50YrsCollctngCmcs

Finally, in the early nineties I picked up this issue of Pinocchio. I would have sworn I already had this book but can't seem to find another copy in my files so maybe I did not. Anyway, this is fun as I picked it up from Pat Block who drew some of the duck stories over the last two decades and he included the attached drawing. I don't remember what I paid but I bet it was $40-60.

The next group comes from when I started going to conventions and suddenly you could not only see what you were buying but I started to become more condition sensitive. Three Caballeros was a tough book and I still remember the day I bought it at Seuling's Philly convention. The Brer Rabbit was also a convention pickup but I don't remember the details. I probably dropped $20. each on both. One more post after this.

I thought you all might appreciate taking a look at my early Disney film Four Color collection, the first batch in this post are books I picked up in the early seventies; probably when I was in 7th - 8th grade. The Reluctant Dragon was a Flea Market find and probably cost all of a quarter. The Bambi, Bambi's Children and Thumper Meets the Seven Dwarfs were ordered from the Buyer's Guide, probably for $3-4 each. You can see in these early days condition was not so much of an issue and you never really knew what was going to come in the mail. Some might say that still hasn't changed!

Sometimes I imagine my own demise: Link My Mom and Dad would make disparaging comments about my brother and my collections as kids, referring to us both as the Collyer Brothers. That was 20-25 years after the case, so that story had some legs! I actually have a smaller hoard then my brother who has an entire basement back east filled with train timetables, ephemera, signs, models, you name it. Want to feel good about being a comic collector? Go see a train guy!!

Thank you so much for finding and posting that. Now I get it - GK was simply reprinting the books, dropping the cover price and bundling them as some sort of marketing experiment. I looked at the indicia on the book I have and there is no price - or subscription info for that matter. Has anyone read a good history on Gold Key / Dell. The best stuff I have read so far have been on Evanier's blog, "News from Me," and several articles in TwoMorrows, "Back Issue," and "Alter Ego," fanzines. I understand there is a book about Golden Books that covers some of this history. One of the most fascinating characters to read about is Helen Meyers (you will see her name all over the Dell comics in the fifties.) She apparently ran Dell like her own fiefdom and ended up bitterly dissapointed when the owner left the company to family rather than to her.

It's not easy to improve on your Pep group shot, but you certainly managed to do it. Anyone know if there was any relationship between Pep Comics and Pep cereal? I know that Pep cereal sponsored the Superman Radio Show and also issued comic buttons in the cereal but I just wondered if there was ever a promotional tie-in with this comic series.

Wecome back 40yrs! Good to be back in the Duck thread!

Found this photo on the internet.

One of the best TOPS titles is the reprint of Snow White, which had appeared at least 3 times prior to this (original newspaper strip, Four Color 49, Gold Key reprint of the original Four Color, and maybe one I have forgotten. You don't see that one too often, but if I had been able to buy those bags from the stores I would have tried to pick that one up. Another forgotten aspect of Disney collecting is when Gold Key stopped distributing to the newstands. Perhaps working from their TOPS experience they tried to move to retail distribution. I used to have to go to discount department stores and buy the three packs to keep my Disney run going. Those bags would force you to pick up unwanted issues of things like Porky Pig. Not a happy time for the Gold Key collector. Although those were all called Whitman then, very confusing.

Top Comics are an interesting subset of Gold Key collecting. I never quite figured out where they came from or why; nor have I read about their story. I do remember seeing them at newstands in New York in the early seventies, hung up on those great binder clips above the newsdealer. Even in those youthful years I found such book abuse offensive. Spotting one then was a bit of an oddity as they were no longer in general newstand circulation where I lived although I had picked some up from some used book dealers at that point. If anyone knows the story on this imprint I would love to hear it! I've always been under the assumption that Tops Comics are giveaways. I know American Airlines gave them away. If newsstand dealers were selling them then they were probably buying the dirt cheap and getting a bit more profit on each. I hadn't heard that before but it could be possilbe as there is no price on the one above and I don't recall if the ones I have; have prices on them. I also recall seeing them listed on E-Bay bagged in groups of three probably marketed in a retail venue; probably competing with the DC's of the day that came in bags. Lots of weird things happened back east with comics and the way they were sold. I think a lot of unscrupulous deals were done that moved tons of books into flea market sales and other illicit venues at the expense of the publishers. One time my brother and I came across a huge table in a discount department store filled to overflowing with 5-6 year old comics. Books like Iron Man #2, all kinds of late sixties Charlton super-heros were to be found for less than cover price. This was a good period of time to be into comics, besides cheap back issues you would find deals like this if you kept your eyes open.

