If we are supposed to collect what we owned as a youth...

[Ze-man]

Then why am I drawn to Pre code and GA comics?

 

Was it through exposure to them, a profound nostalgia for times gone by the older I get?

 

While I know plenty of comic and memorabilia collectors (many my age) who could care less about GA books, it makes me wonder if they have ever held, read and understood what the book they were holding actually represented. Not just as a comic book but as a part of american history. Or have they and just dont give a rats asss?

 

 

I understand all to well that I am new to GA comics, and preaching to the choir here, but was wondering if my progression was atypical,or if everyone here has had a similar path to GA books.

 

Or did many of you know from the get go that GA was it?

 

[jimjum12]

I was turned on to GA through the reprint books of my youth....late 60's early 70's.I was drawn to it's exhuberance and originality.A lot of late silver ,early bronze was filled with attempts to recreate a style or genre while the GA was bursting at the seems with experimentation and newness.GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[TheWatcher]

Not me. Started with what I read as a kid (BA) and worked my way backwards until I realized GA is where it's at (thumbs u

[tth2]

Then why am I drawn to Pre code and GA comics?

Besides JC, who else says we can only collect what we liked as kids and must be afraid of broadening our horizons as we learn more about our particular hobby?

[thehumantorch]

Started with Silver and continued to present. Eventually I was exposed to GA and Pre Code and frankly the covers are more raw and powerful. I think as comics became more refined and corporate they lost their wild west anything goes look. Just look at the More Fun thread for example, amazing covers. On the other hand the interior art and stories of most GA and Pre code comics leave me unimpressed.

[adamstrange]

interior art and stories of most GA and Pre code comics leave me unimpressed

 

Strange. That's my comment about modern super-hero comics. I'm firm believer in the 90% of everything is cr@p and therefore spend my time searching for the 10% that is, pardon the pun, golden.

 

Getting back to Ze-man's question, I read GA and SA stories as a child (Barks, Lou Fine, Spiderman, you name it) that were available via re-prints or owned by my older brothers. I even read Tec 27 and Action 1 in the DC treasury editions. I bought very few comics off the newstand (probably fewer than a 100 comics) and part of that was Bark's Duck reprints so I'm probably unusual in my love for the older comics and for eras prior to my own. I do think that there's a tremendous American artistic heritage that is little known outside a very tiny community of comics collectors. Hopefully, collectors will preserve, record and pass on that knowledge until the time comes when the creators receive appropriate recognition.

[rob_react]

Then why am I drawn to Pre code and GA comics?

Besides JC, who else says we can only collect what we liked as kids and must be afraid of broadening our horizons as we learn more about our particular hobby?

 

I can think of at least one other prominent member of the "TGC is coming" crew who used to say the same thing.

[rjpb]

I have next to zero interest in reacquiring the books of collecting youth (roughly 1969-1974) - even then I was initially far more interested in Silver Age Marvel than with what was being printed at the time (though I bought it all) - but by 1972 my collecting interests had moved to GA and ECs - though I kept on selling books of one type to fund collecting another, before losing interest in all but undergrounds for a while.

 

I still like undergrounds, though I make faint effort to fill in the "holes" in my collection, and continue to find GA and pre-code material more fascinating than the Silver and Bronze Ages. I've picked up lots of interesting stuff published since the 80s as the lines between underground/alternative/independent/mainstream have become blurred - but I consider that to be more of an accumilation than a collection.

[G.A.tor]

I buy what appeals to me (thumbs u

[The Black Hand ®]

I read Silver age but collected GA as a kid.

 

[skypinkblu]

When I first started buying comics again, I didn't know anything about getting back issues, except at flea markets, I was leery about the ads in the comics, because there was so little information. Then I found Ebay and started buying books that I remembered as a kid...but some of the people I became friends with, showed me some GA books...I scoffed at first...till I saw one, and touched it...I've been going backwards in time ever since.

[The Black Hand ®]

A couple of things got me into GA. It was what my dad, the war hero, read as a kid and that first crossover story with the GA Flash. At the time, JLA were my favorites...I picked up an All Star and All Star's were a window back in time to when my dad was fighting the war.

