Was anyone here collecting Marvel in the 70's or 80's? 7 7

[KCode98]

I'm curious how collecting was back then. Luckily for me I feel like I grew up in the last good era to collect anything (mid 90's). After that the internet really spoiled collecting IMO. Before the internet you had to put in the work and physically go out and find your collectibles. It really made it that much more rewarding IMO. I remember weekly going to the magazine section of book stores or even grocery stores and looking through the comics.

But anyways, in the 90's it was pretty much all over and nothing really new happened. Even then we had Wizard magazines to give us heads up and all. But in the 70's or even 80's how was collecting? For example, in 1984 when the Spiderman alien suit came around or anything different did anyone know about it before or was it a huge "WOAH what's this?!" when you went to the comic stands?

[Doctor Dositheus]

There were preview mags and fanzines but they didn't have the reach of Wizard in the 90s. I started collecting in '76 and within a few years I was attending cons and picking up The Comics Journal for interviews and to find out who hates who. Dig in to some of the early fanzines. Marvel used to put out their own hype stuff too. You might want to collect some of these things.

Just wanted to add the first visual image of the symbiote suit came in a preview ad in such a publication. I'm sure somebody will be along soon to fill in the details.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Doctor Dositheus
additional info

[shadroch]

Marvel publized the mess out of it, changing the company logo and stationary in advance.  Store owners had to know about it months in advance so they could order properly. Even then, almost everyone under-ordered. 

[Bird]

I'll say that when I went to college in 1985 I made friends with people who happened to love comics as well. They got theirs from a student in a dorm room who had a dealer account. Or we would go to the Woodbridge Mall. Then by the time I graduated in 1989 New Brunswick NJ had Marple Comics. I recall Watchmen being huge, some Sandman talk, Valiant was big and speculated on, I remember Solar 10 on the racks...WTF?

I read Hulk in high school and McFarlane had heat, then ASM went twice a month to capitalize. I myself recall black suit for Spidey being cool and controversial but 300 wasn't a huge deal to me.

Dark Knight, Perez on WW, and then Image and away we go.

But yes, there was talk going on. letters pages and such. I wasn't into fanzines but I heard somehow. CBG was huge for me, where I learned pages could be purchased and creators met.

[speedcake]

That was before my time, but I do know there is a whole sub-genre of very cool comics related stuff to collect like the already mentioned journals, price guides, etc.

[Drummy]

I first encountered Marvel comics in the spring of 1976, when I went to a friend's house and got to read Hulk #199 and FF #172, which had interior art by Perez that blew me away.  My older brother told me that Marvel was the ONLY company to buy comics from, and he dabbled in it for a couple years.

Back then we had to go check our local drugstores or to the 7-11 regularly to see if new issues had come in, which they did about once a month.  I would buy anything that looked interesting from Marvel that had good interior art -- although I didn't know what it meant at the time, that meant the Buscema brothers, Perez, Starlin, Kane, Buckler, Byrne (was he that early?), Tuska, and others.  Since my brother loved the Avengers, I got to "collect" titles he didn't love, which led me to Champions, Defenders, MTU, MTIO, Hulk, FF, and Iron Man.  I have to admit, saving my .60 allowance every week to buy a comic for a quarter and maybe a candy bar was pretty sweet.  (And if I found enough change on the sidewalks walking around my neighborhood, I could get the trifecta -- a comic, a Slurpee, and a Summit candy bar!)

Dan

[joeypost]

70’s for me starting with Thor 210 and later iron man 83 and hulk 197. Before that I only read comics others brought for me so I read a lot of ore-code horror. 

[HarrisonJohn]

In the 80's I was lucky to have a comic store around the corner from my house. They were pretty good at changing out promo posters on the walls and throwing free promo stuff in your bag. I would buy Marvel Age to read about future books, so unless they were specifically keeping something secret, I knew what was coming most of the time. I don't remember any big surprises. 

Edited January 18, 2022 by HarrisonJohn

[Chaz G.]

@Muno42 

[g-man]

I remember the small shows in Boston at the 57 Park Plaza and also the Comic Buyers Guide where you send off a money order and hope for the best (never had an issue). 
I also recall the vault in Brighton MA and Million Year Picnic….also there was a store in downtown crossing where you had to show ID to buy DKR. The girl behind the counter looked like the lead singer of The Bangles. 
i was usually buying older ASMs and high grade bronze. The 80s were a great time to be collecting. $100 went a long way (at least it seemed that way).

