ageofsilver

I like Beck’s Captain Marvel, too. A great read for the children of the 40’s and seriously under appreciated today. However, Raboy was a genius, as well. Beautiful line work and shading. His run on the Flash Gordon Sundays was a highlight of my youth.

Rest in peace, Mike. You have given people so much, with the monumental work that is the Newsstand.

Occam’s razor also suggests that the most likely possibilities for the sequence of Action 14 adds in the first issue of Superman have now been enumerated. However, in the absence of percentages of issues with each not yet being determined, I’d like to propose an imaginative alternative. Suppose the first run erroneously did say Action 14 was on sale contemporaneously with Sup 1, and the press supervisor noticing that for whatever reason an error had been made said, “Stop the press” The offending red plate is altered reflecting the June 2nd date and the press run then continued. Now you would have two first prints, with one first state (the error) and one corrected second state. I know; highly unlikely.

I feel your pain, RM and Mr. Zipper. As for me, most everything I own has a cost basis of cover price…

Buy a humidity and temperature monitor. I use ThermoPro, which can be set to display fluctuations over 24 hours or perpetually. Fourteen bucks including free shipping from Amazon. Plus or minus 3 percent accuracy. Backlit and powered by 2 aaa batteries, which last a year or so. Bought a bunch of them for the gun safe, bookshelf areas; even the garage. Good for checking out bank safe deposite box conditions, as well. About 3 inches square. Set them up side by side to check for an errant unit.

Thanks, BZ, and all the other board members who have contributed to this thread. It has been a spectacular read. Best wishes.

Jon Berk shared a lot of information and pleasure in those treasured issues of the Carters’ wonderful CBM. Rest in peace.

Nice work Andrew

This is a fine idea. You love something enough to pay over your comfort zone, but later can pick up a copy for significantly less. You buy that copy too, which yields a better average. Of course, now you have two copies, so I don’t make a habit of doing this. Both copies of the 12/37 Weird Tales in my collection are vg plus in grade, but with different defects. I love taking them out and viewing them together.

Jim was a great friend from my youth, with an amazing talent for art identification and a voracious interest in collecting Atlas. He just loved comic and illustration art, producing scholarly books and magazines. Somehow, we fell out of touch in the seventies, but I’ve always thought of him fondly. Rest in peace, man.

I don’t combine books and firearms in my safe, so can’t speak to chemical interaction. Some say fire resistant materials can cause rust issues. My suggestion is to purchase some of the inexpensive recording temp/relative humidity gauges, and install them anywhere you have collection; on a bookshelf, in safety deposit boxes or any safe. Opening door for regular “airing out “ has been recommended, as well. Good luck.

Sorry to hear of your mother’s passing. May the Lord bless and keep her soul and bring peace to yours. Take care Mike

He took Ditko’s masterpiece and made it his own. Rest in peace.

Quite an accomplishment! My suggestion is to pause and curate your collection. Do you like the Ditko and Romita runs the best, for example? What do you see yourself keeping, long term? Is investment value important to you? What other stuff did you read in the silver age? Ever consider dipping a toe into golden age? EC reprints are cheap, if you want to get an idea. Collecting Warren’s magazines could be fun. Let us know what you pursue next.

Oh, dear! You are all so very young. A sock hop was a dance gathering typically done in the school gymnasium. The floor was a varnished maple, upon which basketball was played. To keep the floor finish nice, we youngsters took off our shoes to dance. It made doing The Twist easier, as well.

