Salute to Phil Seuling's July 4th Shows!

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

Back in the early 70's July 4th meant one thing to me, the annual Phil Seuling July 4th comic show. I believe my first show was 1972 (although it might have been 1973) and while I may not exactly remember the year I do remember the circumstances of getting to go. I had been begging my Mom to take us up to the New York City show (a one hour ride on the Jersey Turnpike to the Port Authority where you would park) but had been pretty much shot down and didn't think we were going. My older brother was trying to help as he was a rail buff and loved to roam around the city looking at model train stores and the old rail lines and stations. Still it seemed it wasn't going to happen.

 

Although I didn't think of it at the time; my Mom had to be concerned for the safety of my two brothers and me (aged 7, 11 and 13 at the time) as New York was not as safe a city as it is today back then.

 

The particular morning of my first show I was actually serving as an altar boy at an early mass (7 AM I think.) I had rode my bike over to the church and when I exited the back of the church to ride home my older brother was there on his bike. "Hurry up," he said,"We're going up to the city!"

 

Man, I tore it up to go home and get in the car. Needless to say I had a ball attending my first show and I hope my Mom knew how much it meant to me. She must have, or she wouldn't have taken me.

 

I have attached the program book covers from two of those early shows and an autograph page from 1974.

 

Here's to Phil Seuling who made it all possible!

[thehumantorch]

Great story. Love the program books.

[HouseofComics.Com]

Super post!

[Earl Davis]

Thanks for sharing such great memories.

 

Earl.

[BustedFlush]

Total coool.

[BLBcomics-migration]

My first Seuling show was 1970 - Steve Johnson & I drove to NYC for that July 4th shindig

 

We were so naive we did not order tables in advance - neither did a bunch of other guys, so Phil quickly rented two side rooms, got a pile of card tables, we rented 3 of them, piled our stuff on the tables, had a blast dealing all week end.

 

the following year we bought in advance, got good placement, were next to Tony Goodstone (THE PULPS red hard cover), and the first day got a pile of Krenkel/Williamson EC prelim sketches from Krenkel, got a pile of Al Williamson art from the man himself in trade for a near complete run of Prince valiant Sunday pages 1938-1948; and did a trade with Ellie and Frank Frazetta for 90 Johnny Comet dailies for a pile of1930s Disney stuff we had brought. The Frazetta's had just moved to Penn, and Ellie wanted to do her kitchen in Disneyana

 

more to follow if people are interested......

 

Robert Beerbohm Comic Art

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYyttEu_NLU&feature=relateß

 

[thehumantorch]

My first Seuling show was 1970 - Steve Johnson & I drove to NYC for that July 4th shindig

 

We were so naive we did not order tables in advance - neither did a bunch of other guys, so Phil quickly rented two side rooms, got a pile of card tables, we rented 3 of them, piled our stuff on the tables, had a blast dealing all week end.

 

the following year we bought in advance, got good placement, were next to Tony Goodstone (THE PULPS red hard cover), and the first day got a pile of Krenkel/Williamson EC prelim sketches from Krenkel, got a pile of Al Williamson art from the man himself in trade for a near complete run of Prince valiant Sunday pages 1938-1948; and did a trade with Ellie and Frank Frazetta for 90 Johnny Comet dailies for a pile of1930s Disney stuff we had brought. The Frazetta's had just moved to Penn, and Ellie wanted to do her kitchen in Disneyana

 

more to follow if people are interested......

 

Robert Beerbohm Comic Art

PO Box 507 Fremont NE 68026

www.BLBcomics.com

eBaystore: BLB COMICS

ComicConnect http://www.comicconnect.com/?surl=19464

http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=34&s=262&ai=81492

01 402 727 4071 mostly 9 AM to 6 PM daily - Or Leave a message

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYyttEu_NLU&feature=relateß

 

Definitely interested. Don't stop now.

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

My first Seuling show was 1970 - Steve Johnson & I drove to NYC for that July 4th shindig

 

We were so naive we did not order tables in advance - neither did a bunch of other guys, so Phil quickly rented two side rooms, got a pile of card tables, we rented 3 of them, piled our stuff on the tables, had a blast dealing all week end.

