years after the reading stopped. Reading them now, Grud help me.

I have pristine earlyish progs and I guess what you're wondering is, who kept the early progs, and in good nick. I'll confess I keep an eBay to see just what the going rate is.

[shaolin_monkey]

I used to keep all my Whizzer and Chips, but cut out my favourite stories and Blu tac'd them to my bedroom wall above my bed. My mum stopped me when they ended up covering one complete wall and I wanted to start on another.

[Mangamax]

This is the oldest thing i kept, and still re-read to this day:

[Colin YNWA]

It all gets a bit hazy as to what happened when but suspect my brother was keeping Battle before he started to keep 2000ad. As said Whizzer and Chips, Cheeky etc (was Cheeky before 2000ad?) were all read and binned, though I have a feeling the odd Summer Special survived (I have visions of a Monster Fun one getting mixed in with piles of comics, though how accurate this is?).

Certainly from 2000ad, Doctor Who Weekly amd Star Wars Weekly onwards they were all stashed. Everything alas feel fowl of the Mum Monster at various stages. The only exception being Doctor Who Weekly and Monthly that seemed to survive these periodic purges, until I got rid of them (to someone here as I recall?) a few years back.

The oldest comic (to me - as in I bought new off the shelf and still have) I own is as late as Prog 431 from 1985 I think. Not that many comics I have in my extensive collection still exist from that period even, both American and UK as I've purged a couple of times. Numerous 2000ad had to be replaced as well as they had been read to death and or posters cut out etc.

[Mattofthespurs]

I always kept my 2000 AD's and Dracula Lives from childhood although many times I had to rescue them from my Mother's cleaning purges.

My collection of 2000 AD's went to a friend when I moved out of my parent's home on the understanding that I would get them back when I wanted them.

They stayed with him for about 5 years from 1989 until I started get the Prog again in 1994.

I still have tonnes of stuff from when I was a child.

[ZenArcade]

Started really keeping them from 87 onwards. Have a lot from before.then from late 70's particularity Annuals. Z

[Tjm86]

I'd always seen tooth as a little disposable to be honest.  Part of that might have been the peripatetic air force lifestyle of my old man which meant that space was always at a premium.  I was banned from reading tooth in the early eighties after my mam glanced at Nemesis and decided it was 'not appropriate' but this was fortunately short lived.

I think the eye opener was when the Eagle reprints started and an introduction to certain Marvel stuff through a friend with the UK reprints.  Becoming aware of the fact that you could get back issues and that they could be expensive!  Like maryanddavid I remember Conquistador as well as Justin Ebbs' Just Comics.  Getting his back issue catalogue was a real eye opener.  Back in the mid eighties it seemed that there were so many places to go.  I still remember my first comic mart in Birmingham then dragging my dad around town to find all of the comic shops I'd seen listed in the back of Star Wars weekly.  Nostalgia and Comics was incredible back then and no way could my meagre pocket money stretch to any where near what was on offer. 

I've regrettably had to downsize a number of times over the years.  I think I've put together a tooth collection about three times now.  That said, I think half the pleasure is in the chase.  There's nothing like stumbling across that elusive issue in a poky old comic shop!  There have been some cracking ones over the years, Hobbit Hole in Gloucester, Planet x in Worcester ( I think), the one in Lincoln in the mini arcade near the castle, the one in Ipswich with the odd little stairs inside the main entrance, Comic Showcase in Oxford by the river ... so many happy memories.

[Dark Jimbo]

As far as I remember I always kept them, from Beano/Dandy/Buster/Oink to Ghostbusters/Jurassic Park/Sonic the Hedgehog and, much later, 2K. We didn't have much money to spare as a household (when my mum took the four of us to McDonalds, for instance, she could only afford to buy a single happy meal, then cut the burger into quarters and share the fries between us!) So a comic was an occassional treat rather than a weekly or fortnightly thing - when you got one you held onto it so you could re-read the thing until it fell to bits, as you didn't know when the next one was coming.

That's probably why I don't have any of them left, to be honest. Well-read, well-loved. The exceptions were my cherished Ghostbusters and Jurassic Park collections, which got binned without my knowledge one sad, sad day.

By the time I was getting pocket money (from the grandparents, for the same reasons as above) I was drifting away from comics a bit, and the money was just as likely to go on toys or sweets. I didn't properly discover Tooth until I was 16 and ready to decide that comics weren't just for kids and it was still okay for me to buy them. Kept all of those, of course.

[IndigoPrime]

I never threw mine away. They were read and re-read. I car-booted a load (basically all my humour comics—piles of W&C, Nutty, Whoopee, etc.) when I was about 14, which I now regret, though.

[Greg M.]

I always kept my comics - however, my mother was of a different mindset, and unceremoniously binned my original run of Scream and all my Battles and Eagles when I was at school one day. For some reason, 2000AD never suffered the same fate - fear of Rigellian Hotshots, I expect. My Starblazers also survived the great purge, probably because they were smaller.

[sheridan]

There have been some cracking ones over the years, Hobbit Hole in Gloucester, Planet x in Worcester ( I think), the one in Lincoln in the mini arcade near the castle, the one in Ipswich with the odd little stairs inside the main entrance, Comic Showcase in Oxford by the river ... so many happy memories.

The one in Ipswich was Globe Fantasy Books.  It moved and changed names in August 1989.  From Facebook:
"Central City Comics began as Globe Fantasy Books back in June 1979."

[NapalmKev]

The first comics I thought about keeping were my Transformers comics (Marvel UK). I still have them and quite a few are in mint condition. 2000AD came later but I was unable to inherit my elder brothers collection because my mum (in her infinite wisdom) threw them out.

Although technically not a comic I still have some issues of Storyteller, tapes an' all.

Cheers

[Zenith 666]

If the house was on fire the 2000ad collection is what I'd save.Sure you could probably rebuy most issues but it wouldn't be my collection anymore most of mine I can remember were I was on holiday or working or if I'd been to England for a match or a gig.too many memories 2000ad been a constant in my life since I eight years old and as soon as I'd discovered it the beanos and eagles all went out the door(mother brought them to the hospital next door we are not monsters)because i was in love with Antihero's now 2000ad had stone cold killers and I couldn't get enough.Tjm86 my dad also banned me after seeming those two lawyers explode in Finn but I kept buying it anyway.I've really got to get around to building drawers for them.