Hepcat

On 6/19/2024 at 12:43 AM, Math Teacher said:

Has anyone else reached this point in your collecting careers? Do you find that it is as much fun as obtaining issues that you never had?

 

Yes. I've upgraded many comics in the last forty years. And if it's a comic I had or at least coveted as a kid, I've been delighted to finally score a copy up to my quality standards.

On 6/16/2024 at 1:35 AM, jpepx78 said:

Convention Memories

Here is a photo that reminded me of myself in my early collecting phase where I would be focused only on my little sub-genre of comics while ignoring other important books. Some of you may laugh, cry, yell or roll your eyes at this kid who is focused on gathering a stack of silver age Green Lantern books and ignoring the books on the table. Sharp-eyed collectors will notice on the table of EC books there is one the most desirable EC books (CSS 22) available. Some of you may think how could this (dumb?) kid miss out on those ECs especially the CSS 22? Here is some background info on the photo to consider. This photo was taken in the dealers room of the Noreascon convention held in Boston in September 1971. Noreascon I (Worldcon 1971) was an annual science fiction convention held in different cities that was focused on science fiction literature and was not a typical comic convention. This kid was probably more than a casual reader of science fiction to be interested in attending a sci-fi convention where the attendees were primarily adults. The dealers room had mostly sci-fi, fantasy books, magazines and pulps. He found one of the few dealers that had cheap recent back issue comics at 20 cents each and he was building a stack.  At the time ECs weren’t that expensive but probably were at least 10 or more times more expensive than the cheap comics so the kid opted for quantity over quality. Also the kid may not have any interest or knowledge of GA books.

 

 

You know you've raised the question of whether a twelve year old kid should be interested in pre-code horror. After all a lot of it is pretty disgusting and should be reserved for creepy old guys like most of us on this board. What's particularly bizarre is that there are those who'd get hysterical if the kid was looking at pre-Code GGA covers or sneaking a peak at titty mags but wouldn't be bothered by the kid being exposed to depictions of torture and gore.

On 2/8/2024 at 4:12 AM, makis said:

Hello,  im a new collector from Greece.

I really like golden age era...

my first ever pick up is a Detective comics 118. loved this cover!

Fabulous cover! But we need a bigger picture:

 (Not mine.)

On 2/8/2024 at 12:18 PM, Paul © ® ⚽️💙™ said:

Keep away from PCH.  

Publishers Clearing House or pre-code horror?

Jack Davis is among my very favourite artists!

@greggy

Oh wow! A whopping total of 114 comic pics in one post. I wonder if that sets a record for this board?

Are the 100-Page Super Spectaculars a particular specialty of yours?

Oh! That's sad to hear.

My early Superman Annuals:

It's funny though. I used to see the house ads for the Superman and Batman Annuals in 1962-64 but I was never interested in buying any. Not only were Superman and Batman not among my very favourite superheroes, but I knew that Annuals consisted of reprints and I'd find the stories junky because of the old-fashioned artwork. I wanted slick new stories!

These days of course I love the Annuals and other Giants.

My Sonar covers:

Thank you! I like to showcase my more esoteric comics here on this forum quite simply because they're not as often posted.

More new versus the old:

I love those Fox Funny Animal comics!

On 6/19/2024 at 1:51 AM, ttfitz said:

Just thought I would point out, since you said you were using halfbacks, that the halfbacks are still white on both sides.

That's great then! I like the space saving feature of Half-Backs and since I'm the only one ever pawing through my comics I don't need the extra sturdiness.

Here are scans of my five oldest Wonder Woman comics:

From a diptych to a triptych cover!

A couple of Detective Super Spectaculars with femme fatales rendered by Jim Aparo including a great bondage cover!

Oh wow! The Young Romance 100 Pagers are perhaps the toughest of them all to find.

On 6/18/2024 at 8:32 AM, HighRadArt said:

Gerber is only coating one side of their boards now to save money and I'm too OCD to use them.

Ugghhhh! You'd think Gerber or any business would know and understand their customer base. Here Gerber carved out a leading market share with their premium backing boards and maintained it for 35+ years selling to a customer base of those with OCD. (If they didn't have OCD, they wouldn't be collecting old comics now would they?) And by their very nature OCD individuals don't like change. So what does the "brain trust" at Gerber do? They change the product which is a move sure to annoy/anger their OCD customer base.

And why? Saving a small percentage on the production cost of the product isn't going to offset losing even a tiny percentage of sales because the top line dwarves production costs. Gerber's biggest expense has to be advertising followed by employee salaries.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

On 6/17/2024 at 9:46 AM, hchill25 said:

Here's a few I got in today...

Hey, wow, that's very timely! Did you buy them to post in this thread?

On 6/18/2024 at 4:11 PM, Gonzimodo said:

Out of curiosity, what brand(s) were people trying to push on you as being superior to E Gerber and BCE?

The ComicPro Line SBS boards. They're smooth and glossy though which is very much unlike the Gerber Half-Backs and Bill Cole Thin X-Tenders I've been using.

Walt Kelly at his best!

On 6/18/2024 at 8:32 AM, HighRadArt said:

Gerber is only coating one side of their boards now to save money and I'm too OCD to use them.  

That if true is disturbing to hear. About Gerber that is. I'm fine with your OCD as well as my own.

On 6/18/2024 at 8:32 AM, HighRadArt said:

Extra thick boards and free shipping for orders over $100 (Canada and US).

Extra thick!!!  That's the last thing I want. I hoping to keep my comic and magazine collection confined to those two lateral filing cabinets you see for the next thirty years.