 

the following year we bought in advance, got good placement, were next to Tony Goodstone (THE PULPS red hard cover), and the first day got a pile of Krenkel/Williamson EC prelim sketches from Krenkel, got a pile of Al Williamson art from the man himself in trade for a near complete run of Prince valiant Sunday pages 1938-1948; and did a trade with Ellie and Frank Frazetta for 90 Johnny Comet dailies for a pile of1930s Disney stuff we had brought. The Frazetta's had just moved to Penn, and Ellie wanted to do her kitchen in Disneyana

 

more to follow if people are interested......

 

Robert Beerbohm Comic Art

PO Box 507 Fremont NE 68026

www.BLBcomics.com

eBaystore: BLB COMICS

ComicConnect http://www.comicconnect.com/?surl=19464

http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=34&s=262&ai=81492

01 402 727 4071 mostly 9 AM to 6 PM daily - Or Leave a message

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYyttEu_NLU&feature=relateß

 

Yes, Bob share your stories. I will post a few favorite memories over lunch today as well.

[Yellow Kid]

Phil was truly one of the pioneers. I still have one comic that I can identify as having been bought directly from him, and every time I see the book, I think of Phil. He left us much to soon.

Richard

[precodekeith]

Great stuff. Kee[ the stories coming, please!

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

OK, in no particular order:

 

Standing in a crowded line of like 25 people to get into the show to pay the exorbitant $5. entry fee.

 

My budget for my first show was probably $5. Mom probably paid the entry fee since I couldn't afford it and comics.

 

What did $5. buy? Well, the price of a current comic was 20 cents so since I wanted Golden Age Disney I had to be careful. The main room seemed too expensive so I ended up in the side rooms picking up early 50's WDC & S for about $1. each from the Sassaman brothers. A couple of these are still my favorites and although Busted Flush tells me I can't; I may take one of those to the grave with me!!

 

I remember staring at box after box of mint BLB's for $1 each. Nobody really bought them so I'm sure you could pick them up for much less.

 

There were boxes everywhere filled with Golden Age of all sorts. Not keys of course but your run of the mill titles like, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman the long running stuff. Early Golden Age from the thirties was rare, early Actions, Detectives, Marvel Mysterys were hard to come by then too.

 

If you did find pre-hero books from the thirties they were cheap because hardly anyone wanted those either.

 

Waiting in line one year I remember someone pulled out a Batman 3 and was showing it off in line, no bag, no board, just a comic.

 

Pros were very accessible, no waiting in line. I even had Gil Kane come up to me and introduce himself one time as a professional artist. I found his autograph in another book this weekend.

 

The New York kids were scary looking to this Jersey suburban kid. This was the disco era and they were all done up with big dos, crazy shoes and clothes. They must have been Phil's kids working the show; when you got to the table to buy your ticket they were nice enough though.

 

The ballroom of the Commodore hotel was amazing. The hotel was in deep decline from its glory days but it still looked pretty cool. The main room had the big dealers and there was one or two side rooms where smaller dealers set up.

 

There wasn't a big industry presence; although JIm Warren was there in '74 and signed my program book (see above) when I helped him fold up some sheets he was using on his tables.

 

Fun times, those first shows are always the best with the thrill of something new you have found and at the time this was a very obscure hobby just beginning to grow.

[capt_comics]

come on guys ........more

 

 

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

OK, not to cast a downer but you always have the bad with the good. So I can't forget this one from one of those shows:

 

Trading a drop dead bone white pages NM unread (except by me carefully once) Fantastic Four #4 for a brittle Vacation Parade #1 because I was such a Barks fan and had to have that book.

 

Whenever I see a CGC 9.0 or above FF#4 I wonder if it is the one I traded.

 

Hard lesson learned! I still have the VP #1 as a reminder, looked at it this weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Yellow Kid]

Hey, you got the book you wanted so it was a good trade. I once thought I had all of the Uncle Scrooge comics in about 1957. Then a friend said he had one I didn't and it was called "Back to the Klondike." I had to have it. It was an early US I had never seen, and I was always obsessive-compulsive about complete runs. He wouldn't sell it or trade it, until I offered him so much in trade that he took it. We both went to bed happy.

There is hardly anything I am looking for these days, but if someone had one of the three items, I would trade or pay big to get them. I think this is when collecting is the most fun and you are getting an item that you would pay anything for knowing what a bad deal you were making.

Richard