Silver Age Sleepers !

[joe_collector]

Post after post talks of the youth abandoning the market as if kids ten,fifteen or twenty years ago used to sit around reading comics all day. It didn't happen. All these posts about kids perferring video games to comics are myths.Kids in my day played sports,hung out,smoked cigarettes,played more sports and then drank some beer.

 

Yeesh, you must have had some whacked out childhood.

 

The years I actively read comics were between the ages of 7 and 13, and at no time between was I puffing butts or guzzling booze... a few years later maybe, but not at 10 freaking years old.

 

Between ages 7 and 10, comics were cool. We all played baseball and hockey religiously, were not "geeks", but all the guys I knew either bought comics or would pick one up when offered. There was no stigma associated with comics during that golden age of innocence.

 

At about ages 10-11, I began to notice that some shied away from comics, as if trying to leave the vestiges of their youth behind. Fewer of my friends bought, read or collected comics, though sportscards were still a very cool thing to buy. Sports really took over at that point, and between my baseball and hockey playing and other interests, I dropped out at around 13, and didn't come back until my later teens, when I started going to shows and collecting.

 

Now I grew up in a city, was seriously into sports, and there is no way I'm imagining all those great rainy days with the boyz, reading comics and trading hockey cards, and arguing over who would win in a fight: Thor or Hulk.

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Thor or Hulk.

 

Thor of course.

[joe_collector]

To echo shadroch's post, I can say that I remember, as a teenager in the 80's, I saw mainly other teenagers or young adults in my LCS, even back then. So, I believe there's some merit in that argument that it's the teenagers/young adults who were fueling a good part of the new comic and back issue comic markets as far back as 15-20 years ago.

 

Of course, as I wasn't allowed anywhere near our dive of a LCS/book store. The owner looked like a troll and smelled like three trolls, and it wasn't exactly a place I'd walk into without a gun to my back. Up to the 80's, most kids bought at the newstand, and the vast majority didn't even have a comic shop within 100 miles.

 

LCS's were designed for adults, and that's who usually haunted them, at least up until the point where newstand distribution dropped off. Comparing demographics there is like walking into an over-21 porno shop, doing a survey, and then stating no teens must ever watch porn.

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Comparing demographics there is like walking into an over-21 porno shop, doing a survey, and then stating no teens must ever watch porn.

 

I swear I was well into my 20s....

[Aman619]

that wasnt porn, they were art films!

honest.

[shadroch]

Since you seem to agree that kids were never a major part of the original comic store equatiion and bought from newstands,why do you suppose that large segment of the distribution pie went the way of the dodo?Profitible business methods don't often just up and go away.

What percentage of your 8th grade class read comics? And your fifth grade class? In my case I'd have to say less than 5% in either case and thats being generous.I don't remember anyone else in my 8th grade class reading comics,and except for a few recovering soldiers(I lived in Zama,Japan where many wounded soldiers were sent to heal from Vietnam),

I had no-one to talk or trade comics with.

How about the other 40 or so years old members-what percent of your friends read/collect comics? In 6th grade? In 9th grade?

[joe_collector]

I swear I was well into my 20s....

 

Sure... bake 'em away toys.

[joe_collector]

Since you seem to agree that kids were never a major part of the original comic store equatiion and bought from newstands,why do you suppose that large segment of the distribution pie went the way of the dodo?

 

Asked and answered.

 

I don't have the time right now, but do some searches online and see if you can find some newstand figures. I read one awhile ago that had a graph comparing cover price to unit newstand sales, and it showed a stark drop-off through the 80's, and then literally died in the early 90's, when we were hit with $1-$1.50 cover prices.

 

It's a statistics-verified fact that kid sales dropped off as cover prices spiked, and the real killer was around 1988-91, which is also the period of time where LCS numbers exploded, adults took over the market, and kids became a footnote.

 

But remember, we're talking about collectors who were kids circa 1987 and previous, and contrasting that to the adult-infested market that followed. The "shrinking newstand sales" scenario you mention is a perfect example of that.

[Bronty]

I will certainly introduce them to age-appropriate comics (are there any left in this day and age?)

 

I'd suggest picking up the Gladstone Duck books they are currently printing. They contain re-prints of many of the great Duck stories, including those by Carl Barks!

 

They are a little pricey (I think $9-10 each), but they are big and have many stories in each one.

 

 

 

 

The are $7 in the US or $10 in Canada.

[shiverbones]

hmmmm...feeling like i am being included in the pollyanna club, perhaps i should clarify my previous post.

 

1. i do know first hand more comics are leaving this country to collectors in the UK, germany, france, italy & australia (not china, nor japan)

 

2. i do know there are more comics available to more readers than ever before thanks to the internet.