Top Comics are an interesting subset of Gold Key collecting. I never quite figured out where they came from or why; nor have I read about their story. I do remember seeing them at newstands in New York in the early seventies, hung up on those great binder clips above the newsdealer. Even in those youthful years I found such book abuse offensive. Spotting one then was a bit of an oddity as they were no longer in general newstand circulation where I lived although I had picked some up from some used book dealers at that point. If anyone knows the story on this imprint I would love to hear it!

I love reading my books. I tend not to read the serials out of order. I have a spreadsheet page with the MM serials so that I can keep track of what parts I have. I go and read then when I have all of the story. Between the US and Australian editions, I have quite a few complete ones now. That is great! I never thought of that but it makes perfect sense. I always figured when I retired I would finish putting the run together and have the time to read it. We'll see if that dream ever comes true!

I love this cover! Congratulations and a beautiful copy to boot!! Do you read your books? I always read mine and I was always bummed about having to read all the Mickey Mouse serials out of order.when I would get back issue Comics and Stories.

I have a few, typically bought dirt cheap (who's surprised?) My favorites are Raggedy Ann and Andy and Pogo Parade. Silly Symphonies and Little Lulu are fun too. Jack PS *look at list* more than a few You guys are in trouble now if you start collecting Giants! Lots of those in the dealer boxes in low grade and many pages for your collecting dollars! I always thought those giants were the funnest Dells to collect. Try to get early copies of Vacation Parade / Christmas Parade with some amazing Barks stories!!

Great group of books. My observation in collecting four colors for many years is that in fact most of these are really hard to come by in nice condition but a little easier in the lower grades. I have probably seen more Three Caballeros over the years than either the Dwarf book or the Song of the South book. I don't recall ever seeing the Dwarf book in high grade compared to Caballeros and Song of the South which I have. That would make the Dwarf book the toughest of your bunch from my view. If anyone must read the Dwarf story (and I think it is a must read for dedicated Disney collectors) it was reprinted in the Disney digest magazine in the early seventies. That was the first time I saw it and that inspired me to seek out some of the originals. Harder books for me have been Snow White which I just got a nice copy after over thirty years of looking, Dumbo (still looking for a nice copy) and Reluctant Dragon (looking to upgrade.) Bambi and Bambi's Children seem more plentiful and always seem to be available as is Pinnochio. Of this bunch Reluctant Dragon is highly elusive but a very cool book if you can find one. Anyway, they all have great stories and art so enjoy them. If it makes you feel any better my first copy of Song of the South was probably in the same condition as this. Luckily I found a nicer copy to upgrade many years ago at a nice price.

Many years ago, probably when I was in Grammar School I took out a succession of books from our county library that reprinted classic comic strips. There seemed to have been a bit of a publishing flurry of these books in the early seventies. Anyway, I got to read some great stuff, Popeye, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon Little Orphan Annie,, the Toonerville Trolley and this odd little collection called the Gumps. For those of you who are not aware of this strip, it was quite a phenomenon in its day and in fact was the first comic strip to ever kill off a major character. The strip was pretty amazing in its depiction of the ordinary, probably the reason it was so popular with so many. Most of those old books are hard to come by these days, but if you ever get a chance to read a collection of the Gumps, give it a go!

