The FIRST comic book restoration/preservation pro: Pops Hollinger

[garthgantu]

I finally got my mitts on a "Pops special" !! I'll attach scans to this and ensuing posts. For those of you unfamiliar with Pops Hollinger, he was a "used comic books" dealer from the late 1930s through the early '70s. (As far as back issue dealers go, this guy had 'em all beat by a good 25 years.)

 

The full story on Pops was published in the 1982 Overstreet Guide. While there are thousands of copies of "Pops-refurbished" books still in existence, they're pretty tough to come by, so I was thrilled to add one to my collection.

 

Here's a link to the full Overstreet article about Pops: http://pages.prodigy.net/t53/pop-article.txt

[garthgantu]

Scan of the back cover...

[garthgantu]

Scan of the inside back cover

[minutekev@50]

Q: Does CGC note Pops Hollinger on the label?

[garthgantu]

Well, it *should* be some sort of pedigree, don't you think? But something tells me CGC would simply regard Pops books as "Restored, Semi-Pro"

 

Some people have no appreciation of history...!

[minutekev@50]

I know..I read that article about Pops. Ya know, sometimes, I wish I had been born in the 30s or 40s. Maybe the old days really were the good old days.

[garthgantu]

I hear ya... just the idea of getting 10 HUGE comics for a buck is enough to make me wish I'd been born in 1934 instead of '64... but of course then I'd have had to wait much longer for Silly String and microwavable popcorn... there are always trade-offs!

[fantastic_four]

Maybe the old days really were the good old days.

 

If you mean because things were "simpler" in the "old" days, well, don't forget that if simplicity was the way we all lived our lives, you wouldn't have been able to sit in front of a computer and type your message into an Internet message forum, now would you?

 

Nor would the printing press have ever been invented to make possible mass publication of comic books...nor would trains or trucks have been invented to deliver them to a retail store near you...etc etc etc

[minutekev@50]

Hey, you live with whatcha got

[garthgantu]

Maybe the old days really were the good old days.

 

If you mean because things were "simpler" in the "old" days, well, don't forget that if simplicity was the way we all lived our lives, you wouldn't have been able to sit in front of a computer and type your message into an Internet message forum, now would you?

 

Nor would the printing press have ever been invented to make possible mass publication of comic books...nor would trains or trucks have been invented to deliver them to a retail store near you...etc etc etc

 

Hey, we're not talking about being born in 1254 A.D. here - we still want our comic books, we just want 'em for 10 cents apiece, and we want 'em available on every streetcorner and in every drug store in America! Oh, and we want them Minty fresh, dammit!

[fantastic_four]

Hey, we're not talking about being born in 1254 A.D. here - we still want our comic books, we just want 'em for 10 cents apiece, and we want 'em available on every streetcorner and in every drug store in America! Oh, and we want them Minty fresh, dammit!

 

I thought he might have been commenting on the thread's topic, that it was a lot easier and more fun to collect back in Pop's day because people didn't give a hoot about restoration/preservation and that he was doing a GOOD thing, not something that collectors today would turn their noses up at. The simplicity of innocence never lasts...it's contrary to the inquisitive nature of human intellect.

[joe_collector]

If you mean because things were "simpler" in the "old" days, well, don't forget that if simplicity was the way we all lived our lives, you wouldn't have been able to sit in front of a computer and type your message into an Internet message forum, now would you?

 

The computer is about the only thing that really holds me back from thinking that way, especially about the late-Gold, Early-Silver Ages. After all, you had TV, hotrods, movie theatres everywhere, and you could also be part of a true "Start of the Marvel Universe" that must have been a real rush for the kids.

 

If it wasn't for computers and their incredible employment, educational and entertainment use, I'd step back there anyday.....

[garthgantu]

Your comments (FF and JC) remind me of one of my favorite Lost in Space episodes, in which Will Robinson somehow ends up in "present-day" America - I vaguely remember him teleporting onto the roof of a barn in the midwest... remember, this would have been 1966 or whatever. He's still wearing his space duds, and has some sort of device (communicator? calculator? PDA ?) that blows the minds of the local yokels who encounter him...