Awww. I was a fresh-faced 14 year old kid then. The first issue that I was able to pick up was #3, which I recall picking up from a little newsagent in the next village (I was drawn to that stunning Aurora cover). The distribution of Marvel comics were inconsistent to say the least, especially for little shops in Kent, England.
I managed to get #1 a few months later (along with others to fill the gaps), via a comics mail order company. My mum placed the order for me, but I remember it meant me cleaning the family car (inside and out), mowing the lawn for a few weeks and washing the dishes too!
I was clamoring for more Alpha Flight from the very day I first saw them appear in the the X-Men. I was elated when they got their own title, so much so, I started my first Marvel subscription!
Sasquatch was my favorite character, he is visually stunning. Without JB's Alpha Flight I wouldn't know how to spell Sasquatch ; )
1983. Which means I would have begun work somewhere towards the end of ‘82. In those days I liked to keep a lead time of around six months.
Amusing tale: with something over half a million sales, that issue produced the largest single royalty check up to that time. So big, in fact, that at the gals in accounting thought it was a mistake. There were two 9s in the middle, so they dropped one!
(I thought it was hilarious, and called the chief accountant, Millie, and calmly and politely pointed out what had happened. The ladies were used to freelancers exploding over the tiniest errors, so my reaction was a big change of pace. For years after I was the love of the Ladies in Accounting.)
I almost spit out my drink in laughter in that SYFY interview, where after being a gracious, charming interviewee for who knows how long, you demand, mock-Doom-like that he "Get out!" :)
I remember having to venture to a not so familiar spinner rack to find a copy of #1. Sometimes I could do that and it wouldn't pay off, but this time it did. The comic shop was sold out quickly (although before long there'd be a bagged one at double or more the cover price). I had to repeat this method to get Thor #337 at cover price.
I first encountered Alpha Flight as a back-up story in the Marvel UK reprints of Secret Wars (it was May 1985, so 'just' 37 years for me) and I didn't quite know what to make of it.
You were basically starting at the end of the tale. Everything was being shut down and there appeared to be a lot of back story that I had missed (there wasn't really that much though!). The art was a little moodier than I was used to. In fact, the whole thing was a little moodier than I was used to with super hero comics. Soon grew to really dig the characters and that weird tone the book had. Almost like a horror title in a way.
I purchased issues 1 and 14 together during my first ever trip to an LCS. I was 11 years old. I can remember the layout of the store, and I read both two times in the car (day trip with my parents, the books were to keep me busy). I can't remember what I ate for dinner last night, but that Saturday afternoon is burned into my memory. Mostly due to finally finding out Mac had died two issues earlier and being in utter disbelief, since I couldn't find 12 or 13 at either bookstore that I usually bought comics at.
The love affair with AF had already started, but this cemented it.
39 years ago, I was in the 12th grade preparing for high school finals and senior prom.
I remember purchasing ALPHA FLIGHT #1 from the LCS at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. The cool thing about that issue was that (and I believe it was a mistake) it had 2 COVERS stapled.
The first time I bought comic books was a month before when I bought X-MEN#171 (Rogue joins - pencils by Walt Simonson) and the MARVEL TALES reprint of ASM#14 (first Green Goblin).
The second time, I bought ALPHA FLIGHT#1 - due to the X-MEN blurb on the cover. I had assumed that they'd be in the issue, but they weren't outside of the Wendigo flashback, so I felt a bit tricked. But hey, I must have liked enough of what I saw by this John Bryne(sp) guy that I bought #3* when I saw the striking Aurora cover, and every issue after that.
* For some reason I missed #2 at first, but I filled that in with a schoolyard trade months later.