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Were Has All The Passion For Comic Books Gone

Started by The Brain,

29 posts in this topic

The Brain

The Brain

Posted
Posted

Ok it's been a rough week here on the boards.8/6/04 may go done as "Black Friday", or the

 

day of "Ignore User". Ok I survived,nobody really got hurt,yes it got heated, yes people acted

 

like childern. Could it be better,Yes. But how? Show me the passion that keeps you on here.

 

Tell me(NO make that everyone reading here) what,why, when, where. how, it started.

 

I'm going to sit back and let this go were it will, but be real, be civil,bring me your love of comics.

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Comcasthawk

Comcasthawk

Posted
Posted

There is no "passion". It's about money now!! Imagine paying a third party to tell you about a book you bought!! What fools!!!! Ha,ha,ha,.......

 

 

Collecting comics is now another "Keeping up with the Jonses'" type thing.

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12c_Comic

12c_Comic

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Posted

The late eighty's was when I got "bitten" by the comic Arachnia.Old or new I would say yes I do still enjoy comics.The illustrated art from past to present artist has kept me on ie: Amazing Spider-man. Ditko through to todays Deodato.Also how the stories has changed from year to year.The money end of it does exist but its not the main reason why I'am here on this board.Everyone on this board holds alot of great wealth of knowledge on the past issue's and histroy on comic's.I'am a novice at best but learned alot on this board ie:grading,artist's works,proper handling and storing of comics and so on.I hope to be here for many years to come and hope to learn more.... thumbsup2.gif

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sborock

sborock

Posted
Posted
There is no "passion". It's about money now!! Imagine paying a third party to tell you about a book you bought!! What fools!!!! Ha,ha,ha,.......

 

 

Collecting comics is now another "Keeping up with the Jonses'" type thing.

 

JC-

I thought you were gone for a week. Having a shill name for a week is not leaving tongue.gifstooges.gif

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Calamerica

Calamerica

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Posted

It started for me when I was 10. My uncle handed me a worn copy of Tales of Suspense # 83 - it has IRON MAN on the cover slugging it out with Titanium Man over the Washington DC buildings - as was living in Maryland at the time I thought this was cool and decided to read it.

 

The second story had Captain America recovering from some plot of the Adaptoid but almost becoming a victim of the Tumbler.

 

I saw the page listing the other Mags for sale and asked the uncle if he had any more of these. He had the A. Spider-Man & Fantastic Four. He gave them to me.

 

So once a month I used to get ONE DOLLAR and for that $ I could get 8 titles and

the Sales Tax would work out to exactly $1.00. I did not realize how cheap of a form of Entertainment this was at the time.

 

One thing led to another and we started trading comics with each other in the neighborhood. I was the only one who tried to keep them in good shape. I don't know why that is to this day. My other childhood friends used and abused them, cut the logos, cut splash pages and hung them on their walls, etc. I refused to do any of this and they laughed at me. Poked fun at me in a good natured way. I guess if they were around today they would call me "picky-Cal" or something like that. I built up back issues from winning stupid side bets in baseball, football, whatever. I lost a few bets too, but never lost any of my "goodies". They had some meaning to me enough to never want to risk them. I risked the excess ones that I could afford to part with.

 

Comics cover price went from .12 cents to .15 cents. Believe it or not I had to eliminate 2 titles and the Sales Tax went up a tad.

 

A few years later a friend named Freddy Affelt told me about his father going over thos place on Edmonson Ave in the suburbs called Geppi's Comic World. One day they took me along, and with my Dollar I got my 6 titles. As a new first Customer, Mr. Geppi GAVE me three additional Titles upon hearing about my background. I never forgot that and it sems small, but at the time was a huge gesture of generosity during my rough childhood. So I became a regular customer of that LCS for many years.

