Captain America Comics

[Hammerhead]

Hi all you Golden Age collectors full of knowledge,

 

I have never read ANY of the Golden age Cap comics. I was wondering if these are decent reads or not? I read modern comics still to this day and have basically been collecting since 1989 with a few years off in the horrible 90's "Aluminum age."

 

I enjoy reading silver age comics and always have so "campy" story telling does not bother me at all.

 

Also, is there any place on line where I can read the 1st issue? I know how the origin goes but would like to at least read the original story.....maybe own a copy one day! Yeah right, that is and will be always WAY out of my league.

 

Thanks in advance to any and all answers as well as any responses.

 

Eric -- HAMMERHEAD

[143ksk]

IMO Cap is by far the most readable of the big three Timely characters.

[RedFury]

The first 10 issues are by Simon and Kirby, so they're good reads. There is a slight drop-off in quality after they left, but it's still pretty good. After the war years, there's another drop-off in quality as the villains are no longer Nazis and Japanese, but gangsters and criminals.

 

There are 5 volumes so far of the Golden Age Captain America Masterworks, and volume 6 is due out on Dec 12. Each reprints 4 issues, so volume 6 will take your through issue 24.

 

There also 2 volume set from the 90s called Captain America: The Classic Years, which reprints the first 10 issues. It was printed in both hardcover and softcover versions.

[Cat-Man_America]

[font:Impact]Cap rules! [/font]

 

I'm not especially impressed with the Masterworks art and color reproduction for GA material (exception: the oversized Marvel Mystery Omnibus), but these are an excellent place to access reading copies of early Timely fare. (thumbs u

[podboy66]

IMO Cap is by far the most readable of the big three Timely characters.

 

Everett Sub-mariner stories??

[Hammerhead]

IMO Cap is by far the most readable of the big three Timely characters.

 

Everett Sub-mariner stories??

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about those!! I wanted to read them at one point too. Are they any good? Are there big collections reprinted?

[143ksk]

IMO Cap is by far the most readable of the big three Timely characters.

 

Everett Sub-mariner stories??

 

I love his art, but the stories are just not that great. (But they're better than the Human Torch...)

[Foxtrot70]

My 2cents. Cap and Marvel Mystery have the better Timely stories, although they do drop quality later in the run. I can't even read a Human Torch title cover to cover they are so bad. caveat - I like the art and covers - esp Schomburg (who doesn't?)

 

As was said the Marvel Masterworks have moderate to low quality repo on art, but given the cost and rarity of originals it is a no brainer to pick them up for readers.

[Scrooge]

So I am not the only one who can't read those Human Torch stories ... if you can call those stories

[Larryw7]

I actually like the later Captain America stuff, it has some of the spirit of the Atlas books of the fifties.

 

So I am not the only one who can't read those Human Torch stories ... if you can call those stories

 

I haven't read a lot of Torch stories, but I always liked the one that was reprinted in Jules Feiffer's Great Comic Book Heroes(the Torch versus the Hag).

[Cat-Man_America]

[font:Times New Roman]It's all good![/font]

[rjpb]

Timely had plenty of great splashes in the war years, and the stories have a crude charm in small doses, but they are pretty redundant and poorly written for the most part. The Simon & Kirby Cap stories are definitely better than most of Timely's output, and there is an interesting story here and there ( Cap battling the Red Skull in hell in Cap #74), but as much as I love the covers, Timley's are barely readable.

 

It's telling that DC mined their GA inventory far more intensively than Marvel in the early 70s when young collectors started showing a strong interest in the roots of both companies. I think the folks at Marvel new most of the stuff was third rate and would bore fans.