But then it hit me - this one picture holds a lot of influence over me - it's not only my honest-ta-gawd favorite character, and not only was it my first time seeing that character, but it also was the first time I bought a DC comic and the first time I realized I was really a John Byrne fan - here's the pic:

I was a fan of Byrne at Marvel, but back then, as a youngster, I really was following the characters, not the artists/writers. When JB went to DC, I knew about it - I was faithfully buying all the Marvel titles he worked on, but I wasn't interested in buying DC books. I did find myself peeking at his Superman work at the 7-11, but could never work up the desire to buy these new titles and characters.

Then I was on a holiday trip with my grandmother - who was a big comic fan - we were up in Truckee - a Ca/Nv border town where you go to bask in the snow - something me and my grandmother, both haters of heat, loved to do. We were in the little shopping area - the old timey down town, in a ... I guess it was like a five and dime. A store that had all sorts of stuff, though I recall it having tons of ... crafty wood items - things in wicker and carved items, etc. There was a spot in the middle of the store on the left wall with a few comics books that me, being 11 or 12 or so, was instantly drawn to, though all they had were DC books. (Maybe 3 titles) But they were all John Byrne stuff, so I was in luck! I picked up the various Superman books and leafed through them, half interested, till I opened the action comics issue seen above and saw that splash. It was like time stopped - I was instantly hooked, just from that one drawing. I asked my grandmother to buy it for me and read and re-read and re-read it in our room that night.

And to this day, the Spectre is my favorite comic book character. And since then, I've faithfully followed JB on everything he's done, no matter what company it's for.

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