Doodles, scribbles in ink pen on covers… what are your thoughts? 2 2

[HistoryBuffalo]

Hi all,

I’ve recently been able to hunt down a copy of a certain issue that I’ve been looking for. The only thing holding me back is that there are obvious, bright colored pen marks on the front and back covers and were used to fill in areas of the villain on the front cover. The issue is in quite great shape besides that aspect and is very structurally sound. While mulling over whether or not this is too big an eye sore for me to look for another copy (the issue is rare enough that it will be tough to find another) I had the idea of asking on here how others felt about drawings and doodles that affect the cover art of a given issue?

Any and all opinions are welcome!

[grendelbo]

This is a related topic.

Personally, I would pass.

[B2D327]

It might be worth picking up if 1) it’s a book that’s hard to find/scarce/rare, 2) high dollar book in any grade 3) copies rarely come to market 4) demand is high enough that should you later upgrade to a better copy, resale of the lower grade book won’t be difficult, 5 and most importantly) how important is it to you to have in your collection 

[KCOComics]

 

It all depends on the situation for me. If it's a rare GA book and you can get it at a decent price, it's probably worth it. 

If it's a modern book, forget it. Somewhere in the middle, it depends on the degree of writing for me. I might look past it on a really valuable book if the deal was right, but if it's DD33 or something, I would pass. 

[Cushing Fan]

It all depends on if you could live with it. While I don't mind date stamps or written dates on the cover, it would drive me crazy to have a lot of writing - names, doodles, etc - on the cover. If all the writing was on the back cover I would be fine with it. For me personally I would just focus on the writing every time I took out the book from the collection to enjoy it and that would ruin my enjoyment. Another pet peeve I have are extremely faded front covers...

Edited April 13, 2022 by Cushing Fan

[Dick Pontoon]

That sounds like a lot of pen, sounds fugly. What's the book? It might not be as scarce as you think.

[theCapraAegagrus]

Generally, gross.

[marvelmaniac]

I have always collected on a budget (40+ years of collecting) and my goal has always been to complete runs so I have the complete story/issue run.

Adding Low Grade Readers (Well Loved Books of which I have many in my 2000 book collection) to my collection has never been an issue for me, I was fine with a book if doodling/writing/drawing on the cover lowered the price or made it more affordable.

Since I was completing runs, once purchased and read it was put away with the other books.

The question then becomes, what is your personal collecting goal? Complete runs to have the entire story/issue run regardless of condition, complete runs with only mid to high grade books, investment, higher grade books to display, etc., everybody collects for different reasons so this is basically a personal choice, just remember...

Low Grade Is Better Than No Grade.

[MattTheDuck]

50 years ago, I had precisely the same view as @marvelmaniac - having the book was more important than condition.  I have all kinds of books with pictures or MVS cut out of letters pages, doodles, names or initials written on the splash page, rubber stamped store names or dates, etc.  But I don't have any books with defaced covers (although I acknowledge some may identify date stamps as "defacement") and it was something I never did myself on books I bought at the grocery store before I became a "real" collector.  

Today, I wouldn't buy "at market" a book with non-date-stamp writing on the cover.  I also feel like I have all the spine ticks, staple stress, corner creases and "arvel omics roup" books I need.

[Axe Elf]

On 4/13/2022 at 10:19 AM, MattTheDuck said:

50 years ago, I had precisely the same view as @marvelmaniac - having the book was more important than condition.  I have all kinds of books with pictures or MVS cut out of letters pages, doodles, names or initials written on the splash page, rubber stamped store names or dates, etc.  But I don't have any books with defaced covers (although I acknowledge some may identify date stamps as "defacement") and it was something I never did myself on books I bought at the grocery store before I became a "real" collector.  

Today, I wouldn't buy "at market" a book with non-date-stamp writing on the cover.  I also feel like I have all the spine ticks, staple stress, corner creases and "arvel omics roup" books I need.

This makes me smile, because my career as a collector is only about 3 months long, rather than 50 years, but I've gone through this same thought process in that much shorter time.  When I first set out to get all the EERIEs, I didn't care what condition they were in, I just wanted copies of all the issues, the cheaper the better.  By the time I started buying CREEPYs, I knew enough about grading and value to start caring about getting higher-quality issues, and now that I've bought this all-world Vampirella collection, I'm thinking about replacing some of the "low-grade" (6.0-7.0) issues with better copies.

I've been seduced.

[HistoryBuffalo]

Thank you for all the opinions. The issue in question is a pence copy of ToS #42, my all-time favorite cover next to Cap #103. I hesitated posting it initially as it isn’t in hand but Im hoping the scans help give some context. As you can see in the scans, it has pink pen marks over the villain Andre Rostov’s hand and teeth, as well as a pink sketch of a face on the back cover. The sketch on the back is actually pretty neat as it has an advertisement for artists looking to test their skills, so in a way it makes sense! I’ve had a growing interest in pence copies as well, so with that factor in addition to the structural soundness it has, it definitely has me intrigued.

With that said, if anyone has a clean pence copy of ToS #42, please feel free to send a message or post here in the meantime while I continue to deliberate!

Thanks again!

 

[Jaylam]

Has anyone come across a copy that was doodled on or signed by someone who later became a comic book personality or celebrity, say something like Todd Mcfarlane writing his name on or drawing on a book when he was a kid?