How old are Golden Age Collectors? 4 4

[KCOComics]

On 10/7/2021 at 11:04 AM, Robot Man said:

Back in the day most every GA and SA artist was alive and many went to shows. SDCC was one of the big shows and seems like everyone was there at one time or another.

I remember looking at the guest list and pulling out a couple books of artists I admired for signatures. They were usually in Artists Alley. I looked for the oldest guys with white hair and there was rarely much of a line. I remember looking for Irv Novak of MLJ game. I finally found him looking frail with an oxygen tube. So friendly and was so happy anybody remembered him. Sadly, time has claimed most of them.

Feldstien and Eisner were at many of them. Both incredible guys who always took time with their fans. I missed Alex Schomburg at his only SDCC. One of my top 5 favorites. 

I was looking forward to Alan Bellman at WonderCon in 2020. Sadly, he passed away about a month before the Con and a month later life went haywire and the Con was canceled anyway. 

Was the GA for comic cons. 

There really aren't allot of GA guys left. 

Romita Sr is still around and someone that I would love to meet... But I understand he's but doing shows anymore. We lost Heath, Ken Bald and Bellman all in the last few years. Russ Heath would have been really cool to meet. 

When the world settles down I do want to make it a point to meet Sterenko and Adams... They are still pretty active, and even though they feel like young whipper snappers compared to the guys were talking about, they are in their 80s and won't be seeing fans forever. 

[Robot Man]

Just off the top of my head, Angelo Torres, Ramona Fredon and Lille Rene. I’m sure they are a few others. Time marches on...

[Sqeggs]

On 9/30/2021 at 3:12 PM, Point Five said:

At this point, HA is sending me reminders to schedule my colonoscopies.

 

Now that made me laugh!

Wait, will they actually do that for me? 

[Sqeggs]

On 10/6/2021 at 1:37 PM, paqart said:

I'm 55. All of my GA comics are Barks ducks. Although I grew up in the 1970's, I collected GA back then. I also had a much better collection then than now. I once was the proud owner of Batman #2, Wonder Woman #2, Action 25, Sub-Mariner #2, Comics Cavalcade #3, World's Finest #2, Many ECs and Barks ducks, including US #1 and Christmas on Bear Mountain, all in NM condition (the Barks, not the others), along with many Eisner/ Lou Fine, LB Cole comics like Spirit, Plastic Man, Uncle Sam, and others. Now, though I started with the goal of recreating my 1979 collection, I am buying modern newsstands for their high value to cost ratio. Hoping to sell those for enough profit to get some of the more valuable comics that are now out of reach financially.

Speculating in Moderns to buy GAs is a brilliant strategy. I hope you can manage to buy back some of the GA you once had. 

[Randall Dowling]

On 10/6/2021 at 9:06 PM, KCOComics said:

...it's kind of crazy to think of two kids treating those two comic books like comic books... sitting on the floor and reading them. 

When I was a kid in the 70s, we would routinely have comics scattered all around the bed in our rooms.  Just strewn about, didn't really matter how much the books were worth unless we considered it to be a "big" book, like Iron Man 1 or Fantastic Four 12 or something.  Otherwise, we just tried not to step on them until our moms got fed up and told us to clean our rooms.  So we'd clean up our comics, stack them up neatly and the whole process would begin again as we pulled books out to read.

Living on Long Island, we used to do something called "flipping".  Two of us would square off across from each other with a stack of our own comics, all comics flipped over so you couldn't see the front cover.  We'd flip a coin to see who went first and then whoever won would flip up the top comic on their stack and set it on the floor between us.  The other guy would do the same with his and place his book on top of the first.  Since we were all hardcore Marvel guys, all our books had the colored bar across the top of the book that said "Marvel Comics Group".  In the case of these two examples the first one is green and the second one is blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the colors don't match, it would be the first guy's turn to flip up his next book to see if he could get a match.  And so it would go, the pile in the middle growing taller and taller, until there was a match, like the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With two red banners, this was a match.  If you're friend had flipped up the last book, you had one chance to flip up your next book to see if you could get another match, like so:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At which point, he had a chance to flip up his top book and try to match again.  If he did, it would go back and forth until a match wasn't made.  Like so:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the blue didn't match the reds below, the other guy took the Avengers back and you collected all the books below as your prize.  Occasionally, the pile would get pretty big.  Like 50-60 comics high.  And occasionally, it got really tense when there 5 or 6 matches in a row.  It was nerve-racking flipping up that next book, praying for a match.  I lost a lot of great comics flipping with friends and my brother.  Won a few as well but the losses are what stand out.  

Edited October 8, 2021 by Randall Dowling
formatting

[N e r V]

On 10/7/2021 at 6:32 PM, KCOComics said:

I've read lots of accounts of Jack chain smoking in those days.  

Did you ever meet Cole? I never hear much about him doing shows. 

What was Schomburg like?

 

At first glance I thought you meant Jack Cole! 

Yeah, in person and some correspondence for the recreations stuff. I think he advertised the recreations if I remember correctly in the price guide and maybe the comic buyers guide or whatever at the time. He seemed to me a pretty savvy guy. Alex I think had family with him. Just don’t remember who. I do remember chatting about certain covers, etc. He did a lot of work so hard to pin people down with remembering stuff. He and Martin were together before the comics publishing so I was interested in that earlier period. If there was a type almost all the GA people I ever spoke with were very appreciative for the interest in their work, friendly but memories varied depending on topic and person. It’s to be expected with anyone at that age. Lee and Kirby both had Swiss cheese memories. Steranko has varied depending on the day you talked. Cole I seemed to remember as enjoying his newfound fame. Roy Thomas is the guy I’d love to sit in a room with because he had a lot of different information over the years. No idea what he’s like these days though. I wished I had way more time with Archie Goodwin and Mark Gruenwald. Both were knowledge fountains in a number of ways.

