Pre- Hero Marvels!!!! 16 16

[Mucheee1]

[Frisco Larson]

On 7/20/2023 at 8:09 PM, bc said:

I think they killed it to focus on the Big 4 (JIM, ST, TTA & TOS) during the time IND supposedly limited them to 8 titles per month.

-bc

I'm not sure why the "supposedly" is in there pal, as from December of 1957 to September of 1960, they only put out 8 titles per month. That's an awful long time to release that exact amount, no more, no less if there wasn't any reason for it. After that point, they were more sporadic about the number of titles per month, which I suspect came from asking for some flexibility from the distributor, but I have no way to substantiate that. However, it DOES make sense. What also makes sense to me is that Stan's memory about every minute detail was likely faulty. There's no way that he or anyone else could've predicted that any of that stuff would mean anything in the future! 

  I see that they killed off World of Fantasy the same month they killed off Strange Worlds. I guess I never noticed that before. It would be a few years before they'd add Amazing Adventures to the roster, so yeah, you're probably right in that they likely did it to conform to the restriction. Interesting stuff of which we'll likely never know more than we already do about it. 

  Oh, and just so it's clear, this isn't intended to be confrontational, I'm merely wondering why you're skeptical about the 8 titles per month when it's been said several times in interviews and such.  

Edited July 21, 2023 by Frisco Larson

[bc]

On 7/20/2023 at 10:40 PM, Frisco Larson said:

I'm not sure why the "supposedly" is in there pal, as from December of 1957 to September of 1960, they only put out 8 titles per month. That's an awful long time to release that exact amount, no more, no less if there wasn't any reason for it. After that point, they were more sporadic about the number of titles per month, which I suspect came from asking for some flexibility from the distributor, but I have no way to substantiate that. However, it DOES make sense. What also makes sense to me is that Stan's memory about every minute detail was likely faulty. There's no way that he or anyone else could've predicted that any of that stuff would mean anything in the future! 

  I see that they killed off World of Fantasy the same month they killed off Strange Worlds. I guess I never noticed that before. It would be a few years before they'd add Amazing Adventures to the roster, so yeah, you're probably right in that they likely did it to conform to the restriction. Interesting stuff of which we'll likely never know more than we already do about it. 

  Oh, and just so it's clear, this isn't intended to be confrontational, I'm merely wondering why you're skeptical about the 8 titles per month when it's been said several times in interviews and such.  

I don't doubt that this is accurate; however, my premise is that business contracts get altered over time and are never perpetual.

When the Implosion happened in 1957, Atlas was a financial risk and IND would know that. So they likely crafted a contract to minimize the financial risk to IND which limited Atlas to the legendary 8 titles a month.

I have to assume that Atlas paid their bills on time to IND or the contract would have been terminated. 

So a few years later, it's time to renegotiate the contract. Atlas has been a "good customer" (they paid the bills on time) so IND would likely allow them to publish more than 8 titles (which we see happening from 1960-1963 where we sometimes see 11 titles a month coming out).

Fast forward a few more years, Atlas/Marvel is still a good customer and the contract is amended yet again to allow even more titles a month which we see happening starting in 1965 (and Marvel starts pumping out their first reprint titles). 

Then Marvel changes distributors in '68 and the number of titles per month explodes.

If I was IND and a "good customer" was paying on-time and growing, why wouldn't I want to increase my revenue as well? 

I've done extensive search for the IND/Atlas contract, but have never found it.

In summary, I believe that Atlas did have an initial limit of 8 titles per month but that was likely increased as they proved to be a reliable customer to IND.

-bc

[Frisco Larson]

On 7/21/2023 at 8:50 AM, bc said:

I don't doubt that this is accurate; however, my premise is that business contracts get altered over time and are never perpetual.

When the Implosion happened in 1957, Atlas was a financial risk and IND would know that. So they likely crafted a contract to minimize the financial risk to IND which limited Atlas to the legendary 8 titles a month.

I have to assume that Atlas paid their bills on time to IND or the contract would have been terminated. 

So a few years later, it's time to renegotiate the contract. Atlas has been a "good customer" (they paid the bills on time) so IND would likely allow them to publish more than 8 titles (which we see happening from 1960-1963 where we sometimes see 11 titles a month coming out).

