Starting something new. Or old in this case...

Throughout my life, I have always had some sort of comic art interest.

My interest in animation and comic art originated with Disney cartoons and movies. Mickey, Goofy, Donald, Pluto, Chip & Dale and all of the Disney movies available at the time were my bread and butter. I know I drove my parents crazy when I was like five and every time they asked what I wanted to watch on our $900 VCR, my response was, Dumbo!!!!

Yes, VCRs were that expensive at one point. In fact, that very same VCR worked and lasted for over 10 years! Now that's quality!

But starting when I was like 7 in 1980, my parents would give me little comic digests to read and enjoy, and I did exactly that. Whether it was Archie, Jughead and his gang or Richie Rich, Casper and the other Harvey characters, I would read through each one over and over again.

When I got to be a little older in the mid 80's, my father and I caught the comic book collecting bug really bad and we began our lifelong adventure into the fantastic and wonderful world of Marvel and DC comics!

I remember walking into comic book stores at home and especially away from home and looking at all of the back issues in the boxes and drooling over the more expensive lovelies up on the walls behind the front counters.

One of the stores I always looked forward to perusing through was a store called the Dragon's Den in Panama City, Florida. It was there that I was able to look at and hold in my hands actual copies of old Dell and Gold Key comics.

I loved them! Especially ones that were Disney oriented since I had been so into those characters from earlier in life. But even the ones that were not Disney oriented were neat to me. Some were based on old TV series or Peanuts characters or movies or even real life celebrities! I marveled at the sheer age of these comics and at the time was amazed at how much they cost.

Remember, this was back in the 80's, so for me and my father, who were just getting into collecting, paying over $30 for a comic was absolutely outrageous! Many of these cool old comics would fetch $15 and up at the time even in so-so grades.

Oh well, I could dream, right?

Well , the years have continued to roll along, as they always do. My father is no longer here to enjoy the new era in comic collecting that has emerged as a result of CGC. I know he would be all over this hobby if he were still around. He and I would be like two peas in a pod, constantly patrolling the internet for the best copies of our favorite stuff. I miss him terribly, but life goes on.

Anyway, once I entered into this current way of collecting our favorite comic books, I decided to start by collecting the stuff that my father and I were really into when we first got into comics. Series like New Mutants, Indiana Jones, Booster Gold, X-Men and many others were tops on my list.

As I would search the net for top graded copies of these varying series, I would come across an occasional old Harvey or Dell or Gold Key comic that sparked my interest, but would invariably move on to looking through the stuff I was collecting at the time.

Well now, after over four years of putting sets together, I have the end in sight on many of my sets and while sitting around waiting for those few 9.8 copies to show up for me to steal away from other prospective buyers, my sights are wandering to some of the other, older stuff that I remember drooling over as a kid in those comic stores back in the 80's.

I've already begun to collect Silver Age Harveys. In fact, I am currently the #1 rank on three different Harvey sets now. Spooky Spooktown, Casper's Ghostland and Little Dot's Uncles and Aunts. But up until now, I have yet to acquire a single copy of an old Dell or Gold Key issue.

I now have an old Dell Four Color issue! #1058 in 9.2 OW condition! When I started with CGC comics, I swore to myself that no matter which comic it might be, I would never buy one that was less that 9.2 or OW pages, so this one sits right at the bottom of my limit, but it is a neat little issue!

It features two different Colt .45 stories and once I did a little research, I found that even in this condition, with only one 9.4 and one 9.6 above it, it was worth 640 registry points! I decided that I would only try for it if I could get it for a X4 RP/AP or better.

Well, I got it X4.3 RP/AP! Yaaay! This is my first foray into the older Four Color comics and I couldn't be happier! While there are many more valuable comics out there to own, I am a sucker for older, rarer items such as this.

Yes, I love my New Mutants, Dazzler and Marvel Graphic Novels, and will continue to buy and submit and upgrade those nostalgic beauties. But there is something about owning a 1950's and earlier comic in rare top notch grade that just inspires me.

Am I stupid? Probably. Am I happy? Definitely!

You can collect to show off what you have to OTHERS that you know will drool over what you have, or you can collect what makes YOU feel good about what you have. Either option is commendable. But when you can combine these two options, so much the better!

I probably only meet the latter of these two options with this purchase, but that's fine by me.

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