Bronze Age cover scans - Can you help?

[Jenna]

I'm trying to put together an online gallery of bronze age cover scans, both Marvel and DC. I grew up with these books and as cheesy as some of them are I sure do love them. I have seen the excellent online Silver Age Marvel cover gallery and I'd like to do something similar for 70s books.

 

Of primary importance to this gallery project is of course getting quality scans of Bronze Age comics. If you want to help out in any way by providing a decent number of scans for this project, please let me know and we can discuss the details. Scans will be fully credited to the people who contribute them and I'll also put up a link if you like. If you've got something close to a full run then I'll work out some sort of super-ultra-extra credit for you.

 

Hoping this becomes a success, thanks very much in advance.

 

Jak

 

 

[FlyingDonut]

what are you looking for? I can zap you LOTS and LOTS of cover scans

[Jenna]

Anything you can provide will be more than appreciated. I'd like to have as full a range of titles as possible, and the way I'm coding the gallery it will be set up to accommodate any titles needed, fully searchable, etc. So... if you've got Bronze Age DC or Marvel, that will work. I'll have the details ready for how to get them from you to me pretty soon, but right now I just want to find out if it's something I can make happen, based on the number of scans the site can have just starting out.

[Darthdiesel]

You doing this "project" for profit? If so I'd like to be paid PER scan

[Metarog]

I have most non-reprint bronze-age Marvels. However, they are not in great condition because I do read them. I also have all the Legion of Super-Heroes appearences during that era. If you don't mind vg to fine condition I would be willing to help.

[OldSchoolTerry]

Great idea! I'm really looking forward to seeing this as it grows.....

[Zonker]

Question--

What will you be bringing to the party that's not found at the Grand Comic Book Database project (www.comics.org)? (They're working on their server, so ya can't check it out right now if you've never visited before).

[Jenna]

Question--

What will you be bringing to the party that's not found at the Grand Comic Book Database project (www.comics.org)? (They're working on their server, so ya can't check it out right now if you've never visited before).

That's a good question as they already have an excellent selection of covers. I suppose the same could be asked of the Silver Age Marvel Cover Index, so I'd have to answer "diversity". Mine won't be as grand as the Grand Comic Book Database project, but that's not the goal.

 

Also, on the Grand Comic Book Database site, it states: "If we are able to take this to its ultimate conclusion, this database will contain data for every comic book ever published. It will be available to all for a nominal fee (cost of materials and postage, if any). We plan to offer at least limited access to the public at large through the World Wide Web."

 

Now, that brings up a good point. This Bronze Age Covers site will be free to use for people who want to see cool 70s covers. With that said, I've got several sites out on the web and I do use a lot of bandwidth for those sites. Bandwidth costs money, and a gallery of comic scans will use a lot of it. After giving it some thought beyond the initial idea, I realize that in order to keep it all free for use there will have to be some sort of way to pay for all of that bandwidth. To cover that, I can say with almost 95% certainty that this site will have text ads. For people who are uncomfortable with that, let me know, and as DarthDiesel suggested perhaps I can simply buy the scans from you.

 

The main thing that gave me the idea to begin with is a search in Google the other day for comic covers. I found the Silver Age Marvel Cover Index in the top position from a search in Google for "silver age comics". A similar search for "bronze age comics" brings up nothing but seller's web sites (and the same results for "bronze age covers"). I hope to change that.

 

Basically I just want to get an idea if a project like this is feasible, if people are interested, and how long it might take to do. If those factors all end up in the positive, then we can take it from there.

 

[Jenna]

Regarding the condition of the comics for scanning, the goal is to have a scan for every Marvel and DC comic from the Bronze period. That means that as long as the cover is in decent enough shape to represent the issue in question, it's good enough for the site. As better scans are found they can replace the lesser ones, but thinking about that, I also would like to keep an archived database of replaced covers, so people can see them in various conditions as well.

 

This is just a very simple idea that I'd like to see happen, whether I do it myself or someone else does, since I think it's important to do. Not a whole lot of thought was done on it before I posted here but like I say I just wanted to get a feel for what everyone thought, and if they could possible contribute. I do very much appreciate everyone's comments.

 

Jak

[Metarog]

I also feel that a well done bronze-age scan site would be a great resource. In fact, I was considering doing something similiar myself but I lack the time and web page savvy to accomplish this. There are several sites that I visit frequently to check on cover appearances, art style, etc, but it would be so much more convenient to have one central scan repository for this age. Since my collection is about 2/3 Marvel 20 to 35 cent covers I would really enjoy such a site and I am sure many on this board and outside would as well. I hope this project will indeed happen and again I would like to contribute where appropriate. Good luck.

[Jenna]

OK well I've got the site up now and in early stages, and it's coming together nicely. I'll post a link once everything is finalized.

 

Here's the deal...

 

Each cover thumbnail I have so far opens up a large 700 pixel tall jpg of itself. As I noted in my last post, this is going to eat up a lot of bandwidth. I've got the site hosted on a dedicated server so speed isn't a problem, but the bandwidth used is going to be, so the site does have advertising to cover it, although there are no banners and absolutely no pop-ups (I hate them). It's all text advertising right now, plus two Amazon links to the Overstreet Price and Grading Guides.

 

Because there is advertising on the site I have been hesitant to come back into this thread and ask for scan contributions. However, if you do feel like contributing a decent number of scans I will be happy to give you a link on the sidebar to your site, a credit in the credits section, or whatever idea you have that would make it worth your while to contribute. Just shoot me a private message and we can talk details.

 

Anyway, whatever the outcome, I still think this is a good thing and something that will be appreciated by fans of this era in comics. I just thought I'd post here again to let you know that it's becoming a reality.

 

Thanks again and Happy New Year,

Jak

[kryptonitecomics]

I wouldn't mind contributing some scans. The broze age is where I am doing most of my shopping, so I might be able to provide you with some scans you don't already have.

[Jenna]

OK I'm almost at the point where I'll unveil the site, but I have a question for everyone paying attention.

 

A large portion of the scans I have on the site have come from eBay. When I've found a good sized scan of a book I've saved it, brought it into Photoshop and cropped it, sized it, straightened it, sharpened it, and generally made it look as nice as can be. Once I realized that eBay would be a great place to find some scans, I started copying down the sellers names who've had the scans in their auctions. I now have a credits page on the site that lists these sellers and has links to their eBay current auctions pages.

 

Does anyone see anything wrong with getting some of the scans for the site this way? I don't personally and my wife doesn't, but I just want to get people's feelings on it.

 

Thanks,

Jak

[Metarog]

Jak, is your site up yet. LMK as I'd like to check it out!

 

 

[sterlingcomics]

I don't see anything wrong with taking the scans...it's not like you are using it in an auction. I love Bronze Age as well, I look forward to reviewing your site.

[Aman619]

there have ben occasions Ive read baout here on these boards where people have been miffed at seeing scans of their comics being used by others w/o permission. So perhaps you will hear from a few collectors along the way....