A lot of good thinking in this thread. I would like to add a few thoughts concerning why some Boomers’ comics may not be flooding the marketplace, any time soon. I agree that many collections are being held by people in their middle and late years. At least for those who are knowledgeable in the graded comics world, serious consideration for timing sales of some or all one’s funny books would seem wise. However, there are obstacles aplenty. Start with the incredible costs and effort associated with pressing and grading. You know you are going to want to maximize potential, even if you find the process somewhat disagreeable. Just thinking about photographing or scanning the raw books, seems daunting, let alone deciding what should come next. So, a kind of entropy may exist for many of us. Then, negotiations for selling all of part of the hoard seems like quite the task. I suspect that I am not alone in these feelings. Of course, just because I don’t want to make progress on these matters doesn’t mean I should leave it for my family to clean up, after my demise. Speaking of stepping over to the other side; as long as the collection is graded and detailed instructions are left, a posthumous sale could provide enormous tax savings for one’s intended beneficiaries. Since we tend to have longer lifespans these days, perhaps the deluge will be further postponed.

Best wishes in a difficult time. Somehow, that sounds like a greeting card sentiment, knowing what you are actually going through. Take care, man.

Sorry to hear of your loss, hopefully temporary. Anyone who has been a victim of burglary knows how low down someone has to be to do this. It’s not just what you lose, but also, frequently not knowing the full extent of that loss. It’s a kind of personal violation. Many years have passed since suffering my one break in and theft, and it still makes me angry. Good luck to you, Bob.

I don’t know if I’ve told this one before, or not. It was mid sixties and my friend Jim and I visited a guy named Barry Bauman at his home in Oakland or possibly San Francisco. He had a solid wall of shelving with ten inch high stacks of high grade golden age comics. I was awestruck with his runs of Quality comics. Military, Doll Man, and especially Police Comics. Hit and Spirit; just name it and he had them. Of course, I was buying twelve cent Marvel silver age off the news stands and spending 2 and three dollars for my EC passion, so 3 dollars each for a high grade run of Police was out of the question. Don’t remember buying a single thing that day. Sob…

@bottock and @lou_fine I may be stepping out of line here, but Lou hasn’t responded, perhaps due to the cold dark place on the globe in which he resides. Of course, lou is entitled to his own meanings, but as this has been brought up before, I’d like to put some ideas to screen. Lou is a classic collector; he loves his funny books. He presents knowledge of price histories and contributes to a number of topics on the boards. You, Mr. buttock are likewise held in high regard in this space. Lou also fulfills another function, that of Court Jester. The jester was the one person at the king’s court that the king should not have killed. First, the king would appear petty, or perhaps worse, wrong. Half the court might be thinking that a good beheading is just the ticket, but the other half might see that the king is getting good advice no matter how pointed. After all, if taxes are too high, the peasants could starve, and then how could an army be raised, when those pesky Vikings came calling. Lou can be a bit nettlesome and like all of us hammer on points that are heartfelt. What do you think? Not my place? Fair point.

All solid reasons for collecting Planet, presented by board members of discerning taste. Beautiful cover art and wonderful color, when press inking was handled properly. I’d add something of equal weight were the excellent stories and illustration found inside the books. My favorite was the Futura run; great art and very imaginative. The Star Pirate stories, with art by Anderson, were a delight, as was the Lost World run, with art by Evans, I believe. The PS Artbooks reprints make the interior work available for those whose valuable comics are locked within their graded cases. Wonderful thread, this.

All good thoughts, but I like Point Five’s best. When I was pre-teen and teenager, one of my greatest drivers was to be older. The perceived freedom, the things one would be able to own (eg. cars and motorcycles), and the fulfillment of new desires was strong. Seeing older guys with their cars, girlfriends and no parents involved was intoxicating. Baker’s older couples also fit with the perception I have of teen and twenties people in movies of the era as just looking older. Bacall was 16 in her first roll with Bogart, I believe. Did not look it. Just 2 cents.

A lot of very intelligent thinking, here. I would say that regardless of initial investment (10 cents, or ten thousand dollars), your 9.0 Fantastic Four number one should be considered at current market value. I’m like a lot of you, I’ve never sold anything. Maybe some day, but now doesn’t feel like the right time, and I still love my comics. However, the bubble of everything is concerning.

With me it’s getting to the two or three chats on water cooler. Regular boards work fine, but every few days I get a no permission notice, even though still currently logged in. Need to log out and back in.

Thanks,Mike