 

So I was collecting comics pretty regularly up until I got married and moved to a different location. While moving I noticed that several of my comics were "missing" and the old notion of Mom & Dad's " these comics are not worth anything" just went right out the door. I knew that I was onto something when my Amazing Spider-Man run from 40 to 100 was stolen from me. I also remember the # 50 being bagged and boarded, my first one to be kept that way, from a mail order Seller named Robert Bell who sold me the bags and boards. That # 50 was in MINT condition and at the time was my prize.If I could have kept that comic today it would be around NM/MT+ 9.8 - maybe higher. NO ONE was allowed to touch my pet! Another section that was mysteriously missing was my Silver Surfer run. One or two others, but the damage was done - the Spideys and Surfer( and the FF # 48) was gone. This soured me on collecting for years.

 

So my first wife chided me and scolded me about trusting certain people. She was right - hard to trust people with anything of value. But I still did not understand the extent of what comic books would become. I pretty much sold most of them for next to nothing, not realizing what I had done.

 

I dabbled a bit here and there, managed to replace a few of the Spideys that were stolen from me, and life went on. The years rolled past.

 

X-Men craze took off, I am going to say around 1975 - 77 or whenever the X-Men # 94 was released. Many of my old friends would call me and just conversationally talking about this X-Men # 94. I was not impressed. I let this drop past me.

 

For many years I just did not participate at all in the comics hobby. I did not even know what a TPB was! I do recall getting that Super-man vs. Spider-Man giant book, but was not that enamoured with it. I either gaave it to a friend or lost it. Not even sure how I parted with that.

 

A relative took me to a swap meet in Gardena, CA. I had nothing to do so I went. It was getting warm, so I decided to sit in the shade and take a rare break from the workaholic ways that I have a s a habit. Then I saw this elderly lady open the truck doors, and she was struggling to carry the boxes out. They were ALL comic book. ALL Golden Age and Silver Age. I distinctly remember her saying that her son did not collect anything after 1970. Period. I asked her if I could help her - nothing in return. She said ok.

 

The first 10 or so boxes were DC and Golden Age comics - none of them seemed to stick out to me except a Roy Rogers # 1. Lots of Batman, Superman, Superboy, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, etc. I was still in brain-lame-mode. So a few hours went by, and I proceeded to watch her get around $3,000 and probably a lot more for these comic books. She seemed loathe to sell the entire small white boxes but for $500 she didwhen that opportunity presented itself. I am guessing those white boxes had around 150 comics each.

 

She kept telling customers that these boxes were all she had. Once they were gone, she asked me to bring out the NEXT 10 boxes. These had some Platinum Age comics, and the Marvel Superheroes I collected as a boy. And these were in better shape. A few of the same customers asked this lady, "hey, where were these when I was here the first time?' She had a prepared answer: " They were here in the truck - I was not sure I could sell them.". The ones who could conjure up more dough spent more. In less than an hour, they were all gone. She did have 3 copies of Spidey # 2 that were in great shape. She packed up her tables/stands, tried to pay me and my brother-in-law, and we refused. She thanked me and was sincere.

 

We left. About a month later I got this call from my sisters' husband that he made some "deal" with this same lady we met in Gardena, the Roduim Swap Meet. He wanted to know if I wanted in on the deal, to try to sell these on the computer. Like an insufficiently_thoughtful_person and committing without getting more information, I said yes.

 

He somehow proceeded to buy the rest of this lady's comics, magazines, and other things. I never recalled how he got her alone to make this deal, but nevertheless he was a smooth talker and could get any woman he wanted, was real good at getting big-profile jobs( but had a hard time keeping them), he was a cavalier, good-looking walk-the walk-talk-the-talk man and did not have a bad rep as far as I knew. He had been married to my sister for a while. Nothing remotely surfaced about his real background.

 

Once a month he had a booth at the swap meet, and I would go and help him. I was actually working for him. The first weekend he made about $12,000 selling just the comic books. Driving home I asked him what my pay was as it had never been discussed. He said that I could pick out ONE white box at his home in Riverside. I said that I wanted cash but he stared his spiel how he needed the money for this, yadda yadda yadda, so I relented and he bought me lunch, so I figured to keep the peace in the family just shut up and go along with this plan.

