What was the one comic that turned your collection around?

[Crimebuster]

Boy Comics #36.

 

 

I was messing around on ebay one day and decided to see if there were any Golden Age books I could afford. I had never bought any GA stuff because as a kid it was all prohibitively expensive.

 

To my surprise, I ended up winning several issues of Boy Comics dirt cheap that day - 6 issues for $36 shipped. The earliest was #36, so I read it first. Then I plowed through the rest. They were fantastic.

 

Now I have #11-119 and need just four more to finish the run. And I've branched out to collecting other GA stuff as well. Major shift for me.

[jaybes]

The Dark Knight Returns 1, 1st Print.....read it, had to have the others, hooked me. Opened a door that led backwards in time for me.

[Rip]

I would say Batman 20 then All American 61. My first Golden Age books. Which I later sold for double what I paid for them.

[Axc3]

Avengers Annual #10. Its not the most expensive book in my collection but this was one book I read to death when I was a kid. The copy I had back then was thrown away by my parents.

 

A few years ago when I got back into comics I made it a point to get this book back.

[dgarthwaite-migration]

There is no one book. There are a series of significant books.

 

1) Hulk #157 - Hulk vs. Rhino. I knew the Rhino from the 60's Spider-Man cartoon. This was the first comic which made me realize heroes and villains could interact in a shared universe. My interest in DC comics took a huge nose dive after reading this.

 

2)Marvel Team-Up #5 - Spider-Man & the Vision. I read this story and then picked up an early Avengers comic in the early 100's. Vision phases through a wall and says he'd just been with Spider-Man in the Avengers issue. The two combined made me realized that not only could heroes interact, but everything was interconnected and mattered.

 

3) X-Men #94 - Although I didn't like the story, this book appreciated in value so fast that I equated comics with their value. I quit buying just to read. I started taking more care of my comics and looking at them as collectibles. Comics became an asset.

 

5) X-Men #141/#142 - Although I'm not entirely sure, I think these issue escalated my desire to have a full run of X-Men and increase my silver-age purchases. By 1982. I owned a full run including two copies of #1 plus many other keys. I think I'd already been buying them, but these increased my resolve.

 

 

6) E.C. Classic Reprint #5 (East Coast Comix) - Although my dad had bought comics as a kid, he did not buy them as an adult. He always spoke highly of EC's. I picked this up with him in mind and took it to him to read. His eyes lit up and said that it had one of his favorite stories as a kid. I read the comic also and was highly impressed. This comic cemented my interest in EC comics. I'm even interested in the Max Gaines era material.

 

 

 

7) Hulk #271 - This issue along with all the "assistance editor month" comics made me realize that Marvel's quality could really dip. I detest this issue. I have almost no interest in seeing a Guardians of the Galaxy movie. By 1984, I quit buying comics.

 

8) Magnus #2 (Valiant) - Having just got back into comics and seeing Rob Liefeld comics praised, I was so sickened that I almost immediately quit collecting. I bought this as a recent back issue and was so impressed that I was hooked before Solar #10 came out. It kept me buying comics. For non-selfish reasons I hoarded Valiant. Partially doing it as a favor for a friend that said he wanted to hoard them, and partially to share them with collectors who were not quite convinced they were excellent. I was concerned they'd have to pay too much once their minds were made up. My friends ended up acquiring copies on their own and never buying the ones I hoarded.

 

 

9) Tales To Astonish #60 (back issue) - Having quit two jobs back to back, I had very little income. I traded some duplicates of my 70's and 80's Marvel collection to get this It made me realize that it was possible to acquire the Silver Age comics I wanted on a small income through shrewd trading.

 

10) Harbinger #10 - Knowing that Jim Shooter had been ousted from the company, I saw a quality drop on this issue. It wasn't a huge quality drop, but enough for me to pay attention and ultimately quit supporting the publisher. This book made me willing to purge all my duplicate Valiant copies for Silver age & EC's (pre-Silver).

 

11) Amazing Fantasy #15 - After doing quite a few very good trades for Silver Age keys, I made my biggest trade exchanging Valiant duplicates for a low grade copy of this comic. When I acquired this, my interest in all other common Silver Age comics dropped to almost nothing. It's hard to get excited over anything else after acquiring one you thought you'd never own. I would never have paid cash for it.

 

 

12) Cavewoman: Rain #1 - A fun indy comic. After Jim Shooter's presence vanished from comics, there was very little that entertained me. This comic did. I later bought original art from the series and started a willingness to invest in other original art. It also kept me searching for other high quality indy comics I liked such as Optic Nerve and Strangehaven. It also led to me buying a bunch of that I regret.

 

 

13) Unity 2000 #3 (Acclaim) - Jim Shooter made a brief return to comics for this series. I invested heavily in the Acclaim books with extreme optimism. My optimism was unfounded. Through a switching of comic shops and wanting to guarantee I didn't miss this issue with multiples, I ended up acquiring 30 copies (two sources) of this final issue. I subsequently quit subscribing to new comics upon the cancellation of this series. I was offended by the online lies by the publisher who kept stating the series was not cancelled. Financially, I did well. I sold almost all of them for a very nice markup. I think I got $20 a piece for some.

 

14) Cartoon Spice #4 - While looking online to buy #3, I found a #2 and #4. A #2 would be assumed to exist. A #4 was questionable. No online guides or resources listed a #4. My appreciation of the Charlton adult humor comics and their utter obscurity makes me want to own them all. Finding stuff that collectors don't know exist is a fun side of the hobby for me.

 

 

15) Dagwood Splits the Atom - I bought this thinking it was rare and that it was a fair price. Upon getting it home, I discovered there was a warehouse find and that I significantly overpaid. I was pissed. I rarely buy comics now since much of what interests me is obscure, expensive and there is little guarantee that the funds invested can quickly be liquidated for a fair market value.

 

 

DG

[warburger]

Beautiful Killer 1 (2002) by Jimmy Palmiotti and Phil Noto.

 

Before this comic, I was a rabid fanboy, buying everything X-Men, without a care for the continuity, just to speculate (how foolish to speculate on X-Men comics) and all issue 1's and bad girls.

 

When this came out, I realized that comics should be collected sequentially and to be read. I am no longer content with the first issue alone.