Fast forward a few more years, Atlas/Marvel is still a good customer and the contract is amended yet again to allow even more titles a month which we see happening starting in 1965 (and Marvel starts pumping out their first reprint titles). 

Then Marvel changes distributors in '68 and the number of titles per month explodes.

If I was IND and a "good customer" was paying on-time and growing, why wouldn't I want to increase my revenue as well? 

I've done extensive search for the IND/Atlas contract, but have never found it.

In summary, I believe that Atlas did have an initial limit of 8 titles per month but that was likely increased as they proved to be a reliable customer to IND.

-bc

I agree with all of this!     

[Frisco Larson]

Just curious @bc and any others for that matter, of the sub-genres contained within our PHM realm, do you have a favorite? It was the monsters that originally drew me in, but I find myself enjoying the sci-fi quite a bit, as well as the Egyptian/Mummy covers too!! There's a lot here: Aliens, robots, and I also enjoy that the ghost theme (as well as the occasional monster) migrated to the western line as well. 

[KirbyJack]

Me likey the big monsters.

[Sweet Lou 14]

Is there an exact month in 1968 when the "explosion" happened?  I would be inclined to assume it's April (Iron Man & Subby #1) or May (Iron Man #1, Subby #1, Captain Marvel #1) but I'm curious if there's more info on this.

[bc]

On 7/21/2023 at 12:44 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

Is there an exact month in 1968 when the "explosion" happened?  I would be inclined to assume it's April (Iron Man & Subby #1) or May (Iron Man #1, Subby #1, Captain Marvel #1) but I'm curious if there's more info on this.

Marvel’s comic book distribution would switch to the Perfect Film owned Curtis Circulation with the distributor logo changing from IND to CC in 1968. At this point, Marvel could print as many comics as Marvel wanted in 1969 paving the way for the 1970s.

So, when the IND. is changed to the CC logo would be the start of the Explosion. I'm at work so I can't dig into the GCD to see exact issues number for each title when this happened. May use some "Guinness Time" this weekend to figure that out.

Here's when the change happened for Captain Marvel...

-bc

[Frisco Larson]

On 7/21/2023 at 10:39 AM, KirbyJack said:

Me likey the big monsters.

They're absolutely what drew me to that era of Marvel Comics!!! Of course, mostly Kirby and a few Ditko covers didn't hurt the situation either!  

[bc]

On 7/21/2023 at 11:12 AM, Frisco Larson said:

Just curious @bc and any others for that matter, of the sub-genres contained within our PHM realm, do you have a favorite? It was the monsters that originally drew me in, but I find myself enjoying the sci-fi quite a bit, as well as the Egyptian/Mummy covers too!! There's a lot here: Aliens, robots, and I also enjoy that the ghost theme (as well as the occasional monster) migrated to the western line as well. 

What Drew Me to the Pre-Hero Marvel Era

Mr. Larson's Sixth Grade History Class, Room 29590

-an essay in four-part harmony by bc

 

By the mid-90’s I had accumulated a near complete collection of my favorite Marvel SA superhero titles. I loved the hunt back then - hitting garage/estate/yard sales, local cons, flea markets, the LCS, the randomness of mail-order, finding someone at school into comics and more. Sure you all experienced that as well. I was proud to have completed runs because it took patience, effort & money and often some luck.

Then along came eBay and after the initial freak-out period, I realized that I was basically gathering and wasn’t hunting anymore.

So, I sat on the sidelines for a few years until I turned back to the 22^nd OSPG from 1992. It featured an extensive section on the Atlas Implosion and rise of the PHM era. I read it over and over, even made Excel spreadsheets detailing timelines and events. I still use the base of that in posts I make here. The more I read, the more I wanted to learn because even back then, it seemed like a semi-miraculous event to bring the right talent at the right time to the right market and have it become part of Pop Culture that was so ingrained into my childhood and teenage years.

Think about it - Atlas was basically dead, key people were let go or left on their own (or died), they had a highly restrictive distribution deal that was wholly owned by one of their direct competitors and no real ideas that had management support. Then suddenly Jack shows up, Stan lets he and Steve create while he promotes and interacts with fans, they develop a new way to tell relatable stories and launch the Marvel Universe that hooked me in the first place. All in a fairly short time span.

