Back when I was a kid, I loved comic books. It started with G.I. Joe, and I moved on to X-Men and Wolverine. Mostly, Chris Claremont and Larry Hama are to blame for me loving comics.

I heard about this “Unity” thing that was coming out one summer. It sounded cool, so I picked up a couple issues, and a couple issues of some of the comics that came right before it.

I was hooked. I mowed the lawn and trimmed the bushes about a dozen times in the next couple weeks to earn enough money to buy all of the Unity chapters. I spent a lot of money buying back issues of Solar, and a few others that I could afford. I bought what I could.

I heard about these fandangoled “gold books”, and I wanted one. I didn’t know what to do, so I did what any 12 year old would do. Lose all self respect and do something goofy.

I wanted to show that I was a big enough fan to get one of the gold books, so I convinced a friend into dressing up like Archer, and I dressed up as Armstrong, and I set up all my Valiant comics on display and took some pictures.

Me (on the left) and my friend Victor (on the right)

I wrote a letter to Valiant telling them about how much I love their comics, and a month later I got a package in the mail.

I got that note in the package, along with an Archer & Armstrong #0 Gold.

I was as excited as could be! Back at this time, Archer & Armstrong #0 Gold was a $125 book. There was no possible way that I would be able to buy one. To have one given to me by my favorite comic company, that was exciting.

It was the pride of my collection. Back then, I couldn’t complete all my pre-Unity runs. I was 12, and couldn’t afford $80 for Harbinger 1.

Eventually, I completed my Valiant collection, and managed to get a lot of other nice books. No book beats the sentimental value of that original Archer & Armstrong #0 gold though.

In light of Valiant’s recent gold book announcement, I thought it was time to drag out this story to post up here.

Oh, and of course, here’s the gold book:

The Archer & Armstrong #0 Gold I received from Valiant back in 1992