[N e r V]

Oh and the reason the post caught my attention about Jack Cole is because through other sources I did get to meet Hugh Hefner many years ago and briefly asked him about Jack Cole. Nothing but big props from him about Cole and indirectly confirmed to me at least the rumors about the why of his death are probably true

[comicnoir]

On 10/7/2021 at 9:41 PM, KCOComics said:

There really aren't allot of GA guys left. 

Romita Sr is still around and someone that I would love to meet... But I understand he's but doing shows anymore. We lost Heath, Ken Bald and Bellman all in the last few years. Russ Heath would have been really cool to meet. 

When the world settles down I do want to make it a point to meet Sterenko and Adams... They are still pretty active, and even though they feel like young whipper snappers compared to the guys were talking about, they are in their 80s and won't be seeing fans forever. 

Steranko and Adams are in their 70's. Jim was 20/21 years old when he was doing those amazing Shields. He'd already had a career as an escape artist/magician. The man is incredible.

[adamstrange]

On 10/7/2021 at 11:04 AM, Robot Man said:

Back in the day most every GA and SA artist was alive and many went to shows. SDCC was one of the big shows and seems like everyone was there at one time or another.

I remember looking at the guest list and pulling out a couple books of artists I admired for signatures. They were usually in Artists Alley. I looked for the oldest guys with white hair and there was rarely much of a line. I remember looking for Irv Novak of MLJ game. I finally found him looking frail with an oxygen tube. So friendly and was so happy anybody remembered him. Sadly, time has claimed most of them.

Feldstien and Eisner were at many of them. Both incredible guys who always took time with their fans. I missed Alex Schomburg at his only SDCC. One of my top 5 favorites. 

I was looking forward to Alan Bellman at WonderCon in 2020. Sadly, he passed away about a month before the Con and a month later life went haywire and the Con was canceled anyway. 

Was the GA for comic cons. 

We were part of the last generation of collectors that knew the first generation of Comic Book Artists.

[jimbo_7071]

On 10/7/2021 at 11:20 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

If for no other, Novak has left his imprint with this unforgettable cover

I guess it true what they say—"There's no disputing about tastes." To me, that's one of the most boring Pep covers. I'd much rather have a Pep 34.

[Terry JSA]

On 10/7/2021 at 9:44 PM, Robot Man said:

Just off the top of my head, Angelo Torres, Ramona Fredon and Lille Rene. I’m sure they are a few others. Time marches on...

Joe Giella is still around as well. Active and still attending conventions.

[adamstrange]

On 10/7/2021 at 9:44 PM, Robot Man said:

Just off the top of my head, Angelo Torres, Ramona Fredon and Lille Rene. I’m sure they are a few others. Time marches on...

For artists active prior WW II, I'm not sure there is anyone.  Of the above, only Rene was active prior to '45.

[Robot Man]

On 10/8/2021 at 2:17 AM, jimbo_7071 said:

I guess it true what they say—"There's no disputing about tastes." To me, that's one of the most boring Pep covers. I'd much rather have a Pep 34.

Yeah, I love #34 too. Sadly, never owned one. 

But given the two, I have to go with #20. I hate the word but this one fits “iconic” stature. It is such a stark, horrifying image. The heroes are really in the back drop. Must have been so striking on the newstand. 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 10/8/2021 at 4:17 AM, jimbo_7071 said:

I guess it true what they say—"There's no disputing about tastes." To me, that's one of the most boring Pep covers. I'd much rather have a Pep 34.

Ok I’ve gotta respond to that one. I, too, find the anatomy a little wrong, especially the guy on the left. What makes this a masterpiece, for me, is the bottom half. It’s Holocaust depiction is haunting 

[Robot Man]

On 10/8/2021 at 7:48 AM, adamstrange said:

For artists active prior WW II, I'm not sure there is anyone.  Of the above, only Rene was active prior to '45.

To spread the net a little, how about any pre-code artists? 

[buttock]

On 10/7/2021 at 10:21 PM, N e r V said:

Oh and the reason the post caught my attention about Jack Cole is because through other sources I did get to meet Hugh Hefner many years ago and briefly asked him about Jack Cole. Nothing but big props from him about Cole and indirectly confirmed to me at least the rumors about the why of his death are probably true

Can you clarify this?  I've always thought this was unknown.  

[adamstrange]

On 10/8/2021 at 10:56 AM, buttock said:

Can you clarify this?  I've always thought this was unknown.  

The best guess is that he was despondent over his wife having an affair.

[N e r V]

On 10/8/2021 at 7:56 AM, buttock said:

Can you clarify this?  I've always thought this was unknown.  

Yes more or less what Adam strange said. The point being the wife as the direct source as to why he killed himself. You could argue she never released her letter to protect him but since it was not a great marriage more likely it was the why I’m doing this because of you. Having friends that divorce I always question anyone who jumps right in with someone else. Divorce is stressful. Is that a rebound or is that part of the reason for divorcing? If it was a strong marriage prior a rebound might be expected but their marriage wasn’t that from Hefs and others accounts… 

[Ryan.]

Interesting. I just yesterday finished reading Fantagraphics Focus on Jack Cole, and was curious if there were any known motivations for his suicide. 

[N e r V]

I sent this privately to a boardie but for anyone interested here’s the letter that Hef got from Cole.

 

https://comicbookhistorians.com/jack-coles-suicide-note-to-hugh-hefner-1958/