Your Very First GOLDEN AGE Comic! 3 3

[Professor Echo]

(Hey everyone, new member here and my apologies if this topic has already been covered. I have not yet explored the site in great detail, but another member here didn't think there was an existing thread and suggested I post this anyway). 

I would love to hear about your very first time experiencing an actual Golden Age comic, whether it was just seeing one in person and/or actually owning one.

I was a little kid in the suburbs of Chicago in the mid-60's and already an avid comic reader and burgeoning collector. But comics older than the 60's were something we had all heard of, but none of us had actually seen anywhere. At that time in our small corner of the world opportunities to see Golden Age comics just weren't there-or if they were, we had no idea where.

My first GA sighting started with an article in the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine section, circa 1967, which heralded the then outrageous prices being paid for old comics. One of the stores in downtown Chicago, ACME BOOKSHOP, had a copy of ACTION COMICS #1 that I believe was quoted as selling for $100.00! We were astounded. Who on Earth could afford to pay that for a comic book?!  There was a picture of the comic in the article and my two older brothers and I begged our Mom to take us to the store so we could just see it. She acquiesced and we took the train to the Chicago Loop and then walked to Clark Street where the store was located. Unfortunately, from the second we walked through the door the proprietor bluntly announced: "No children allowed! You will have to leave." My Mom followed us in and asked if it would be ok if she kept an eye on us. You could tell the guy was disgusted, even angrily so, but he said ok as long as none of us touched anything.  We asked about the ACTION COMICS and whether we could see it and the man agreed only after after he irritably told our Mom that he would like us all to leave afterwards. He said: "These comics are not for children."  My Mom couldn't believe how ill tempered and rude he was, but she promised and we looked at the comic under a glass counter. Then the guy told us in no uncertain terms to get out, that there was nothing in that store that we could possibly afford. My Mom told him with his personality he had no business running a store.

I'll never forget what that man looked like, a cadaverous sort with the scariest bursting eyes I had ever seen. In fact, even when my older brothers went back to that store every so often just to irritate the guy, I never went back in. I was very young and even had a literal nightmare about him one night. At that point I had never seen anyone in my life that scared me as much as he did. In true comic book fashion, my bros gave him a "villain" nickname, "Boneface," and the just as monstrous woman who worked in the store with him they called "Platypus." It was turned into a joke as time went on, but I will never forget the pure outrage that this man must have had in his very soul.  So while I can't say that my first sighting of a Golden Age comic was a pleasant experience, all my friends were still very impressed that I had seen not just a comic that was "so old," but the one which at that time was the most revered and spoken of in hushed awe. 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by Professor Echo
Mangled syntax.

[Bronty]

boneface and platypus

Good on mom for giving it back to him at the end.

[Bronty]

I really don't know what my first exposure to a golden age comic was, but I do remember one of the local stores had a very nice Marvel 1 for around $18k on the convention floor when I was probably 12-14ish?    I'm sure it was a high price at the time.   It was the first big splashy key with a big splashy price that I can recall.    This would be late 80s.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Bronty

[Jayman]

On 4/20/2023 at 7:20 AM, Professor Echo said:

He said: "These comics are not for children." 

This is what got to me the most! Maybe it was Dr. Wertham’s store?

Great story and WTTB!

[Bronty]

On 4/20/2023 at 8:24 AM, Jayman said:

This is what got to me the most! Maybe it was Dr. Wertham’s store?

Great story and WTTB!

Yes hehe.  And I get it, the guy didn't want kids getting greasy fingers on Action 1, but there's way to convey that message, and that wasn't it.   

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by Bronty

[Jayman]

I might have seen some GA books prior but didn’t know exactly what the were. However here in NJ at the Englishtown Auction back in the late 70’s, there was a guy selling some EC comics. My grade school friend had the Russ Cochran reprints so I was familiar with some of them. To actually see the real books was amazing! I was about 12-14 IIRC and only had money to buy 2. A Vault of Horror 26 and this one that I still have. I gave the VoH away here years ago for the Christmas exchange.

[Robot Man]

On 4/20/2023 at 4:20 AM, Professor Echo said:

(Hey everyone, new member here and my apologies if this topic has already been covered. I have not yet explored the site in great detail, but another member here didn't think there was an existing thread and suggested I post this anyway). 

I would love to hear about your very first time experiencing an actual Golden Age comic, whether it was just seeing one in person and/or actually owning one.

I was a little kid in the suburbs of Chicago in the mid-60's and already an avid comic reader and burgeoning collector. But comics older than the 60's were something we had all heard of, but none of us had actually seen anywhere. At that time in our small corner of the world opportunities to see Golden Age comics just weren't there-or if they were, we had no idea where.

