Cover me/I'm going in!!!

[Tri-Color Brian]

I like to roll up my GA books and hit ping pong balls with them...you can't roll a slab...

[rjpb]

You can't read slabbed books on the toilet.

 

Just sayin'.

[adamstrange]

You can't read slabbed books on the toilet.

 

Just sayin'.

Or in the shower

[gino2paulus2]

This is a great thread some very interesting and respectable points of view being thrown out there. My Ever growing but still small Golden Age collection is about 50/50 slabs/raw. I have cracked one but only bc it was graded by another company. I enjoy reading them but don't mind the archives or even the digital experience either. Obviously if I had to choose it would be an original copy all day and twice in Sunday. Still waiting on that arosal Cat I would buy that for sure my wife would probably kill me though bc our whole house would smell like an old funny book !

 

Now what I buy for my own personal collection has to meet certain criteria. Either a classic cover or one that I simply deem Classic in my eyes, have really cool splash pages, or simply the harder to locate books will all meet these standards. I do display my slabs which I rotate and I enjoy them everyday so I guess from this standpoint you could consider me a little of both the art/history collector and the reader. I still enjoy reading the other ages of books as well all the way to modern stuff. My main focus however is classic rarity covers and I prefer them low grade or well loved. I have found more joy hunting for and looking at these in my collecting years than ever!! I Enjoy the slab personally, I like the feeling that I'm always looking at wall books when I'm in my cave. it's what I enjoyed when I was little going to those Hotel shows and still enjoy when I make the occasional show nowadays!! I display mylar books as well but something about the uniformity of the slab is enticing to me. I believe if I had access to fortresses nowadays my books would probably be in those because I enjoy the look of them as well for display purposes you just can't find them anywhere and if you do they are cracked or the screws are stripped.

 

Everyone enjoys what they enjoy and I agree there is no right and no wrong when it comes to this so long as it makes you happy while you are doing it. Great stuff

[Cat-Man_America]

 

I think there are two distinctly different hobbies here...and maybe some of us are in-between.

 

Distinctly different hobbies? ... I'm not so sure about that.

 

Comics have always been about the art first. The scripting is important, but a secondary consideration (narration and dialogue provides a voice to give the visuals more personal connection with the reader, but it's the art that lures the collector). It's always been like that. Some folks collect comics for the covers, some folks like to read the stories while enjoying the interior art, some do both and then there are those who collect for other reasons altogether (nostalgia, etc.).

 

[...]

There are many "collectors" I've met who never read the stories. I don't think it's horrible, I just see them more as art collectors.

[...]

It's funny to hear someone else use that term since it is exactly how I enjoy my own high grade comics. Merriam-Webster defines objet d'art like this: "a small object that is valued because it is beautiful or interesting : an object that has artistic value". I have no desire to open or read a CGC 9.4-9.6 comic from the last half of the 1930s. But I like the feeling of seeing an beautiful high grade comic from that era, just like I like to visit art museums and view paintings and sculptures there.

 

Then there's an entirely different side of me that enjoys opening and reading nice, but lower grade, comics with interesting content, not necessarily of the same issues that I like to hunt in high grade.

 

I almost always hear collectors describing themselves as somewhere on a spectrum, but I feel more like I have two different interests. They don't overlap a whole lot and there is absolutely no conflict between them.

 

This is how I collect. I think Sharon is on the right track about folks collecting for different reasons, but I don't think it's that simple. Some of us have always been high grade collectors (it's in our DNA), but as responsible collectors with a passion for GA who want to see these treasures stick around after us, there is a logic behind acquiring books we have no intention of handling.

 

Slabbing provides the best means of collecting and preserving high grade comics. There are plenty of other sources available for reading interiors (low grade copies, downloads, archive editions, etc.). And if the pulp paper smell is missed by enough collectors, I'm sure some enterprising fan will make a fortune developing an aerosol spray that recreates the nostalgic atmosphere.