Wow - that 9.6 is certainly a beautiful book. But what you are describing is simply the law of diminishing returns. Of course there is not much difference between a 9.2 and a 9.6 and of course the 9.6 is a little bit nicer. The question we all have to answer (well, those of us with limited comics budgets anyway) is where we sit on the grade/$ curve. For me, if I could have every book in my collection at 8.5 I'd be a happy camper. I love the really high grade stuff, but the bucks required to own them usually put me off. Only you can answer the question-and only for you. I'm sure that answer helped no-one. For me it comes down to two things: How much of a premium am I willing to pay for something in nice condition that is doomed to disintegrate over time anyway. The differences you descibe that could result in a highly significant monetary outlay just don't make sense to me. Secondly, I am going to de-slab that book and read it. Careful as I may be the chances of downgrading the book from a 9.6 to a 9.2 are a real possibility. Since I intend to handle the book the cash outlay doesn't make sense in my case. For others this way of collecting makes sense and I think the hobby may thank them in the long run for maintaining high caliber books in great condition in these CGC cases..

Great book! One of my favorite duck stories. I still remember reading this for the first time. Barks evokes amazing atmospherics with his depiction of the fog and the dungeon. No wonder they were selling these things in the milliions back then! Look at that cover, it is brilliant. Every little touch pulls you in. The partially dilapidated tower, the cracked stones, the framing of the ducks, the disembodied skeleton arm! True genius! I wish my Dad had saved his comics. Instead, he just pointed out the books he had from the Steranko Guide to Comics, all early 40's Superman / Captain Marvel. Killer!

The digital equivalent of this idea has been widely used in CG animation. Not to add visual interest but to cut cost by breaking a complex 3d scene into multiple layers that can be edited independently and rendered in parallel. In the end, all the layers are collapsed into the final 2d frame, just like Disney did back then. Back in 2002 I was lucky enough to be in New Zealand prior to the release of the LOTR Two Towers movie. We were on a tour of WETA (Peter Jackson's company) and were taken into the room where the film was being transcribed from servers to the master print. It is something that we don't think of too often but in the case of these movies that film only existed digitally prior to that transcription. It was a really intriguing moment watching that film slowly spool out of a high end Sony film printer (so high end there are only five of these units on the globe.) I know the guys who developed all of the early animation techniques would just love the new developments today

It didn't take them long to regognize talent! Anyone remember a Disney magazine from the early seventies that had great covers but interior pages that were articles, puzzles and such? It was on the stands in the magazine area and must have been Disney's attempt to hit a different market. I used to buy them for the covers but still preferred the Gold Key comics and escpecially the Disney digest which really packed in the stories.

I'm surprised to see the Barks Donald Duck story on page 5. What was on page 1-4 and how long did it take until the Barks stories started to kick off the book?

I wouldn't sell them short on the math. If they were able to build that equipment in a machine shop on the premises, I suspect they had a pretty good understanding of the math behind the perspective. As for the all nighters - NO DOUBT!!

Wow, really interesting, I read the article and this was much more sophisticated than I thought. Has anyone ever written a book on the Fleischer Studio? My interest is definately piqued. As an aside, Ub Iwerks grandson works down the hall from me. I keep meaning to ask him questions about his grandfather but haven't got around to it yet.

I had never heard of this so thanks for posting and sharing. Really interesting but quite different from the Disney process in that you need to combine drawings with a live set. Did they ever have more extensive overlays of the animated drawings on the set than this example which appears limited. The interior shots are basically pans through the house without animation. I wonder if Ub Iwerks, the inventor of the multi-plane process was influenced by this.

The main story was something like 52-56 pages, so I would imagine this book contained that plus some of the numerous Peter Pan themed puzzles in the original book. Just trying to think like an editor with a page budget and too much material on my hands! Have any of you ever seen the Reluctant Dragon comic from the original four color series? It contains some great stills from the Disney studios including shots of the famous multi-plane camera that gave so much depth to those early Disney Animated features. It is hard to imagine today with the computer effects in our films but that development was truly revolutionary and gave Disney a huge technological edge over his competitors. Pull out your VHS or DVD copy of Pinocchio and just watch the opening sequence when the camera zooms in over town. Try to figure out how they could have done that with traditional two dimensional animation. Easy answer, it could not have been done! Sorry, I don't mean to turn the duck forum into a Disney forum. So tell me to stop and we can get back to Ducks!