Image and Wildstorm count as "classic" now? I remember when they were all shiny new-fangled and edgy, trying to stir things up in the stagnant uniform waters of the tired Marvel and DC universes.
The first comics I ever read were Transformers comics. I wasn't really a big fan of comics at the time, but I was a big fan of Transformers.
I started collecting a lot when the Death of Superman thing was hyped to high heaven. I managed to collect most of that storyline, and get my hands on one of the original "black bag" issues.
At the same time, there were newspaper headlines about old Action Comics and Fantastic Four issues selling for millions of dollars at auction. DC and Marvel sales were tanking. So they started doing all sorts of gimmicky crap to try and capitalize on the new craze for value-motivated comic book collecting while bringing attention to old brands. I was young, and I fell for it.
Much of my collection from this period was bought not so that I could read the issues themselves, but rather as speculation for which issues would become valuable. and the comic producers themselves knew that I was out there and tried all sorts of tricks to convince me to buy each issue.
Dumb gimmicks like killing big name superheros like Superman, Green Lantern, etc. (then usually bringing them back a few months later) Paralyzing Batman (the Bane storyline). Removing Wolverine's adamantium skeleton. etc.
Even dumber gimmicks like starting new series every month (that might run only 5 or 10 issues) . Foil covers. Gatefold covers. Holographic covers. Alternate art covers. Spiderman's new armor (destroyed in the same issue) The Jean Grey/Scott Summer wedding. Death of Charles Xavier (turned out not to be him but they still made a huge deal out of it) etc etc etc kind of a low point in comic history if you ask me but that's when I got into it.
When I actually started reading some comics, it was with the early Image stuff. I liked Spawn up until I got really really sick of Todd MacFarlane and the meandering pointless storyline, oh around issue 50 or so. I liked Pitt, except it took forever for new issues to come out. I loved The Tick, though each successive spinoff seemed to get worse and worse when issue 13 never came out. Alpha City seemed really interesting for a while but I never got into it.
As a medium, I lost interest in comic books when I was in high school. They stopped interesting me as much. I was also spending all of my money in high school on my girlfriend, so I didn't have anything left over for comic books. I still played with the idea of making my own comic books, even beyond the point at which I stopped finding them interesting reading, well into my 20s. but they no longer hold much fascination for me at all anymore. I still enjoy some comic book movies, that's about it.
LMAO (Also has nice hyper-detailed artwork in a 