 

You had me until the last part Cat. Slabbing hasn't been around that long. Your high grade books survived decades in high grade before they were slabbed. I keep books slabbed I will likely sell. Whether they are high grade or not, if they are in my permanent collection they are raw. They will be just fine without a slab

 

Bill, for all intent and purpose I was completely out of comic collecting. Done! Finished! Kaput! Adios amigos!

 

After recovering several Mile High peds and a dozen or so other high grade books that were stolen back in the early 80's I started giving serious consideration to getting out of comics. Concerns about protecting valuable vintage comics and the fact that I'd always been a high grade guy (it's in my DNA) made me seriously rethink my priorities. So, when I moved to Texas I sold off my GA comic collection and focused on vintage SF pulps that I felt more comfortable handling given the reduced investment.

 

That was in the early 90's. The advent of slabbing in the late 90's is one of the key things that eventually coaxed me back into comics. Since diving back into my childhood passion I have acquired some raw books (mostly restored/conserved), but just about everything I collect are encapsulated high grades.

 

I'm not disagreeing with your passion for raw books, in fact I envy it, but handling high grade comics is something that I do infrequently. But of coarse I'll gladly handle any raw books you bring along in July because I'm a gentleman.

[Cat-Man_America]

Dear Cat,

 

I do not believe that story is secondary to art. The unique marriage is what makes a comic book a comic book. In the early 1950s when they sold a billion a year almost everyone in the country read them.

 

Yours, Pat

 

Pat, I understand your point and don't disagree with the observation that story is important or rather it can be important. OTOH, there are examples of almost dialogue free comics where illustrations tell the story without words. The whole concept of graphic novels and movie storyboarding relies on visual artistry.

 

In GA comics I do feel that the visuals were often superior to the story content though. Of course, everyone's mileage varies.

[Marty Mann]

It's difficult for me to comprehend that a 10 cent comic book that I selected off

a newsstand rack so many years ago...carted around and stored in cardboard

boxes for years can now be encapsulated and given a certification number that

will forever identify it...WOW!. who would ever have thought?

 

mm

[jimjum12]

Dear Cat,

 

I do not believe that story is secondary to art. The unique marriage is what makes a comic book a comic book. In the early 1950s when they sold a billion a year almost everyone in the country read them.

 

Yours, Pat

 

Pat, I understand your point and don't disagree with the observation that story is important or rather it can be important. OTOH, there are examples of almost dialogue free comics where illustrations tell the story without words. The whole concept of graphic novels and movie storyboarding relies on visual artistry.

 

In GA comics I do feel that the visuals were often superior to the story content though. Of course, everyone's mileage varies.

 

.....I wouldn't deslab any of your books....... many peds and highest graded examples. They're exactly the type of books that a permanent slab is needed for. I would still be agonized with temptation, however. GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[comixcroz]

Dear Cat,

 

I do not believe that story is secondary to art. The unique marriage is what makes a comic book a comic book. In the early 1950s when they sold a billion a year almost everyone in the country read them.

 

Yours, Pat

 

Pat, I understand your point and don't disagree with the observation that story is important or rather it can be important. OTOH, there are examples of almost dialogue free comics where illustrations tell the story without words. The whole concept of graphic novels and movie storyboarding relies on visual artistry.

 

In GA comics I do feel that the visuals were often superior to the story content though. Of course, everyone's mileage varies.

 

I see both points here. In my opinion, story is just as important as the art, but that line between story and art in comic books is often blurred. You are correct, many times the story can be found inside the art and a great artist can convey a deep story just in his pictures. Even so, that story is still being told, no matter the medium. Now if you are saying that "Dialog" is far less important than art in comics, that I can somewhat agree with. But Jack Kirby was definitely telling stories and without those stories, the art would be pretty boring imo. Additionally, some great artists rely on writers to provide that spark or inspiration and then can take it from there. But I think the story is a hugely important part of the comic book and what makes one successful or entertaining.

[fifties]

In my case, if a book doesn't have at least one good reading story, regardless of how well or poorly the artwork is, and unless the cover image by itself is reason enough to hang onto it, off to eBay it goes.

 

Good artwork, such as found in EC, National (DC), etc., I feel is a bonus to a well written story.