Edited January 18, 2022 by g-man

[1950's war comics]

On 1/17/2022 at 7:15 PM, Drummy said:

I first encountered Marvel comics in the spring of 1976, when I went to a friend's house and got to read Hulk #199 and FF #172, which had interior art by Perez that blew me away.  My older brother told me that Marvel was the ONLY company to buy comics from, and he dabbled in it for a couple years.

Back then we had to go check our local drugstores or to the 7-11 regularly to see if new issues had come in, which they did about once a month.  I would buy anything that looked interesting from Marvel that had good interior art -- although I didn't know what it meant at the time, that meant the Buscema brothers, Perez, Starlin, Kane, Buckler, Byrne (was he that early?), Tuska, and others.  Since my brother loved the Avengers, I got to "collect" titles he didn't love, which led me to Champions, Defenders, MTU, MTIO, Hulk, FF, and Iron Man.  I have to admit, saving my .60 allowance every week to buy a comic for a quarter and maybe a candy bar was pretty sweet.  (And if I found enough change on the sidewalks walking around my neighborhood, I could get the trifecta -- a comic, a Slurpee, and a Summit candy bar!)

Dan

nothing beat a slurpee and a pack of ballcards or a comic !! i still have my slurpee cups

[Bird]

How about this? 1989/90 or so, I travel with a young lady to upstate NY where her friend goes to college. She took us over to her friends house (never travel with a hippie to a secondary location!) and we were partaking in herbal remedies when she said, oh, my roommate is into comics, he's in his room. I go in and mention comics and he asks what I read and I tell him and he snobs me hard, motions to his wall full of Wrightson and such (I only remember the Wrightson, was it my first time seeing the plates?), tells me what I read are children's comics and dismisses me.

I wish I took his stuff before I left.

(just kidding)

[universal soldier]

The best part of collecting in the 70's was hopping on my bike to go to the corner store and buying books of the spinner rack. I chose chasing girls over books in the early 80's but got back into it in 84. I discovered my first LCS at that point (That's Entertainment when it was on Chandler St. in Worcester, MA) where I had my first pull list and a place to talk comics. 

[KCode98]

So have you guys made away like a bandit in the night value wise!? I know even in the 90's before there was CGC or anything you could get Hulk 181 for $300-700, ASM 300 were $20 books, X-men 1 1963 could be found for just a few thousand. Being a kid I had no chance at the big ones but if I had a job and was still into it I would be a wealthy person today.

[shadroch]

On 1/17/2022 at 5:17 PM, HarrisonJohn said:

In the 80's I was lucky to have a comic store around the corner from my house. They were pretty good at changing out promo posters on the walls and throwing free promo stuff in your bag. I would buy Marvel Age to read about future books, so unless they were specifically keeping something secret, I knew what was coming most of the time. I don't remember any big surprises. 

Ned Leeds being killed was kept top secret until it was released. 

[Muno42]

I was not big on the fanzines, so sometimes a new book would show up and you gave it a quick flip and decided whether to give it a try or not. Word of mouth from friends was huge. I remember frantically snapping up New Teen Titans 1-5 to catch up. Hitting X-Men mid Hellfire Club storyline. Read my friend's copies of some of the earlier issues to get up to speed. Some were good (Moon Knight) and some were ...Team America.

[dupont2005]

Started collecting ASM and UXM in the late 80’s. Along with irregular purchases of other Marvel titles 

[NewWorldOrder]

I assumed most people here on the CGC boardies grew up in the 60/70/80's. 

Same as the OP I grew up mainly in the 90's, which IMO by far was worst era in history to be into comics.  So we differ on that opinion.

Besides Jim Lee X-Men, TMc Spider-man, Pre-Unity Valiant, and some DC Vertigo to end out the 90's as a whole the 90's for comics should all burned away in fires. 

[KCode98]

On 1/17/2022 at 8:40 PM, NewWorldOrder said:

Same as the OP I grew up mainly in the 90's, which IMO by far was worst era in history to be into comics.  So we differ on that opinion.

 

Oh come on, explain why. We had the X-Men and Spiderman TV series on weekly. Great cover art and was the last era of true paper pages comics. It was glorious!

[Bird]

On 1/17/2022 at 8:16 PM, shadroch said:

Ned Leeds being killed was kept top secret until it was released. 

I remember Spider-man vs Wolverine caused quite an uproar!