Gerber's Photo Journal Guide to Comic Books Vol. 1,2 3 3

[comicginger1789]

I need these books personally. I have the Marvel ones but these are the ones I wished I owned.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 4/14/2023 at 12:34 PM, sfcityduck said:

 

This is what I want to see when I walk into a convention. 
 

but what I actually see nowadays is this . . .

[adamstrange]

On 4/14/2023 at 1:28 PM, Professor K said:

Hey! I read that part in the preface about how he began his Mylar bag business. He constructed 23 prototype bags before he got it right in 1979. Off topic question but anyone know how well current CGC holders protect from UV light?  I wonder if Gerber Mylite 2's or 4's do a better job. I was thinking about putting my slabs in legal size Mylites. Edit: Just found this thread. https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/164782-visual-guide-to-mylar-sizes/#comments

 

Last I knew, neither CGC slabs nor standard mylar bags protect against UV.  Long ago, Gerber did create and sell UV protected mylar as a premium product.  I still have some.

There have been some discussions in the OA Forum long ago about how good UV protection is.  The answer back then was that it is very limited, and that enough UV light gets through UV Glass/Plastic to fade art or comics if exposed long enough.

[Dr. Balls]

These books are the closest a person can get to re-living the feeling of looking through the Sears Christmas catalog as a kid.

"I want that. I want that. And that. And this one. And maybe a low-grade one of these..."

[Cat-Man_America]

On 4/14/2023 at 1:00 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

This is what I want to see when I walk into a convention. 
 

but what I actually see nowadays is this . . .

  You're looking at the wrong cos-players! 

BTW, my copies of the Steranko Histories (oversized PB ...approx. 11 X 17... purchased in the early 70's from Supergraphics)...

Vol. I (B/F)

 

Vol II (B/F)

 

IMO, these are must haves on a collector's GA journey (providing a lively summarization of various characters & publishers) 

These are still obtainable in reprint form from some sources (Google or Amazon); give or take around 100 pages each.

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Cat-Man_America
Fix pix! ...and more ale!

[vaultkeeper]

I bought a set of the Photo-Journals when they first came out. The dust jackets held on for nearly 4 years. The spines blew out at around 7 years. I now have duct tape holding the covers on. 

[ThothAmon]

With the exception of Overstreet I collected comics in a vacuum for the first 15 or so years years. After I got my hands on the Gerber Guides a whole new universe was opened up to me. Study them hard and also the first 60 or so issues of Comic Book Marketplace and you’ll be eligible for a Masters in Comicbooking. 

[Robot Man]

On 4/14/2023 at 10:34 AM, sfcityduck said:

The Gerber Photo-Guides are an essential publication that I'm very glad exists.

But the back story on how he allegedly funded the making of those books, if true, makes me shudder.  Allegedly involved the collection of the guy on the left below. Given his reputation, he probably bought those trashy Action 1, Whiz 1, and D27 strewn about the desk. I will let others tell the story about the liquidation of his collection who have more than just the passing tenthhand knowledge that I have. I think it ended up in litigation, and I don't know how that came out.

The collector on the left was Rick Durrell. The other guy was Burt Blum who ran the comics part of Cherokee. Rick was a local legend with a jaw dropping collection. I was just a young budding collector then. Rick invited me and a few other guys over one day. Just blew me away! Multiples of all the big keys. 

Rick’s wife hated the comics. When he passed away, she sold them to Gerber under supposedly shady circumstances. I never heard about any lawsuit. 

[ThothAmon]

On 4/14/2023 at 2:41 PM, Robot Man said:

Rick invited me and a few other guys over one day. Just blew me away!

Awesome information. His collection looks amazing. Were you just looking or did he sell anything?

[sfcityduck]

On 4/14/2023 at 11:41 AM, Robot Man said:

The collector on the left was Rick Durrell. The other guy was Burt Blum who ran the comics part of Cherokee. Rick was a local legend with a jaw dropping collection. I was just a young budding collector then. Rick invited me and a few other guys over one day. Just blew me away! Multiples of all the big keys. 

Rick’s wife hated the comics. When he passed away, she sold them to Gerber under supposedly shady circumstances. I never heard about any lawsuit. 

The story told on one of my threads by a guy bit older than you, but when we talked about other topics his recall was sharp (not implying you or he are decrepit!), was this:

Quote

I grew up in Long Beach, CA, and have been a serious collector since the 1950's.  I met Leonard Brown, another serious collector, and we  started a mail-order business out of his parents home.  We built an amazing inventory, added to our collections, and met some other serious collectors on the west coast, mostly in Southern California.  Eventually he opened a store in 1964 with Malcolm Willits as I opted out to finish college and go to grad school. The most serious collector we ever met was Rick Durrell, who I think was the earliest "super collector" on the west coast.

....

