The very first comic I bought regularly was JLA, back around 1978. But then the kids on my block convinced me that Marvel was cooler and more "realistic," so I started buying Marvel instead. Then, around 1983, the kids on my block no longer really followed comics and I was getting tired of Marvel so I started trying other publishers, like DC, Red Circle/Archie Adventure and Charlton, as well as some of the more obscure Marvel titles that I'd ignored up till then like Conan and Doctor Strange. By 1986, Charlton and Archie Adventure were gone, and I became much more of a DC fan. I rarely went to comics shops back then, so most of my weekly purchases were made at the local Dairy Mart, where the choices were usually only Marvel or DC.

So despite having grown up a Marvel fan, during 1985-88 I was much more of a DC fan, and was trying to get friends to overcome their anti-DC prejudice and give "The New DC" a try. During that period, I looked upon Marvel as more boring and childish and factory-manufactured compared to DC. I also started buying alternative comics published by Eclipse (I have always preferred Eclipse to First for some reason), Renegade, and eventually (1988-90) Fantagraphics and Vortex. By 1989, I'd gotten tired of new mainstream comics and stopped buying them entirely. By the mid-1990s, I absolutely hated new mainstream comics.

In 1997, I started buying Avengers again because I heard George Perez was coming back as the artist, as he had been during the late 1970s when I first started buying it. This appealed to the nostalgic in me as well as appealing to my standards of what good comicbook art looks like. So, I started buying a mix of Marvel and DC as well as other companies. I didn't buy any CrossGen (aside from the Perez issues) until its final year or two when my shop gave me a deal on some Ruse issues and I started following more of that company's offerings.

When Quesada cancelled Byrne's X-Men: The Hidden Years and turned Capt America into a Marvel Knights title, I started to have some anti-Marvel feelings again and dropped a few titles (though not Avengers). I started to feel more pro-DC in reaction, but in recent months I've gotten to feel more pro-Marvel with their return of monthly letter pages and developments like putting Alan Davis on Uncanny X-Men and Tom Grummett on New Thunderbolts. I tend to follow my favorite creators around to whatever company they are at. So whereas, a couple years ago, I used to buy DC for my Grummett fix and Marvel for some Byrne, I now buy Marvel for Grummett and DC for Byrne. These days, Marvel seems more friendly to the old-timers like me than DC does, so I buy more Marvel than DC currently.

But I like occasionally buying another company's comics because it provides a different perspective, different company ads, different editorials, etc. If one gets bored with the standard Marvel format, one can always try DC's, or Dark Horse's or whoever.

I think we fans are in a way conditioned to buy Marvel and DC simply because they throw more sheer product on to the shelves than anybody else, and on a very regular basis. So, you can go to the comics shop every week and be sure to have your pick of new Marvel and DC releases. Whereas indie companies usually have longer waits between issues, especially now that many of them are putting out trade paperbacks instead of individual issues.