Comic Books: Supply & Demand

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

I have a couple of ideas, but I want to hear yours first. Tell me about causes which effect the supply of comic books. Does anybody know where to find informatin about how many of a certain issue were printed?

[aardvark88]

Print run & distributor preorder #s can be find in Krause/CBG big 2 inch thick Std Bk of Comics. It was released at Wizard & San Diego cons summer 2002. Contains breakdown per title & issue # from 1960s to now. Supply can be manipulated by hoarding (e.g. Conan 1, 3, Shazam 1, Howard Duck 1, S Surfer 4).

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

Thanks for the heads up on the The Standard Catalog of Comic Books I have been considering purchasing the book, and now I know I'll purchase it!

 

I apologize in advance if someone posting here has experienced this firsthand, but I feel that this issue is overlooked in conversations about the supply of comic books. How do natural disasters effect the supply of comic books?

[aardvark88]

Can't recall right now if the WW II print runs are listed. Need to conserve paper & metal in staples for the war effort. War yr Timely's had 1 staple.

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

Let me rephrase that, would your collection have a better chance of survival in California or Iowa? California has problems with disasters such as earthquakes, mudslides, and huge forest fires. On the east coast there are problems with hurricanes, and down south problems with flooding, and where I live tornados are a possibility. Not long ago a local card shop called "Play Ball" burned up and who know how many cards were destroyed. This can also effect the point that you brought up about people that hord comics. What happens when somebody that has horded X amount of copies of X issue looses their collection to a natural disaster?

[FlyingDonut]

If I remember correctly, wasn't there a comic shop that was underwater when the Russian River flooded in Northern California a while back? Also Eclipse Comics got wet, if I remember right. I know there was a comic shop in Grand Forks, ND that went out of business because they were under 20 feet of water IN THE WINTER when the Red River flooded.

 

And just as an aside, can you imagine how much that would suck? Its already 50 below zero, and now the river has flooded, dumping water everywhere, and then the city burns down because the gas mains broke. All they would need was locusts.

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

Hmmm...do I sense pessimism, sarcasm, an unhappy , or all the above?

[aardvark88]

When the Red River flooded in Winnipeg, MB, it became the perfect way for a comicshop to exit a dying business & chronic recession in central Canada. Insurance claim for flood /water damage & auction off your store stock to a local bidder who brought all that inventory to a Western Canada (more jobs here) comicon. Many long boxes of $1 or 50 cent comics that the bidder paid 5-10 cents a piece for. Pre-sorted, bagged & tagged.

[Joanna]

The largest, most prevalent destroyer of comics has nothing to do with natural disasters. It's called Mom. The Mom factor has played a key role in the comic census since the beginning of the hobby. "Mom threw out all my comics" is the one sentence you'll hear far more often than "I lost my comics in an earthquake" or something.

 

Therefore, the question is: What area of the country are Mom less likely to have tossed their kids' comics? A liberal area, a conservative area, small town, big city -- or is this the ultimate unknowable?

 

A small stack of my comics survived the Mom factor. They are the most thrashed issues in my entire collection. They were not collectables, they were reading material.

 

-- Joanna

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

Look out moms comics are evil! Back in the day before the "Comics Code Authority, were the days of book burnings. Oh, and comics were not collecables just funny books that you read and traded with friends for other funny books. I've been told that "Classics" were good trading material. Years from now, people that refused to change their yellowed poly bags every 3-5 year are gonna have bags of dust

[Mister_Comics]

Lucky for me dad collected comics before me. So mom knew not to throw them out. But she did trash some of my cool superhero models. What is it with moms and the throwing out thing???

 

Here's another thing to watch for. Silverfish. Those little buggers can wrech a whole collection.

[Bronty]

Eclipse was definitely flooded. Virtually all of their backstock was destroyed, if I remember correctly.

 

Dan, do you remember what month's eclipse issues talk about the flood? I distinctly remember seeing that in Cat Yronwode's editorials but I can't find now. Wonder if it was the month of Miracleman 15?

[Guest]

silverfish... I have a LOT of paper around the house. Comics (of course) magazines, art books, novels, stacks and stacks of artwork... I pretty much put warpaint on when I see one of those things...