
Whether it was your first love, your first doctor or your first deep fried mars bar, you never forget those pivotal moments in your life that shape your future. They are events, people and places that you look back on and realise that they were integral to the development of your personal identity. My obsession with entertainment, movies, music and comics has had a profound effect on mine.
Comics, as we all know are utterly amazing and there are things you can do with comics that you could never do with a movie( or should never attempt to). Comics are beautiful pieces of art flowing within literature, that are bursting with outrageously free forms of expression. After I picked up my first comic when I was seven years old, I had no idea what was going on, but it fascinated me so much, that I couldn’t stop looking at it. As I got older and dived head first into my first comic book series, I discovered a new and unique way to witness a story unfold and it changed me.
My uncle gave my dad a hardcover comic that he got from the UK, his logic was that it may be worth something some day and to commemorate the arrival of his brother’s first child, he decided to give it to him as an investment. The year was 1986, the baby was my brother and the Comic Book was The Batman Annual 1986.

When I got older and decided I wanted to know everything about this book; I read it all. Looking back on it now, after knowing the work that some of the artists and writers have achieved, I hope more people will pick it up. There are quite a few comics and short stories in there but there are two which I found more notable than the rest. The first one was entitled The Joker's Five Way Revenge by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams, which was originally printed as Batman #251 in 1973, during the Bronze Age of Batman Comics. And the second was a short story called The Stalking by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Garry Leach.
The Joker’s Five Way Revenge is an awesome little story about The Joker escaping a hospital for the criminally insane, and pursuing a former gang members of his, historically bringing his character in line with his homicidal and cruel persona. While also redesigning his physical appearance as to what we see today and introducing the concept of him being legally criminally insane. The Joker’s Five Way Revenge was also awesome because of Neal Adam’s artwork which included a completely badass picture of batman fighting a shark.

I still look at this book every now and then and remember all the days I just sat there staring at it. I didn’t even realize I was admiring the work of men who would become legends. Men who would end up writing things like Judge Dredd and All Star Superman and drawing things like the X-Men, Green Lantern and Green Arrow. While also reviving characters like Professor X and creating characters like Ra’s al Ghul and brining the darkness back to Batman.
The Batman Annual of 1986 is a family heirloom now and I will treasure it always.