This is just a thing that's going around the internet at the moment and I thought it'd be a fun hook to hang a column on.

The question before the floor is, What Four Comics Changed Your Life?

The challenge for me in answering that question is that I have far too many possible candidates for that honor to narrow it down to four... AND I've written about most of them in this space already. So just to get them out of the way, here are the four comics that changed my life the MOST.

The first comic I ever bought, Flash #178.

That led to virtually EVERYTHING else, including the gig writing these words for you all. I've talked about it in this space several times, most recently here.

Then there's Superboy #165.

That comic marked the day I became a piñata for jocks and bullies in elementary school, a state of affairs that lasted from the third grade to the sixth. (Hey, nobody said the life change had to be a good one. I never blamed the comic for it, though.) Wrote about that experience here.

I have to acknowledge Savage Sword of Conan #14.

The comic that was my gateway drug to Conan, Robert E. Howard, and sword-and-sorcery fiction. Wrote about it here.

And Marvel's Doc Savage Magazine #1.

That was the comic that lit the fuse on an interest in pulp-fiction heroes that's lasted to this day, including getting to write some of my own, even. Wrote about that one here.

So let's call those the Big Four. Those all had a measurable impact on my life and the course that it eventually took.

But that's too easy. Let me see if I can think of four others that I haven't ever really talked about here before. Comics that were significant enough for me that they changed things for me in some way.

Okay, here's one. Mister Miracle #1.

What was significant about it? A couple of things. It was the first ever #1 comic I bought, and it was a huge thrill for ten-year-old me to be in on the beginning of something for once. I'd been wallowing in the Marvel and DC mythology, getting caught up on the fictional history of those universes through reprints in DC's 80-page Giants and Marvel's Greatest Comics and so on, but this was new. I was digging what Kirby was doing over in Jimmy Olsen and this promised to be even wilder. And it was.

I'm pretty sure that this was also the first comic book I'd ever bought where I had absolutely NO CLUE what it was going to be about. No familiarity with the characters from Saturday morning cartoons, no guest appearances in the JLA or anything like that. And I loved it. It got me interested in taking chances on other new stories and characters that maybe I hadn't heard of before.

Another comic that definitely marked a change for me was Star*Reach #10.

My first underground comic. Well, 'ground-level comics' was what publisher Mike Friedrich called it, but I assure you that if my mother had ever seen it, the distinction would have been lost on her. It seems silly today, but back when I was sixteen it was quite the leap forward for me. For one thing, paying such an exorbitant price for a comic book was a huge thing for me, it felt positively sinful. Not to mention nekkid ladies and swearing and such. It was definitely adult material, and back in 1977, that was a Big Damn Deal in comics. And also in our home-- if Mom had picked it up and flipped through it, there would have been an explosive roof-raising argument. Fortunately for me, all comics looked the same to her. (There are such people; my mother was one of them.)

It really did blow my mind. In particular, I fell instantly in love with Motter and Steacy's freaky tale of Catholics in space, "The Sacred and the Profane." Later they revised it and it was published as a graphic novel, but I'll always have a soft spot for the original serial.

I actually bought #11 and #12 on that same trip to Looking Glass Books, so really you could count all three.

But technically #10 was the first. At any rate, Star*Reach was what got me interested in indie comics and small-press, and to this day there haven't been too many runs to equal it for sheer sustained quality, as far as I'm concerned.

Another runner-up would have to be The New Teen Titans #39.

The reason was that it got me interested in comics again after I had thought I'd quit. I couldn't believe that Dick Grayson was giving up being Robin, like, for REAL.

Not only that, but apparently a NEW kid was taking on the role.

That got me picking up the Batman books again, and, well, it all kind of spiraled out from there. During the extended lost weekend I had from around 1981 to 1986, comics were one of the few bright spots, and it started with that Titans issue.

And the fourth? Well, I'm going to go with the collection True Story Swear To God: Chances Are.

Sentimental reasons. It was instrumental in getting my wife and I together.

It happened like this. The summer of 2003, Julie and I were spending a lot of time together and it was starting to feel like dating. I'd been down to Alternative Press Expo earlier in that year, tabling with my friend Brandon and selling a 'zine called CARAVAN that we both had work in. Brandon knew Tom Beland, as it happened. He introduced us and even hooked me up with a bunch of Tom's TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD mini-comics.

I thought they were brilliant and had shown them to everyone down at the art studio where I was teaching cartooning and Julie was TA'ing in the pottery studio, and then I'd gone out and bought the trade paperback Chances Are and Julie especially loved that one.

When I was down in San Diego a few months later I had made up my mind to get Julie some kind of a gift as a sort of thank-you for picking me up at the airport when I got back. When I saw Tom, I decided I would get Julie her own signed copy of Chances Are. Tom even did a funny sketch in it of him and Lily that was riffing on the pottery-wheel scene in Ghost, and I persuaded Lily to sign it as well. She protested, but I knew Julie would want her autograph in there too.

So I was feeling pretty smug about things when I got home, and with reason, as it turned out. When I pulled the book out of my bag and gave it to Julie and she saw the sketch, she hurled herself into my arms and, well... we were DEFINITELY dating after that. Guys, for nerdgirls, the right comics are way better than flowers and candy. Trust me on this.

The following year, we were at the San Diego con together as a newly-married couple and I made it a point to introduce Julie to Tom. She told him the story and he very kindly presented us with a page original as a honeymoon gift. It hangs in the front room framed with the other Beland page Julie bought at Emerald City a few years ago.

The gift page is on the left, the ECCC page is on the right.

Come to think of it, now that I've told that story, I should probably move Chances Are to the top spot.

Anyway, however you arrange them, that's four and then four runners-up. Feel free to talk about your four in the comments, and I'll see you next week.