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Is DC 100-Page Super Spectacular 5 a key?

Started by Lazyboy,

Key: Yes or no?  

2 members have voted

  1. 1. Key: Yes or no?

    • 37248
    • 37246

85 posts in this topic

Jeffro.

Jeffro.

Posted
Posted
What's with all the haters? Why are you guys expending so much time and energy trying to make your point? Who cares if it's not a key to you,it's a key to others who collect that genre of comics.

 

There are no "haters". The guy asked if it's a key. It's not a key, it's hard to find in high grade. It used to be scarce but with the internet nothing is scarce anymore.

 

Did you miss the entire thread about this subject,oh yes there are haters. :eyeroll:

 

Who hates the haters eh?

 

People person_without_enough_empathy when nonsense threads are started in CG

People person_without_enough_empathy when comic related threads are started in CG

 

(shrug)

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greggy

greggy

Posted
Posted
What's with all the haters? Why are you guys expending so much time and energy trying to make your point? Who cares if it's not a key to you,it's a key to others who collect that genre of comics.

 

There are no "haters". The guy asked if it's a key. It's not a key, it's hard to find in high grade. It used to be scarce but with the internet nothing is scarce anymore.

 

Did you miss the entire thread about this subject,oh yes there are haters. :eyeroll:

 

Who hates the haters eh?

 

People person_without_enough_empathy when nonsense threads are started in CG

People person_without_enough_empathy when comic related threads are started in CG

 

(shrug)

:popcorn:
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oakman29

oakman29

Posted
Posted
What's with all the haters? Why are you guys expending so much time and energy trying to make your point? Who cares if it's not a key to you,it's a key to others who collect that genre of comics.

 

There are no "haters". The guy asked if it's a key. It's not a key, it's hard to find in high grade. It used to be scarce but with the internet nothing is scarce anymore.

 

Did you miss the entire thread about this subject,oh yes there are haters. :eyeroll:

 

Who hates the haters eh?

 

People person_without_enough_empathy when nonsense threads are started in CG

People person_without_enough_empathy when comic related threads are started in CG

 

(shrug)

:popcorn:

 

Finally a voice of reason..... hm

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Crimebuster

Crimebuster

Posted
Posted

All this is, is a veiled "what you collect is and what I collect is cool" argument.

 

If you read the other thread - which I can't actually recommend anyone doing, since it is ridiculous - you'll see that Lazyboy is arguing that, for example, Amazing Spider-Man #172 is more key than DC 100-Page Super Spectacular 5. Because Rocket Racer supposedly has "relevance" that DC 100-Page Super Spectacular 5 does not.

 

Relevance to whom, you may ask? Well, superhero collectors, obviously. :eyeroll:

 

Except, of course, even superhero collectors don't think Rocket Racer is actually relevant, because nobody gives a flying about him or that issue. As opposed to, say, all the romance collectors who are looking for copies of DC 100-Page Super Spectacular 5.

 

The romance genre is just completely different from the superhero genre. There were very few ongoing arcs or recurring characters. The whole superhero model of "first appearances" and "origins" and whatever just doesn't apply. Romance collectors have very different reasons than superhero collectors for valuing one book over another. What's relevant to a romance collector is just not the same sort of thing, and judging romance books - and romance collectors - from the viewpoint of a superhero collector is pointless.

 

"Relevance" isn't some inherent quality in a book. It's not something you add to the ink at the printer like Mark Gruenwald's blood. Relevance is conferred on a book by the collecting community. A book isn't key unless fans make it key. If nobody cares about a certain issue, guess what? It's not relevant and it's not key. And if fans do care, then it is relevant, which by Lazyboy's own formula would make it a key.

 

I find the whole argument against this to be flat out bizarre. The collecting community has always determined what is and isn't key, and they vote with their wallets. There are books that were once key but which you can now get for nothing, because they are no longer relevant to modern collectors. Then there are other books which were once of no value, but which now are considered key because modern collectors have new interest in them.

 

It doesn't really matter how we vote in this poll. The market says DC 100-Page Super Spectacular 5 is a key, because romance collectors have been voting with their wallets. It's relevant to them, even if it doesn't have the first appearance of Big Wheel in it.

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vane

vane

Posted
Posted

I don't think the book is a key. I think It falls in the "desirability" category.

 

 

WHO collected romance books in the 1970's and why???????????????????????????????

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vane

vane

Posted
Posted
I don't want to threadjack, but can someone quickly summarize what romance comic collectors do look for? Sexy covers? Overly trite covers?

 

I'm not a romance collector but the ones who does...Maybe they collect the books because they are difficult to get in high grade.

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kav

kav

Posted
Posted
I don't want to threadjack, but can someone quickly summarize what romance comic collectors do look for? Sexy covers? Overly trite covers?

KIRBY

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Crimebuster

Crimebuster

Posted
Posted
WHO collected romance books in the 1970's and why???????????????????????????????

 

Collected? Well, almost nobody. That's one reason all romance books are hard to find in high grade, not just this one.

 

Most romance readers were girls. Most of them were readers, not collectors per se. So unlike superhero books, which had devotees of Marvel in particular who took really good care of their books, most romance readers bought them, read them and then chucked them. And romance sales in the bronze age were much lower than superhero books, so there were far fewer copies to begin with.

 

 

I don't want to threadjack, but can someone quickly summarize what romance comic collectors do look for? Sexy covers? Overly trite covers?

 

I can't speak for all romance collectors, but the covers and interior artists are certainly an important factor. DC romance books in the Silver Age had some of the industry's top artists working on them. Before John Romita took over ASM from Ditko, he was drawing Young Romance for DC. Before Gene Colan took over drawing Daredevil and Iron Man in Tales of Suspense, he was drawing Girls' Romances. Jay Scott Pike had some amazing art as well.

 

Moving into the Bronze Age, Neal Adams and Nick Cardy had some fantastic covers for DC. The Neal Adams covers I think go for a little more than the normal romance books, partially because of crossover appeal with superhero collectors.

 

Overall, though, because the stories are so interchangeable and formulaic, I think a lot of romance collectors are completionists. Since the stories are more or less all the same, well, you need all of them. That's one reason books like DC 100-Page Super Spectacular 5 are key. Romance books are like pokemons. You have to collect them all, and that's pretty much the hardest one to get regardless of condition. High grade is just an extra factor of difficulty.

 

Personally, I would have it at number six on my own list of bronze age romance books, but that's my personal taste. The fact that the book is regularly on Overstreet's chart of top Bronze Age books shows that my opinion is not shared by the general collecting public.

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kav

kav

Posted
Posted

I'm going with it's a key. And I'd love to have a romance collection. There was a bunch of Harvey file copies I was bidding on but they all got out of my price bracket. I'm gonna get some Kirby TPB collections though just to enjoy the art/stories.

If a book is well known for something, and valuable, I think it's ok to classify it as a 'key'. It doesn't have to be first Wolverine sharpens claws or something.

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