Toughest Year for the Golden-Age? 0

[N e r V]

 

For a number of years I've heard dealers talk about "those tough 1950's DC books" when I asked about one from that period. It's no secret some of them are pretty difficult to chase down.

So I had lunch recently with a fellow collector and he happened to bring up that the toughest years for him with DC books (excluding the very early pre hero stuff) seemed to be around 1950 until about 1953 and that Timely's were the most difficult in the 1947 to 1950 period. 

Now he is collecting a lot of different genres with both companies and not just the superhero material not unlike myself so it could vary with anyone on what and how much they are collecting but I did have to agree a lot of tough books seem to exist in those time frames although I'm not sure if you could limit it to just those years.

 

So has anyone else noticed a  "tough year or years" for certain companies that stand out?

1933 to 1939 as a whole would seem difficult for most books. Anything else? 

Edited March 31, 2017 by N e r V

[comicjack]

Centaur for one never made to the good years for sales due to publishing in the depression. And the fact that they went out of business just as the war effort kicked in and sales spiked due to readership .

[OtherEric]

The period of several months in late '43- early '44 when a lot of books were briefly 60 pages on the way from 68 to 52.  It seems like not only are the books scarce as companies start to deal with paper rationing, the weird way a lot of them had half-wraps and one staple make them a pain to find complete, much less in any sort of condition.

[fett]

Charlton was based in Derby, Connecticut and had to endure a couple of floods during the later part of 1955. Supposedly alot of comics in the factory were destroyed. I know I have had alot of trouble finding some titles dated late 1955-early 1957.

[gino2paulus2]

I've posted before but I believe from my personal research that the late 41' early 42' Fox hero books are particularly rare (at least in the marketplace and the census) which is one particular reason these upcoming auctions will be so fun to watch for me!! 

[comicjack]

4 minutes ago, gino2paulus2 said:

I've posted before but I believe from my personal research that the late 41' early 42' Fox hero books are particularly rare (at least in the marketplace and the census) which is one particular reason these upcoming auctions will be so fun to watch for me!! 

Are we just watching 

[gino2paulus2]

50 minutes ago, comicjack said:

Are we just watching 

That's actually a GREAT question that i haven't even answered myself honestly!! I may go after a thing or two ?

[Sqeggs]

3 hours ago, gino2paulus2 said:

3 hours ago, comicjack said:

Are we just watching 

That's actually a GREAT question that i haven't even answered myself honestly!! I may go after a thing or two ?

or three ... or 12! 

[gino2paulus2]

54 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

or three ... or 12! 

 

[Electricmastro]

On 3/31/2017 at 8:37 PM, comicjack said:

Centaur for one never made to the good years for sales due to publishing in the depression. And the fact that they went out of business just as the war effort kicked in and sales spiked due to readership .

Yeah, many companies had gone defunct around 1955, yet Centaur went defunct in 1942. I guess Amazing-Man, the Arrow, Fantom of the Fair, and the others wasn’t enough.

[lou_fine]

On 3/31/2017 at 3:46 PM, N e r V said:

So has anyone else noticed a  "tough year or years" for certain companies that stand out?

1933 to 1939 as a whole would seem difficult for most books.

Well, I was going to say 1935 except that I have 2 of the very early DC pre-hero books from that year. 

So, I guess I would have to say 1936 since I have only 1 of the pre-hero DC's for that year   and that's also the year the pre-Centaur books   started up.  

Edited January 26, 2020 by lou_fine

[catman76]

I am not sure why, but almost all 1945-48 Fox Features funny animal comics are very hard to find with most being near impossible. Maybe they just didn't print many and didn't distribute them widely. Funny animal comics were hugely popular at that time too and almost all other publishers titles are pretty common and easy to find. I have no idea if it's similar for their other non funny animal titles of the same time period. Might just be all Fox comics of that 1945-48 period are scarce.

[sagii]

...I agree about Fox Features Funny Animal 45-48 period being extremely scarce to rare. Since my hunt for this one, in the time before when i was looking for it, and the time since i obtained this one years ago, it's the only copy i have come across. 

Also i find Harvey Comics (particularly from '42 with the 'film strip' side bars) to be extremely tough.