In 2004 I made the decision to build a complete PHM collection. I decided not to use the internet and that ‘ole hunting rush kicked right back in – it was tough to find these books in any condition even at larger shows. I was happy to complete mini-runs and flesh out the collection.

That changed in 2009. I was only about 50% of the way done and had drained the inventory from all the regional dealers who hit the local cons. I had to expand my hunting grounds. But to keep it challenging, I decided to only buy 8.0 or higher books. Even back then, there were PHM books that didn’t have anything higher than 7.5 in the census.

Became a regular sniper at Clink, CC, HA and very occasionally eBay and by 2019 the collection was completed with many dupes/under copies. Did a few upgrades since then but nothing really serious since I decided to start a business right as COVID hit  

So, it’s not really about a particular type in this genre, it’s the place in comics history where this genesis occurred that drew me in. The reinvention from the 5-page stand-alone story to the book length sagas, the artistic style of the sci-fi & monster stories bleeding into those early superhero books, ideas from the ‘50’s sci-fi movies I watched as a kid on Super Host (mutants, monsters, radiation, aliens, cold war, robots, etc.) presented in a modern context and style that attracted a rabid fan base; it all fascinated me back then and drives my research to this day.

-bc

[Mucheee1]

On 7/21/2023 at 5:22 PM, bc said:

What Drew Me to the Pre-Hero Marvel Era

Mr. Larson's Sixth Grade History Class, Room 29590

-an essay in four-part harmony by bc

 

By the mid-90’s I had accumulated a near complete collection of my favorite Marvel SA superhero titles. I loved the hunt back then - hitting garage/estate/yard sales, local cons, flea markets, the LCS, the randomness of mail-order, finding someone at school into comics and more. Sure you all experienced that as well. I was proud to have completed runs because it took patience, effort & money and often some luck.

Then along came eBay and after the initial freak-out period, I realized that I was basically gathering and wasn’t hunting anymore.

So, I sat on the sidelines for a few years until I turned back to the 22^nd OSPG from 1992. It featured an extensive section on the Atlas Implosion and rise of the PHM era. I read it over and over, even made Excel spreadsheets detailing timelines and events. I still use the base of that in posts I make here. The more I read, the more I wanted to learn because even back then, it seemed like a semi-miraculous event to bring the right talent at the right time to the right market and have it become part of Pop Culture that was so ingrained into my childhood and teenage years.

Think about it - Atlas was basically dead, key people were let go or left on their own (or died), they had a highly restrictive distribution deal that was wholly owned by one of their direct competitors and no real ideas that had management support. Then suddenly Jack shows up, Stan lets he and Steve create while he promotes and interacts with fans, they develop a new way to tell relatable stories and launch the Marvel Universe that hooked me in the first place. All in a fairly short time span.

In 2004 I made the decision to build a complete PHM collection. I decided not to use the internet and that ‘ole hunting rush kicked right back in – it was tough to find these books in any condition even at larger shows. I was happy to complete mini-runs and flesh out the collection.

That changed in 2009. I was only about 50% of the way done and had drained the inventory from all the regional dealers who hit the local cons. I had to expand my hunting grounds. But to keep it challenging, I decided to only buy 8.0 or higher books. Even back then, there were PHM books that didn’t have anything higher than 7.5 in the census.

Became a regular sniper at Clink, CC, HA and very occasionally eBay and by 2019 the collection was completed with many dupes/under copies. Did a few upgrades since then but nothing really serious since I decided to start a business right as COVID hit  

So, it’s not really about a particular type in this genre, it’s the place in comics history where this genesis occurred that drew me in. The reinvention from the 5-page stand-alone story to the book length sagas, the artistic style of the sci-fi & monster stories bleeding into those early superhero books, ideas from the ‘50’s sci-fi movies I watched as a kid on Super Host (mutants, monsters, radiation, aliens, cold war, robots, etc.) presented in a modern context and style that attracted a rabid fan base; it all fascinated me back then and drives my research to this day.

-bc

Awesome read.

So what was your first PHM acquisition, and what was the last one that finished your collection?