[szelim]

I collected mostly BA as a youth. When I restarted collecting a few years back, it was in SA and BA. I had always wanted a GA book, so I picked one up, All-Flash 14. It was neat seeing the simpler stories, as well as the WW II ads. Then I got another, and another, and now GA is the dominant area I put my money in.

 

[Jeffro.]

Back when I was a kid in the 70's and the idea of obessesively and compulsively trying to keep comics in pristine condition had not even occured to me, I read primarily Richie Rich, and DC war comics and that's what my focus is now.

 

I'm getting a huge amount of pleasure and satisfaction out of it.

 

However, I still stray into other areas. I'm fond of 50's non superhero DCs, pre-code horror and crime, and Atlas war comics. Bronze DC (and to a lesser extent Marvel) horror pulls at me as well.

 

In the 80's, I collected mostly superhero books and find that I no longer have any interest in collecting them beyond getting some reading copies.

[pinball]

I buy what appeals to me (thumbs u

 

I agree with this statement also!

 

I started collecting in early 80's. Mostly stuff that came off the rack. G.I. Joe, ASM stuff like that. But when I went to the flea mkt, that is where I found the SA and BA stuff. I have just recently got into GA material and really love it. I finally got my first Schomburg cover a couple days ago. I think I am more in love with the covers than anything. Although there are some great stories in there too. I really love pre-code horror.

 

My wallet hates me now!

[drbanner]

The argument that "we are supposed to collect what we owned as a youth" may be appropriate as a starting point for collecting, but as tastes change and we get more exposure to other ages and genres, many collectors move into GA - relevant poll showing over half of GA collectors under the age of 40. Most of the GA collectors I know (and most of the more prolific posters on the GA board) weren't even born by the end of the GA.

 

Everyone has their own reasons, but I collect GA as antiques, as historical artifacts, for the cool covers, for the challenge, for the visual representation of the times/history, etc.,. The only challenge in collecting SA and BA is collecting high grade, and to me the cost of meeting that challenge is way over-priced compared to buying a low-mid grade comic book from the 1940's with a crazy WWII or sci-fi cover that you might only see available a couple times a year.

[The Black Hand ®]

When I go back and read the silver age books that I loved so much as a kid, my imagination just doesn't fill in the blanks the way they initially did back in the very early sixties and late fifties. The historical perspective of WWII era GA comics make the better ones a bit more appealing. I have to admit that even though it's a must for me to read the comics I own, after years of reading these things, it's the covers that appeal more and draw me to them.

[tth2]

I started out collecting Captain Americas, in his own BA series and then into his SA run in Tales of Suspense. When I discovered that some of his Golden Age appearances were reprinted in Fantasy Masterpeices, with art by the great Jack Kirby no less (wow, he`s been drawing since the 1940s!), I hurriedly ordered some back issues from a catalog mail order dealer and couldn`t wait to see these great stories from the "Golden Age" of comics.

 

My 12-year old self was absolutely crushed when the books arrived and I opened them to find putrid art and putrid stories. I cannot put in words how badly they blew. I mean, they really really sucked. I was pretty much turned off GA for the next 25 years, and only after discovering that a lot of those great Carl Barks duck stories I loved reading in Gold Key reprints were actually from the 1940s and 1950s did I try buying some GA, but only Duck books. I`ve since branched out a bit further, but the limited GA buying I do is primarily for the covers, because the stories and interior art for the most part hold no interest for me.

 

Having said that, I can understand why others like GA. There`s a real novelty to it, particularly the more esoteric stuff, and then there`s just the thrill of holding a book that`s over 60 years old, particularly if it looks like it just came off the presses.

[Jayman]

Well said Doc!

I will add though, in a way collecting pre-code Atlas horror titles, I am collecting what I read as a youth.

Being that I grew up on the Marvel reprints I read as a youth it was only natural I evetually seeked out the originals! (thumbs u

[selegue]

When I first started buying comics again, I didn't know anything about getting back issues, except at flea markets, I was leery about the ads in the comics, because there was so little information. Then I found Ebay and started buying books that I remembered as a kid...but some of the people I became friends with, showed me some GA books...I scoffed at first...till I saw one, and touched it...I've been going backwards in time ever since.

 

Obie any day.

 

 

I wonder whether Steve still has a few copies to blow out.

 

Jack