SUPERMAN: From the 30's to the 70's

[SuperBird]

This week marked a collecting milestone for me, as I finished up a run of books that brought me into Golden Age comics. As a kid growing up in the late 70's, my dad got me a book of Superman reprints entitled "Superman: From the 30's to the 70's". It was a big hardback book with mostly black and white reprints that I really never read. The stories were mostly sucky to me compared to modern (at the time) comics. But what really drew me in were the old covers; especially the very oldest ones. This spread in particular was viewed so much that the binding split in two:

 

 

In time, my little brother got his hands on my book, making a complete mess of it with a black magic marker, destroying the dust jacket as well as mucking up the sides of the pages and the front cover. But to this day, I still have the book. It's probably the oldest original possession I still have. I always just assumed hat the comics from my favorite book wwere too old, too expensive for me to ever own.

 

Fast forward a few decades, and around the year 2000, thanks to PointFive, I realized that they weren't that pricey after all. Most could be had for $200 or so in decent shape. My future wife bought me Superman 32 from Metropolis Comics, and that's where it started.

 

With a flurry of selling this past week, I was finally able to afford to finish off my favorite comic memory as a kid... for real!

 

 

I know there are several of us Superman collectors who loved this hardcover collection as a kid. Now, who else out there is collecting these covers? Post em!

[G.A.tor]

very nice, congrats

[flatrock02]

[plady69]

A labor of love! Well done, sir!

[adamstrange]

I had the hardcover and loved the stories -- those early Luthor appearances were always enjoyable.

 

Great pic & great story to go along with it! Congratulations!

[ciorac]

Great work mattbird

[Wrightson fan]

Congratulations on your accomplishment. I still have my Superman HC, but it has definitely seen better days. I understand how you can have such a strong nostalgic tie to the book and the desire to complete what you have. I think collecting ventures such as this are beyond cool. Good job.

 

 

[Bonds25]

 

With a flurry of selling this past week, I was finally able to afford to finish off my favorite comic memory as a kid... for real!

 

 

I like how you inserted your copies into the picture - damn Photoshop pros!

 

Very cool - congrats!

[jimjum12]

 

With a flurry of selling this past week, I was finally able to afford to finish off my favorite comic memory as a kid... for real!

 

 

I like how you inserted your copies into the picture - damn Photoshop pros!

 

Very cool - congrats!

 

They have a copy of that hardcover at our library....I check it out periodically.Congrats....I have a desire to have nice 5.0 copies of Superman 19 and 30....books featured in Superman 183 ,at the time supposedly selling to collectors for as much as $ 30 a piece.GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[Detroit MIke]

Wow! That's a real nice job! Many of those books are on my wantlist too. Currently I have the 14 and the 41. I bet reading those old black and whites now isn't as "sucky" is it?

[Norrin_Radd]

 

I've thought of doing the same thing with Batman 30s to 70s spreads.

[thedude]

Matt, as we've discussed, Superman: from the 30s to the 70s was also my first introduction into GA covers/stories. very found memories of that book. still have my copy. it's about a 3.5 these days though (tape, what was I thinking )

 

congrats on completing the GA cover spread.

[TheSurgeon]

Very cool. I have that book, as well as "The Great Comic Book Heroes" edited by Jules Feiffer. I have a few of the comics featured in both- definitely a focal point of my collecting. I loved those books when I was a kid!

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

Excellent! I also got that book along with the Batman book back in the 70's and still have my copies. For some reason I never saw the Shazam book, low distribution or something?

 

Anyway, congratulations on completing an excellent run. Very cool indeed.