[Frisco Larson]

On 7/21/2023 at 5:22 PM, bc said:

What Drew Me to the Pre-Hero Marvel Era

Mr. Larson's Sixth Grade History Class, Room 29590

-an essay in four-part harmony by bc

 

By the mid-90’s I had accumulated a near complete collection of my favorite Marvel SA superhero titles. I loved the hunt back then - hitting garage/estate/yard sales, local cons, flea markets, the LCS, the randomness of mail-order, finding someone at school into comics and more. Sure you all experienced that as well. I was proud to have completed runs because it took patience, effort & money and often some luck.

Then along came eBay and after the initial freak-out period, I realized that I was basically gathering and wasn’t hunting anymore.

So, I sat on the sidelines for a few years until I turned back to the 22^nd OSPG from 1992. It featured an extensive section on the Atlas Implosion and rise of the PHM era. I read it over and over, even made Excel spreadsheets detailing timelines and events. I still use the base of that in posts I make here. The more I read, the more I wanted to learn because even back then, it seemed like a semi-miraculous event to bring the right talent at the right time to the right market and have it become part of Pop Culture that was so ingrained into my childhood and teenage years.

Think about it - Atlas was basically dead, key people were let go or left on their own (or died), they had a highly restrictive distribution deal that was wholly owned by one of their direct competitors and no real ideas that had management support. Then suddenly Jack shows up, Stan lets he and Steve create while he promotes and interacts with fans, they develop a new way to tell relatable stories and launch the Marvel Universe that hooked me in the first place. All in a fairly short time span.

In 2004 I made the decision to build a complete PHM collection. I decided not to use the internet and that ‘ole hunting rush kicked right back in – it was tough to find these books in any condition even at larger shows. I was happy to complete mini-runs and flesh out the collection.

That changed in 2009. I was only about 50% of the way done and had drained the inventory from all the regional dealers who hit the local cons. I had to expand my hunting grounds. But to keep it challenging, I decided to only buy 8.0 or higher books. Even back then, there were PHM books that didn’t have anything higher than 7.5 in the census.

Became a regular sniper at Clink, CC, HA and very occasionally eBay and by 2019 the collection was completed with many dupes/under copies. Did a few upgrades since then but nothing really serious since I decided to start a business right as COVID hit  

So, it’s not really about a particular type in this genre, it’s the place in comics history where this genesis occurred that drew me in. The reinvention from the 5-page stand-alone story to the book length sagas, the artistic style of the sci-fi & monster stories bleeding into those early superhero books, ideas from the ‘50’s sci-fi movies I watched as a kid on Super Host (mutants, monsters, radiation, aliens, cold war, robots, etc.) presented in a modern context and style that attracted a rabid fan base; it all fascinated me back then and drives my research to this day.

-bc

This was a fun read @bc!!! I didn't know your history and didn't know you took a break for a few years! I'm glad you got back on your horse and kept going!!! 

[bc]

On 7/21/2023 at 6:49 PM, Mucheee1 said:

Awesome read.

So what was your first PHM acquisition, and what was the last one that finished your collection?

Great questions!

First was Amazing Adult Fantasy #11. Got it from Nelson Dodd at the Medina County Fairgrounds monthly flea market back in 1984. I had been buying runs of really sharp SA books from him for a few years when he showed me that book and gave me a little PHM history lesson that started my interest. I thought it was cool because it was before Spider-Man. Didn't know this back then, but Nelson brought the Ohio Collection to market and I might have bought some.

Last one was TTA 27, which I couldn't afford in 8.0, but a lower grade was in my price range. I bought a remainder copy (that I later found out was missing the centerfold) back in the late '80s for $1 at a used bookstore but wanted a complete slabbed copy. I know, I should have bought that first to save money, but it seemed to be more common than say a Strange Worlds #5 in 8.5.

-bc

[Sweet Lou 14]

Thanks so much @bc for sharing that story!

I'm fascinated by your statement that buying online felt like "gathering" not "hunting."  I've had a very different experience in that regard.

When I first started collecting what I then called "back issues," it was all about fishing through the bins at my local comic shop (and every local comic shop within a reasonable driving radius).  I had been collecting (and carefully preserving) new comics from the store starting in 1992 or so, and I was working my way backwards into the 1980s and 1970s on all the mainstream Marvel super-hero titles while still buying all the new books every week.  It was a real treat to visit a store I hadn't been to in a few months because it was a hike to get there, and a visceral thrill to find myself somewhere away from home where I could look for comics in an entirely new place.

