I can remember exactly where I was when Avengers #1 and X-Men #1 went on sale, because it was the same day, I only had 12 cents on me, and could therefore only buy one.

I had to choose between them. Can you feel my pain? Imagine my horror?

It was 1963, and I was 8 years old. I was in Joe and Morty’s Brooklyn candy store on Avenue P a few blocks off Ocean Parkway. I visited there nearly every day, not just for comics, but to stay fueled on egg creams and cherry lime rickeys, and to pick up those unfiltered Lucky Strikes my mother needed.

In any case, though I’m 100% certain where I encountered those issues, I can’t say for sure when I encountered them. Only that it wasn’t September 10. Because school had not begun, it was still summer, and in any case, though both books were cover-dated September, comics always went on sale in advance of their cover dates, that date only being an indication to the retailer when comics should come off sale.

And yet …

Wired ran a celebratory article the other day in which it claimed that, “Today marks the golden birthday of two classic Marvel teams — the X-Men and the Avengers, both of whom made their comics debut on September 10, 1963, drawn by Jack Kirby and scripted by Stan Lee.”

And even Marvel itself claims September 10, 1963 as the on-sale date for both issues.

But … how can this be? And why would such a claim even be made? The concept of an on-sale date being earlier than a cover date isn’t a new invention. As Wikipedia puts it:

The general practice of most mainstream comic book companies since the creation of the comic book in the 1930s was to date individual issues putting the name of a month (and much later the year as well) on the cover which was generally two months after the actual release date. For example, a 1951 issue of Superman which had the cover date of July would have been published two months earlier from that date in the month of May, generally speaking. In 1973 the discrepancy between the cover date and the publishing date went from two months to three months. In 1989 the cover date and publishing date discrepancy was changed back to two months, though generally each comic book company now uses its own system.

So—those issues of Avengers #1 and X-Men #1 most certainly did not go on sale September 10. I’ve no idea why anyone claims they did.

Which raises the question—what’s the real date the world first saw these characters? What’s the real date I had to choose?

Any answers out there?

Oh, and if you’re wondering which comic I chose … it was the Avengers, because it featured characters I already knew and loved. But don’t worry, I was able to scrape up another 12 cents so I could come back later and buy X-Men #1, too!