My first comic that I remember were Jack Kirby reprints in spanish of "The Death of Terrible Turpin" in digest size in spanish. I was about 6 years old and living in Puerto Rico, this must have been around 1976. I remember reading them in the living room of our house as my mother packed our bags for our move to our new home in New York City.

In New York city, I learned the english language partly via comics because my mother would find the spanish reprints of DC comics books and then she would track down the english versions so that I could compare. I have to thank the fine people at Fedco supermarkets for carrying english and spanish versions of comics for assisting in my education :-)

John Byrne wrote: There was a wall of comics there, taller than me and wider than I could reach with arms outspread.

A lot of my early comics came from a local grocery store chain spinner rack in the early 80's.  About 1983 or 1984, they upgraded to a four-tier magazine stand, six feet wide and near as tall, loaded with every single comic that was available at the time.  Every week was like Christmas for me.

Sadly, I don't think they don't carry a single comic book anymore, except for the Archie Digests at the checkouts.