Aquaman and Missing 13

The following is a guest-Nexus courtesy of AverageJoe. Enjoy!:

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I am an Aquaman fan. There, I've said it.  In fact, I'd probably put Aquaman in my list of top ten favorite heroes.  My fascination with water-breathing characters actually began back in 1977 with the pilot episode of Man From Atlantis. I'm sure I was already peripherally aware of Aquaman at this point, but seeing a live-action character swimming and breathing underwater really stuck with me.  I think I may have had one or two issues of Aquaman's initial series, but I don't really remember them.  I followed his exploits in Justice League of America for a while and looked out for any other comics he might appear in.  After a very cool mini-series, DC Comics ended Aquaman's Fiftieth Anniversary Year with the debut of a new ongoing series.  Of course I jumped on board and picked it up every month.  Unfortunately, it was canceled a year later.  I remember being surprised that issue twelve wasn't the last issue, but that there would be a thirteenth issue followed by a new mini-series that would lead into a restructuring of the character.  I went down to my local comic store the week the final issue came out...and it was sold out!  Due to it being canceled, the shop ordered very little of the final issue and it sold out immediately.  No #13 for me.  At least I had the main story complete so I wasn't too worried about not getting the
denouement.

Cut to mid 1994 and a new Aquaman #1, this series written by one of my favorite writers, Peter David.  Let me digress here for a moment and explain my comic book reading habits for just a moment.  Each week, there are some comics that must be read that night.  That can vary from month to month.  Next in line are the ones that usually get read by the end of the week.  After that are the titles that I save up and read once a storyline has been completed.  With certain, densely written titles it just makes more sense to read the complete four to six issue storyline in one sitting. Lastly are the two or three titles I buy purely for collection reasons. These are usually titles I have several hundred consecutive issues of and don't particularly care about the current storyline, writer and/or artist, but keep up with them for the sake of the collection and bide my time until the creative team changes for the better.  During this time, Aquaman actually fell into the "read the entire storyline" group.  Eventually I sat down to read a spat of issues, only to discover I was missing an issue. #13.  I trekked down to the local store and, believe it or not, they were out of it.  I went to another shop across town and...They were out of it too.  Peter David was eventually fired from the title and I dropped in protest, only breaking that rule for the final storyline by Dan Jurgens that ended the series.

2003 saw a brand new Aquaman #1, this time by another favorite writer, Rick Veitch.  Veitch crafted a terrific twelve issue storyline and I was a little disappointed to hear he was leaving after that.  There would be a couple of fill in issues after his run before a new creative team came aboard.  I read his last issue and decided I would stay along for the ride and see where the title went from there.  Issue 12 was a good send off.  I went into the local shop a few weeks later and saw the latest issue of Aquaman...#14.  Yes, for the third series in a row of the same character I missed the exact same issue number as before.  And, like before, the shop I frequented as well as all the other local comic shops were all out of their copies.  This time, however, I had technology on my side. Through the wonder that is the Internet, this time I got me a damn copy of Aquaman#13!  I've continued with the title, not missing anymore issues.  I hope this series lasts for a good long while, as I'd hate to miss issue 13 for a fourth time.  Or maybe third time's the charm and the spell is broken?  At any rate, I have the current series complete, but I never have found #13 for the previous two runs.  Maybe it's time to look for them...