My first GA sighting started with an article in the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine section, circa 1967, which heralded the then outrageous prices being paid for old comics. One of the stores in downtown Chicago, ACME BOOKSHOP, had a copy of ACTION COMICS #1 that I believe was quoted as selling for $100.00! We were astounded. Who on Earth could afford to pay that for a comic book?!  There was a picture of the comic in the article and my two older brothers and I begged our Mom to take us to the store so we could just see it. She acquiesced and we took the train to the Chicago Loop and then walked to Clark Street where the store was located. Unfortunately, from the second we walked through the door the proprietor bluntly announced: "No children allowed! You will have to leave." My Mom followed us in and asked if it would be ok if she kept an eye on us. You could tell the guy was disgusted, even angrily so, but he said ok as long as none of us touched anything.  We asked about the ACTION COMICS and whether we could see it and the man agreed only after after he irritably told our Mom that he would like us all to leave afterwards. He said: "These comics are not for children."  My Mom couldn't believe how ill tempered and rude he was, but she promised and we looked at the comic under a glass counter. Then the guy told us in no uncertain terms to get out, that there was nothing in that store that we could possibly afford. My Mom told him with his personality he had no business running a store.

I'll never forget what that man looked like, a cadaverous sort with the scariest bursting eyes I had ever seen. In fact, even when my older brothers went back to that store every so often just to irritate the guy, I never went back in. I was very young and even had a literal nightmare about him one night. At that point I had never seen anyone in my life that scared me as much as he did. In true comic book fashion, my bros gave him a "villain" nickname, "Boneface," and the just as monstrous woman who worked in the store with him they called "Platypus." It was turned into a joke as time went on, but I will never forget the pure outrage that this man must have had in his very soul.  So while I can't say that my first sighting of a Golden Age comic was a pleasant experience, all my friends were still very impressed that I had seen not just a comic that was "so old," but the one which at that time was the most revered and spoken of in hushed awe. 

 

 

Sounds like the typical “used book store” owner when I was a kid. Can’t really blame them though as kids would come in in groups and rip the couple local stores blind.

The first Action #1 I ever saw in person was at Cherokee Books in Hollywood. Burt Blum pulled it out and showed it to me. It was unbagged and the price was $300. Might as well been a million bucks.

A couple years later I met a guy named Gary Coddington in Pasadena CA. Some of you old time SO CA guys might remember him. He had a complete Superman collection. I got to look at them starting with #1. After a while, I just glazed over. His brother had a similar Batman collection. He let me read his Detective #27 on the floor of his bedroom.

Welcome to the boards! 

Edited April 20, 2023 by Robot Man

[Robot Man]

On 4/20/2023 at 5:39 AM, Jayman said:

I might have seen some GA books prior but didn’t know exactly what the were. However here in NJ at the Englishtown Auction back in the late 70’s, there was a guy selling some EC comics. My grade school friend had the Russ Cochran reprints so I was familiar with some of them. To actually see the real books was amazing! I was about 12-14 IIRC and only had money to buy 2. A Vault of Horror 26 and this one that I still have. I gave the VoH away here years ago for the Christmas exchange.

Cool. My first GA book was also an EC. My Uncle gave me about a half dozen of his when I was about 12. They just blew my mind. My mom saw me reading one and tore it up. The rest went quickly into a wooden box in the tree house. That wooden box also had Playboys and MAD magazines which my parents considered “subversive”. The only one I can remember vividly was Shock Suspenstories #9 with the “Carrion Death” story. That last panel literally gave me nightmares. These books sent me off on a lifetime of collecting ECs and PCH. 

[batman_fan]

My 1st GA I remember purchasing was Classic Illustrated box set from an antique store in Versailles, IN in 1976.  The box set cost $2 and had Issues 13 (Dr J as Mr H), 20 (Cors Bros), 34 (Black Arrow), and 78 (Joan).  I still have all of them in the same condition I purchased them in (VFN/NM).   Sadly the box was long since lost 

[sfcityduck]

I discovered comic book collecting at the beginning of 7th grade in 1978 when a new friend introduced me to the OPG and told me about my hometown’s local comic book store then called The Fantasy Shop.  I went there to buy the OPG. I am sure I saw GA books at the store, but do not recall that.  What I do recall was being able to show my parents that old comics had value.  A week or so later we drove 180 miles to my dad’s childhood home and picked up the boxes of his childhood collection from his parents attic.  Suddenly I had boxes of late 1940s to early 1950s comics.  DCs (Batman, Superman, WW, Action,  Detective, Star Spangled, Adventure, Sensation, World’s Finest, Mystery I Space, etc.), Dell (Westerns, SF, Tarzan, Space Cadet, Etc), Fiction House (Planet, Jungle, etc), Fawcett (capt. Marvel, Whiz, etc.) and less popular publishers. The boxes included many in great shape and also many remaindered reading copies because my grandpa was the manager of the store. I looked up the comics in OPG and found out what the comics were worth and read what the OPG noted that made them special. The ones that stick out most in my memory were reading Frazetta’s Shining Knight stories (I was all about the stories) and Batman stories.  The covers that impressed me the most were Man O’ Mars (green girl reminded me of Star Trek and I was a 7th grade boy) and a Batman “Indian Chief” cover that I had seen earlier in a Batman from the 30s to the 70s book at the library.  It was the beginning of my education in comics!  

