30 in 30 - Day 20: The Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books

[Brandon Shepherd]

Some people are dedicated.

 

In 1989 and 1990, Ernst Gerber published two volumes of his Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books. These references have since become a staple in the libraries of dealers and collectors alike. Packed with 21,000 photographs of comic book covers from 1933 to the early 1960s, these volumes are a terrific source for discovering new titles. Ernst Gerber's quest to put this together was five years in the making, with the culmination of a life time of collecting and selling comics leading to this endeavor.

 

The photographs within are from various collections spread throughout the U.S. and Canada. During this five year long project, Gerber spent countless hours traveling to people's homes to photograph these four-color treasures. Many gracious collectors lent their valuable time in helping Gerber photograph their collections; some even trusted him enough to send their precious books to Gerber personally. Many such great photos are from the famed Edgar Church (Mile High) collection. The list of contributors is lengthy, what began in 1984 ended up costing Gerber $75,000 in film and camera equipment. Gerber also spent several days going through the Library of Congress archives, where he discovered only a small portion of comic books from 1933 to 1958 had been documented. Many comics that were listed from the 1940-50 era were also discovered to be nonexistent. Gerber also experienced many setbacks during his documentation of one of America's greatest mediums; a few trips he made resulted in overexposed film, requiring a few flights back to the source to be re-photographed.

 

Ernst Gerber was a man with a dream, like all of us, his interest in comics began as a child, and he eventually grew out of them but came back to them as an adult. Long before his photo-journals, Gerber made a significant contribution to the comic collecting community; he perfected the process of manufacturing and distributing the Mylar snug. With an educational background in engineering, Gerber set out to perfect this process. Through research, Gerber fond that the Library of Congress recommended the use of polyester film for the protection and preservation of rare documents. Gerber would spend four months developing the process of manufacturing Mylar sleeves. Advertised in the 1979 Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, Gerber began filling orders, resulting in a growing business venture with Bill Cole, the leader in bag distribution of the day. As the business grew to several employees, Gerber sold his portion of the business to Cole to pursue selling and auctioning comics full time.

 

The introduction in Volume One of the Photo-Journal Guide is filled with historical information and insights on collecting comic books. With a summary of grading, Gerber also gives us an Econ 101 lesson in the Relative Value Index, outlining supply and demand, comics survival rate and comic history, specifically how WWII paper rationing and comic purges in 1953-56 affected such supply. Gerber also gives a history on some of the famed Golden Age Pedigree collections, like Mile High, Larson and the San Francisco collection. There is also a section dedicated to preservation and storage, along with the famed Scarcity Index.

 

Ernst Gerber, with the help of his wife May hase made quite a contribution to the comic collecting industry. I admire his passion and dedication; the five years he spent putting the photo-journals together are impressive, especially considering this was before the tools available online today, for which we take for granted, were not yet available in the 1980s. Because of the hard work from this man, we have a wealth of knowledge at our disposal. Each time I look through the photo-journals I find something new, if you are passionate about comics and you do not currently have these guides, you're missing out.

 

Brandon

 

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[Garlanda]

In the days before the internet, these guides were worth their weight in gold (which is a lot, for those who haven't directly experienced these hefty tomes). Even still, the amount of concentrated comics knowledge (panelology?) in these make them worth hunting down. I believe there are four total, 1 & 2 for comics in general and 1 & 2 for Marvel specifically.

[Brandon Shepherd]

There are 4 volumes altogether, 2 are for Marvel specifically. I have the Marvel volumes, not quite as good as the first two but still worth having. The 2 Marvel volumes are also thinner, they really should have been combined to simply be volume 3.

[SW3D]

Awesome journal! I never new about Gerber, his dedication to comics, his invention of the Mylar sleeve, the Index, or his auctioneering.

 

I imagine these volumes are out-of-print.

 

How does one go about getting one?

 

SW3D

 

 

[Garlanda]

I have three of them, both Marvels and one of the previous. I found them at Wizard World Anaheim a few years ago, I think I paid $50 for the trio but I'm not sure. I regretted it a little as I was lugging them around for the next few hours. I see them occasionally at cons still, they're big enough to be easy to spot among other hardcovers.

 

mycomicshop has them all for sale, $35 each for the first two and $30 each for the two Marvels.

Photo Journal Guide to Comics at mycomicshop.com

 

There are also several sellers on Amazon listing them at a wide variety of prices.

 

There are a couple of other good "coffee-table" type books of classic covers, but none nearly as informative as the Gerber vols. For example:

 

 

 

[Timely]

The Gerber photo-journals were so indispensable back in the day that I used to bring them with me each year when I went to the San Diego comic-con (along with a copy of the Overstreet price guide... of course! ) .

[Brandon Shepherd]

Nice, speaking of nice, what a signature line!

[Timely]

Thanks! I believe you are the first to ever post a nice remark about it.