 

3. i do believe that there will be a correction in high grade books that people spent too much on, thats a given. Any "investment" you spend too much on is a bad "investment". I do not see that filtering through to the reader-collector mentioned in posts #1 & 2

 

4. the difference between low-mid grade comics and something like coins in such grades is the comic is still a readable, usable object with intrinsic historical artistic value.

 

5. the people who quote the crash of the 90's and how everyone left the hobby is a different situation in that comics were selling to comic collectors, and 1 in 2 collectors was specualting with new books they were hoping to sell to collectors who had already bought 5 copies themselves. the upcoming correction as i see it is different because the hobby is more diverse now. The internet has introduced back issue buyers that were not out there in the early 90's. Its a different audience. they are not buying 9.6's to hopefully cash in on and will not be hurt by the precipitous fall that may come from that.

 

6. i do not spend multiples of guide on high grade comics, i don't feel safe doing that, its kinda risky for me. i have no fear buying and selling fair to vf-nm back issue comics at or under guide because that is where the growing audiences are. The gains are not there for investors, so they avoid them, the appearance of less demand based on stagnating prices of lesser grades is false because there are more copies in those grades to be sold which means the supply takes longer to dry up. What that really means is i can sell a house of mystery #200 in fine for $6 15 times in a year. every time it will sell. that is solid demand, the book will gradually start to bring more as supplies dry up, and say 3 years from now i have 6 copies and they go for $9-$10 each. that is a solid $9-$10 now, not driven up by hype specualtion or anything other than the true supply and demand working in the marketplace. as the bell curve swings, the prices rise faster. i don't see that changing, i see that as the natural progression rate for a collectible that has a good amount of supply left in the market. i just don't see it as the same situation as the cgc crash debate because they are completely different audiences.

[Darthdiesel]

Yeesh, you must have had some whacked out childhood.

 

Now that's not nice...I'd say shadroch pretty much described my childhood...although I did have more friends into comics and actively spending their allowance on new comics. I collected read and traded comics all through out grammar school (1st - 8th grade, 6yrs - 14 yrs) and played sports and all that..the drinking started before freshman year of HS '88, and the girls and the smoking - it is no wonder the last MOdern books I bought before my hiatus were McFarlane early ASM run in '88/'89... well the girls have stopped about 8 yrs ago when I met my wife, and the excessive booze and smoking has stopped about 2 yrs ago and the comic collecting has started up again about 3 yrs ago! I blame the 1 year overlap of drinking and comic collectiong for my heavy purchases of Top Cow comics

[Darthdiesel]

How about the other 40 or so years old members-what percent of your friends read/collect comics? In 6th grade? In 9th grade?

 

I'm turning 30 in March. I would say that I had a group back all throughout grammar school of about 12 - 15 friends, all male, that collected and traded comics and toys: GI JOes, go bots, transformers, Atari games... we also played D&D in our early teen years and that actually only lasted a few years. I 6th grade I'd say the guys collecting were still in the same numbers...by 9th grade, the booze hit and I was living in an Irish pub on the corner of 84th street and Northern Blvd and so were all 12-15 of these, on the stools next to me, drooling over our bartender, Alisha

[shadroch]

.by 9th grade, the booze hit and I was living in an Irish pub on the corner of 84th street and Northern Blvd and so were all 12-15 of these, on the stools next to me, drooling over our bartender, Alisha

 

 

In Jackson Heights?..... Kennedys? Castle Heights? McNams? The Bellevedere?

[Darthdiesel]

Lynch's

[shadroch]

Now known as Cafe La Raza,was she the owners daughter?

[OldSchoolTerry]

Castle Heights is a Mexican place now too, isn't it? My band was the first or second to play a gig in that place when it opened. I'm shocked it actually stayed open in that neighborhood for so long....

[Darthdiesel]

Yes - haven't been back to find the Cafe La Raza! I recall stumbling into Castle Heights as well to take a pee break...

[Darthdiesel]

I'm shocked you have a Mexican (mariachi) band

[shadroch]

The Heights is now an Ecuidorian bar,though Frankie and Cassie and crew hold a monthly get together. They arrainge it by email and just kind of barge in and disrupt the place.Even Budds is closing soon.Not much left in Queens for live bands,esp.death metal types.Some Mexi-metal down on Roosvelt ave or Irish Punk in Woodside.

[Darthdiesel]

Budds closing? How sad? Where are all my Joan of Arc buddies going to hang now?

 

Now Woodside - Skillman - those pubs under the "7" on Roosevelt - most of my late high scool years "Irish Cottage"? and then through the "archway" around the block - there were two bars side by side I frequented often as well...