In 1998 I got a big bonus check from work (I think it was $10,000, about $6,500 or so after taxes were taken out) and right around that time, the local comics chain (New England Comics) announced they were putting a big Silver Age collection up for sale on Thursday but if you drove to their HQ on Wednesday night, you could head down to the basement and buy books before they went up for sale in the stores.  I got in my car, drove a couple of hours through rush hour traffic, and plopped down a total of $1,883 in cash on a gigantic pile of raw books that, until that point, I thought I would never ever own.  (I mistakenly thought they were much more scarce than they actually were, but that's OK -- I was in heaven.)  I remember that FF #12 and #48 were both in that pile -- years later, they would grade out to CGC 6.5 and 7.5, respectively -- the proceeds from those two books alone ended up exceeding $3,000.  There was an ASM #129 that eventually got graded a 9.0, and a Hulk #102 that eventually got a 9.2.  But most of the books were TOS and TTA -- I distinctly remember being out of my mind that I was actually holding a copy of TOS #59 which I thought was one of the greatest covers ever.  (It got a 7.5.)

Anyway, that is how I got completely hooked on the Silver Age, which before that point felt completely lost to the mists of time.  And that's when I started going to local shows, where I bought from all sorts of dudes (including Vinny Zurzolo when he was just Vincent's Collectibles!) -- but by far the most from two dealers whom I still consider good friends to this day, Bob Storms and Ted VanLiew.  I filled in runs as best I could, though I did not complete them at that time.  The really early stuff (pre-1964) was still mostly out of reach, and I was still making the mistake of "working backwards" instead of prioritizing the big early books.  (Not that I had enough money then to really go after the big keys.)

Looking back through the lens of my grading standards today, the truth is that I was buying books raw and I was also a bit desperate to fill in the runs so that I could actually read the books -- so, while I was trying really hard to find books in what I then considered "high grade," I often broke down and settled for a book with obvious defects.  I got good at rationalizing (i.e. lying to myself) that a book was in better shape than it really was.  But that's not meant in any way to diminish the fact that I was loving every minute of the hunt.

I took a years-long break from comic collecting because I was putting tons of money into my house and other things -- started slowing down toward the end of 2009 and bought only a handful of big-ticket books in 2010 and 2011 before stopping cold.  In those last few years I was doing that thing (I think some people still do this!!) where you buy CGC graded books and crack them out of the case to store them raw.  Seems insane now, but that's what seemed right at the time.  I was definitely a slow adopter of slabbing for sure.

When I completely rebooted my collection in 2017, I got tons of books slabbed (with Bob's help) and set a minimum grade that I ultimately wanted to get every Marvel book in.  To my dismay, most of the raw books I got back did not meet the desired criteria, so the mission became upgrading (and filling in the many holes).  By this time, Boston was no longer a big draw for most of the dealers who were likely to have CGC graded books in the grades I was looking for -- Ted is local to me, but he never went all-in on slabbed books, and Bob was the only really strong dealer who sometimes made the trip.  Besides, these guys all had web sites (some of which I'd built myself -- that's a story for another time) and I found that searching online was the best way to find what I was looking for.  Sometimes that meant negotiating deals with well-known dealers or perfect strangers, and sometimes that meant going into battle at the auction houses, but either way I found that I was enjoying this new version of the "hunt" quite a bit.

Over the last six years I've filled in all the holes in my Silver Age Marvel collection, though there are still plenty of upgrades to get to where I really want to be.  But somewhere along the way, I got drawn to the monster books.  My first memory of wanting to own a PHM book is when I saw the cover of TOS #15 (GOOM!) and then TOS #17 (GOOGAM, SON OF GOOM!) ... and I thought to myself, I have to have these.  They were simultaneously hilarious, ridiculous, and adorable.  I remember reading notes in the Overstreet guide like "Hulk Prototype" (JIM #66 is still my wife's favorite cover -- "he's so cute!") and just being fascinated that within these books could be found little seeds of what was to come.  So sure enough, I bought a 5.0 of JIM #66 and a 6.0 of TOS #15 in late 2017, and before I knew it I was trying to fill in all of the PHM era of JIM and ST plus TOS and TTA.  And eventually, because I couldn't stop myself, I decided to go back to ST #1 and JIM #1 and grab some other titles like AA, WOF, WOM ... even Black Knight and Yellow Claw.  And I was (am) having a ton of fun because some of these books are super tough to find, with crazy low census numbers in some cases.