 

So when I got back to his house I asked him - :Which box is my payment?" in the tone the Forum Members would expect out of me. This shocked him, and he said I could have any TWO boxes I wanted. So I looked through them and picked Spidey and Tales Of Suspense - making sure my # 83 was there so I could re-read it after many years. Some of these are the copies that I have since sold on eBay.

 

Each weekend he had me learn all about eBay and list the comics. As new Sellers this did not do as well as we thought it would. So when he decided to tell me that he had no more comics to pay me with - I told him over a family dinner that he was on his own. He was shocked that I made this stance. He cried that he neede me to help him, yadda yadda, but I merely told him that I don't work for free. I went out on my own. He went to Costa Rica. The rest is history.

 

CAL

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tth2

tth2

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Posted

My Dad taught my sister and I how to read English using comics (GK Tarzans in the 190s, I managed to pick up some raw copies a few years ago and had a blast reliving those old stories). I've loved comics ever since. We mostly read Tarzans, Sad Sacks and Archies, which we purchased from spinner racks in the local PX (we were living on a US army base in Korea at the time).

 

Then one day at school one of my classmates showed me some Marvel comics. Wow!!! Superheroes! Where could these treasures be found?! So after school he took me to the Stars & Stripes Bookstore on base (a name any vet will be familiar with). (Amazing to think now of a couple of 6 year olds wandering around freely, truly those were simpler and safer times). I still can vividly remember my amazement at the huge display of Marvel and DC comics in there, and the wonderful smell of paper that hit you as you walked in. All those cool colors and pictures! Sensory overload! I only had a quarter with me, so I surveyed the treasures in front of me and purchased Captain America 149. I still have that issue today. I've been a collector since.

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rjpb

rjpb

Posted
Posted

a few random moments that I still recall from my youth.

 

circa 1965 Age 6 - Sitting in my Dad's 64 Dodge Dart reading a Sad Sack comic - this is the funniest thing I'd ever seen!

 

1969 - buying second hand copies of Captain America 111 & 113 for a nickel each - being blown away by Steranko - and WTF - Cap is dead?

 

1970 - The owner of the local soda shop let's me pick out any comic I want in return for running an errand - I pick out Conan #1 - cool!

 

1971 - Convinced my dad to drive me and a friend all the way (150 miles) to Cleveland for a comic convention - overwhelmed by the sheer volume of old comics - even then $15 doesn't go too far. I buy some Kirby X-men, Quality Blackhawks (hey, Golden age books for a quarter!) and a couple Atlas pre-code horror books among other things. Decide to get a paper route.

 

1971 - I'm at some hippy friends of my mom's - Head Comix - what's that? This R.Crumb guy is a genius. It's a good thing that the local head shop will sell undergrounds to a 12 year old.

 

1972 - Spend some paper route money buying 3 Timely's from a local dealer - A Captain America, a Sub-Mariner and an All-Winners- all from 1946 - all in pretty nice shape for the princely sum of $50. My friend doesn't understand why I would spend that kind of money on Golden Age - the stories suck. He spends the same amount on a Spiderman #1

 

1974 - After a year or more of waiting, the new Freak Brothers is out - get stoned with my friend and read it - this is the funniest thing I've ever seen!

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ultimatevenom

ultimatevenom

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Posted

1969 Jim Steranko Captain America 111 and 113.

Remember an underground comix with “Trash-Man", also Hearlod Head. Going to Comics & Comix In Bezerkely Ca. getting under-ground Comix hand delivered on Fridays in Walnut Creek (3 for a dollar) when they were selling a full run (then) of Conan 1-24, including the low print #3, Spider-Man, (a no code issue), a run of Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Denny O'Neil, Neil Adams.

Giving away (to score points with a girlfriend) X-Men 96-99,And Giant #1, (to her best girlfriend's brother, 10 at the time).

Showing my best friend this thing with boards, and bags, collecting is about regaining childhood lost, thanks for letting us have a place to share

 

 

BTW Brain, now that you know how to use italics you don't have to use them all of the time, it gets quite hard to read.

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