Rick died; relatively young, it seems like it was around the early 1970's.  His wife hated the collection because of the way it had dominated their life, and wanted to sell it.  Leonard asked me to buy it for the store, and it looked like we almost had a deal where I offered to buy it all for cash at fair market value.  It was a lot of cash and no one else came close to matching my offer.  At the last minute, she said she was sorry but someone else had offered her triple what I offered, and she was going to take his offer.  I tried to explain to her that something was wrong, and no one would pay that much.  We parted ways and she sold the collection to Ernie Gerber.  The first problem occurred when he didn't have the cash he promised her.  Ultimately she agreed to let him start selling the books and pay her out of the sales.  Her biggest surprise was yet to come.  Ernie told her that to maximize sales, he had to do restoration work on most of the books and he gave her a bill for his efforts.  What she didn't know was that Ernie was using sales to help fund his books showing old comic book covers.  At this point, she got an attorney, and things really got exciting.

 

See pages 3 and 6 (on my browser) on this thread:

Here's a version of the pic for those who dream in color (my guess PQ was more white in real life):

Edited April 14, 2023 by sfcityduck

[fifties]

On 4/14/2023 at 7:37 AM, Robot Man said:

Probably the most engrossed I ever got in a book.

Still use it.

 

Along with the Overstreet guide, the two most important contributions to the hobby.

 

Agreed. 

I got my two Photo Journal Guides from an LCS back in the nineties, and I just couldn't get enough of their content, poring over them many nights in a row. 

Along with Overstreet for a bit more in depth information, the two must-have tomes for any serious GA collector.

[woowoo]

On 4/14/2023 at 11:00 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

This is what I want to see when I walk into a convention. 
 

but what I actually see nowadays is this . . .

Clark blond hair looks good on you.

[Gaard]

Does anyone know why there was a Marvel set but no DC set?

[Robot Man]

On 4/14/2023 at 1:09 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

@sfcityduck and @Robot Man, if I understand you right,  Gerber made no profit off the photojournals, and instead the labor, production and marketing costs came out of his pocket?  Or, to be more precise, the widow's pocket?  I hope I'm not hearing this right.

I said nothing of the kind. I have no idea if he made a profit or not. I simply identified Rick Durrell and stated I had heard a rumor about his purchase of Rick’s books. Those involved are no longer with us so the true story will probably be never known for sure. 

[plady69]

On 4/14/2023 at 11:30 AM, Cat-Man_America said:

  You're looking at the wrong cos-players! 

BTW, my copies of the Steranko Histories (oversized PB ...approx. 11 X 17... purchased in the early 70's from Supergraphics)...

Vol. I (B/F)

 

Vol II (B/F)

 

IMO, these are must haves on a collector's GA journey (providing a lively summarization of various characters & publishers) 

These are still obtainable in reprint form from some sources (Google or Amazon); give or take around 100 pages each.

 

Wyomissing, PA. My brother said you got screwed but they showed up six months later…

[plady69]

On 4/14/2023 at 11:41 AM, Robot Man said:

The collector on the left was Rick Durrell. The other guy was Burt Blum who ran the comics part of Cherokee. Rick was a local legend with a jaw dropping collection. I was just a young budding collector then. Rick invited me and a few other guys over one day. Just blew me away! Multiples of all the big keys. 

Rick’s wife hated the comics. When he passed away, she sold them to Gerber under supposedly shady circumstances. I never heard about any lawsuit. 

Jeez. My wife left me for that. It’s you or the comic books. Life is good…

[sfcityduck]

On 4/14/2023 at 1:18 PM, Robot Man said:

I said nothing of the kind. I have no idea if he made a profit or not. I simply identified Rick Durrell and stated I had heard a rumor about his purchase of Rick’s books. Those involved are no longer with us so the true story will probably be never known for sure. 

I too have no direct knowledge of the situation. Everything I know was learned from posts on this site, including the one I quoted. In a nutshell, the alleged story is that E. Gerber engaged in shady dealings with R. Durrell's widow, and in part he did so to fund the Photo Journal project. No one has said anything about how much E. Gerber made off of his Photo Journals because the focus was on how Durrell's wife was treated by Gerber as he liquidated Durrell's collection ostensibly for her benefit. She allegedly did not make out nearly as well as she should have.

As to your question about the economics of the Photo Journals, my guess is that Gerber spent a lot of money getting the 22,000+ photos for his Photo Journals as he was traveling all over the country for years to photo books, right? The cost of travel, film, and paper alone was probably pretty huge. So maybe that cost was a motivation for any alleged misbehavior, if it occurred. But that is pure speculation as I don't know how the dispute between Gerber and Durrell's wife shook out. 

[adamstrange]

On 4/14/2023 at 5:06 PM, sfcityduck said:

No one has said anything about how much E. Gerber made off of his Photo Journals

Gerber never made a dime off the PJs.  On the contrary, they broke him.

[Telegan]

I bought my copies a couple of months ago after hearing about them on a YouTube video, I think.  I'm still making my way through the books, and I swear it's pure beautiful torture looking at all those pics.  I think the appropriate term is "masochism".  Many of those books I know I'll never have, not simply because of the budget, but just trying to find one at the right time on sale for the right price will be tough.  I wish there were a digital/Kindle copy of them, as well, because they're kind of monster books to read while falling asleep.  If you're into GA comics, you have to get these 2 books.  I thought about getting the Marvel books, and still may, but maybe another time.

Edited April 14, 2023 by Telegan

[WolverineX]

How often do these get reprinted? I need a new copy.