Sorry for the super long post, but trust me I left a ton of details out!  Anyway the bottom line is that this hobby has given me a lot of joy over the years.

[bc]

On 7/21/2023 at 7:26 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

Thanks so much @bc for sharing that story!

I'm fascinated by your statement that buying online felt like "gathering" not "hunting."  I've had a very different experience in that regard.

When I first started collecting what I then called "back issues," it was all about fishing through the bins at my local comic shop (and every local comic shop within a reasonable driving radius).  I had been collecting (and carefully preserving) new comics from the store starting in 1992 or so, and I was working my way backwards into the 1980s and 1970s on all the mainstream Marvel super-hero titles while still buying all the new books every week.  It was a real treat to visit a store I hadn't been to in a few months because it was a hike to get there, and a visceral thrill to find myself somewhere away from home where I could look for comics in an entirely new place.

In 1998 I got a big bonus check from work (I think it was $10,000, about $6,500 or so after taxes were taken out) and right around that time, the local comics chain (New England Comics) announced they were putting a big Silver Age collection up for sale on Thursday but if you drove to their HQ on Wednesday night, you could head down to the basement and buy books before they went up for sale in the stores.  I got in my car, drove a couple of hours through rush hour traffic, and plopped down a total of $1,883 in cash on a gigantic pile of raw books that, until that point, I thought I would never ever own.  (I mistakenly thought they were much more scarce than they actually were, but that's OK -- I was in heaven.)  I remember that FF #12 and #48 were both in that pile -- years later, they would grade out to CGC 6.5 and 7.5, respectively -- the proceeds from those two books alone ended up exceeding $3,000.  There was an ASM #129 that eventually got graded a 9.0, and a Hulk #102 that eventually got a 9.2.  But most of the books were TOS and TTA -- I distinctly remember being out of my mind that I was actually holding a copy of TOS #59 which I thought was one of the greatest covers ever.  (It got a 7.5.)

Anyway, that is how I got completely hooked on the Silver Age, which before that point felt completely lost to the mists of time.  And that's when I started going to local shows, where I bought from all sorts of dudes (including Vinny Zurzolo when he was just Vincent's Collectibles!) -- but by far the most from two dealers whom I still consider good friends to this day, Bob Storms and Ted VanLiew.  I filled in runs as best I could, though I did not complete them at that time.  The really early stuff (pre-1964) was still mostly out of reach, and I was still making the mistake of "working backwards" instead of prioritizing the big early books.  (Not that I had enough money then to really go after the big keys.)

Looking back through the lens of my grading standards today, the truth is that I was buying books raw and I was also a bit desperate to fill in the runs so that I could actually read the books -- so, while I was trying really hard to find books in what I then considered "high grade," I often broke down and settled for a book with obvious defects.  I got good at rationalizing (i.e. lying to myself) that a book was in better shape than it really was.  But that's not meant in any way to diminish the fact that I was loving every minute of the hunt.

I took a years-long break from comic collecting because I was putting tons of money into my house and other things -- started slowing down toward the end of 2009 and bought only a handful of big-ticket books in 2010 and 2011 before stopping cold.  In those last few years I was doing that thing (I think some people still do this!!) where you buy CGC graded books and crack them out of the case to store them raw.  Seems insane now, but that's what seemed right at the time.  I was definitely a slow adopter of slabbing for sure.

When I completely rebooted my collection in 2017, I got tons of books slabbed (with Bob's help) and set a minimum grade that I ultimately wanted to get every Marvel book in.  To my dismay, most of the raw books I got back did not meet the desired criteria, so the mission became upgrading (and filling in the many holes).  By this time, Boston was no longer a big draw for most of the dealers who were likely to have CGC graded books in the grades I was looking for -- Ted is local to me, but he never went all-in on slabbed books, and Bob was the only really strong dealer who sometimes made the trip.  Besides, these guys all had web sites (some of which I'd built myself -- that's a story for another time) and I found that searching online was the best way to find what I was looking for.  Sometimes that meant negotiating deals with well-known dealers or perfect strangers, and sometimes that meant going into battle at the auction houses, but either way I found that I was enjoying this new version of the "hunt" quite a bit.

Over the last six years I've filled in all the holes in my Silver Age Marvel collection, though there are still plenty of upgrades to get to where I really want to be.  But somewhere along the way, I got drawn to the monster books.  My first memory of wanting to own a PHM book is when I saw the cover of TOS #15 (GOOM!) and then TOS #17 (GOOGAM, SON OF GOOM!) ... and I thought to myself, I have to have these.  They were simultaneously hilarious, ridiculous, and adorable.  I remember reading notes in the Overstreet guide like "Hulk Prototype" (JIM #66 is still my wife's favorite cover -- "he's so cute!") and just being fascinated that within these books could be found little seeds of what was to come.  So sure enough, I bought a 5.0 of JIM #66 and a 6.0 of TOS #15 in late 2017, and before I knew it I was trying to fill in all of the PHM era of JIM and ST plus TOS and TTA.  And eventually, because I couldn't stop myself, I decided to go back to ST #1 and JIM #1 and grab some other titles like AA, WOF, WOM ... even Black Knight and Yellow Claw.  And I was (am) having a ton of fun because some of these books are super tough to find, with crazy low census numbers in some cases.

Sorry for the super long post, but trust me I left a ton of details out!  Anyway the bottom line is that this hobby has given me a lot of joy over the years.

This is almost turning into an AA meeting

There's so much that I want to reply to in your post and I think our journey's have been very, very similar.

I did the same thing with "settling" for books that I shouldn't have just to knock out a run, but it sounds like I started collecting a few years (or decades) before you which limited the local availability. I was a hunting junkie before the internet came along, I spent dozens of hours hitting garage sales on the weekends, often never to see a comic that I needed. But boy oh boy, when it rained it poured.

I can easily see how collecting the books with your requirements would still be hunting. Hell, of the entire PHM era, I've only curated a little more than 110 in 8.0 or better and I've been chipping away for almost 20 years based on what my budget allows! 

And joy is all we ask for 

-bc

 

[bc]

On 7/21/2023 at 7:26 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

 

@bc

all had web sites (some of which I'd built myself -- that's a story for another time)

Fellow IT Nerd !

-bc

[Kevin.J]

On 7/21/2023 at 12:32 AM, Frisco Larson said:

I've always thought this was a cool little run and wondered why it ended, you know, beyond the obvious conclusion that it may not have sold well. Any actual insight on the topic gang? What's not to love? Kirby back at the company, drawing cover duties! Ditko, Kirby, Powell & Heck on the inside! Seems like a home run to me! 

Yep, totally agree, cool run, I have upgraded my rough looking #1 but I must not have scanned it before it disappeared into the oblivion of my rooms, found this one though and I know you always get a kick out of seeing these British books  

 

[Frisco Larson]

On 7/21/2023 at 7:12 PM, Kevin.J said:

Yep, totally agree, cool run, I have upgraded my rough looking #1 but I must not have scanned it before it disappeared into the oblivion of my rooms, found this one though and I know you always get a kick out of seeing these British books  

 

VERY cool Kevin, thanks for posting that!!! I've never seen that version before!!! Something new for my want list!!!  

[KirbyJack]

Unlike you two, I actively sought out low grade books. 
When I was at a con, I’d concentrate on big hero books first, and with the left over $30 or so, I’d find a PHM or three. They were always there, and always fun. 

[bc]

On 7/21/2023 at 9:21 PM, KirbyJack said:

Unlike you two, I actively sought out low grade books. 
When I was at a con, I’d concentrate on big hero books first, and with the left over $30 or so, I’d find a PHM or three. They were always there, and always fun. 

When I first started on my PHM quest, there was a pretty limited supply in the central Ohio area, so it was a lot of G-VG grade books.  I know I show the high grade copies, but actually have over 150 well-loved copies from my early collecting phase.

My first AF 15, IH 1 & TTA 27 were all remainder copies, but was more then ecstatic to have them.

-bc