Edited April 20, 2023 by sfcityduck

[Professor Echo]

On 4/20/2023 at 4:58 PM, sfcityduck said:

I discovered comic book collecting at the beginning of 7th grade in 1978 

Interestingly, I stopped reading comics at the beginning of 7th grade in 1971.

I was reading the latest SGT. FURY in study hall when another kid ridiculed me for reading kids stuff. And this in front of a girl I had a crush on. 

I won't say something good didn't come out of it as it might have been one of the first life lessons I ever had for convincing me to screw peer pressure and conformity. I'm proud to say I've lived as pretty much of a rebel ever since. 

[BitterOldMan]

In 1971, my parents moved from North Beach into the Mission District of San Francisco, when I was a sophomore in high school.  I attended the academic Lowell High School located at the other side of the city.  Students at other schools openly despised us.  Every day, I commuted to the high school on public transit.

I started buying regularly from the comic store legend, Gary Arlington, located on 23rd Street.

At first, I collected early silver age Marvels.  My first GA was Superman 22.  Not my copy, but still own it.

Over the years, I bought regularly from Gary.  After his shop closed, I visited him several times until his death in 2014.  We would talk for hours.  He bought an original Carl Barks Duck painting for around $200 from Carl.  He was known as an EC super fan, but never owned a Tales of Terror Annual 1.

Check out the ladder sitting on the old comics.🤢

[Robot Man]

On 4/20/2023 at 8:36 AM, BitterOldMan said:

In 1971, my parents moved from North Beach into the Mission District of San Francisco, when I was a sophomore in high school.  I attended the academic Lowell High School located at the other side of the city.  Students at other schools openly despised us.  Every day, I commuted to the high school on public transit.

I started buying regularly from the comic store legend, Gary Arlington, located on 23rd Street.

At first, I collected early silver age Marvels.  My first GA was Superman 22.  Not my copy, but still own it.

Over the years, I bought regularly from Gary.  After his shop closed, I visited him several times until his death in 2014.  We would talk for hours.  He bought an original Carl Barks Duck painting for around $200 from Carl.  He was known as an EC super fan, but never owned a Tales of Terror Annual 1.

Check out the ladder sitting on the old comics.🤢

We had cousins who lived in the Bay Area. We would go visit an I would hit Gary’s shop as well as Bob Beerbohm, Bud Plant’s and others. Bought a number of ECs and PCH from Gary and Riley’s from Beerbohm.

I was in high school so the best part of the trips was to the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium concerts…

[CitrusZ28]

The only copy of Action #1 that I ever saw was when I was in College at the University of Oregon in the early 80's. The owner of the local comic shop Emerald City Comics took me down the street to his safety deposit box and showed me his prized stash which also included copies of Reform School Girls #1 and Batman #47 as I recall. He had purchased his copy in 1979 for $6000.00 which merited a story in the Wall Street Journal. It was a F-VF copy as I remember. I lost touch with him over the years and heard that he sold his business and his copy of Action #1, although I have not confirmed this. My very first GA book that I purchased in 1979 that I still have-

 

 

[goldust40]

Two Fisted Tales 30, from Comic Showcase on Neal Street, Covent Garden in London, some time in the early 90s. Prior to this it had always been silver age with me.

It wasn't a gateway drug as such as my obsession with PCH began several years later when I picked up the CBM pre-code special (thanks Jon S!) but my interest in ECs kicked off right there - the intense cover image by Jack Davis drew me in. As I recall I paid £15 and it was around VG/FN (Paul Hudson, esteemed owner of the shop gave me a decent discount iirc). Still have it somewhere.

First proper GA that I bought would've been a Cap 17 I got from Ted at Superworld, in the late 90s, at a con. Still have that too.

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by goldust40

[adamstrange]

My first GA was probably acquired at my first comic con in Dallas right after I got out of college.  So, five years ago. 

The one book I have left from that show:

[fishbone]

Superman #6 in early 2000's from LCBS ......... and that sent me on my huge GA journey to this day .......always collected silver Spider-man, DD and ROM as a kid, never knew GA even existed   .....

[MattTheDuck]

I started collecting in the early 70s when I finally discovered there were stores that sold "back issues" of comic books. Like the OP, I knew Golden Age books existed - I was certainly generally familiar with Superman, Batman and the like, but can't remember ever even seeing any book from the Golden Age including PCH and so on.  When I returned to the hobby a couple of years ago, I didn't have a single GA book.  After reading this site for a while, I decided to focus on just a GA title or two and pick up other GA targets of opportunity that might present.  Here's the first book I picked up in the "focus" title, one that's had a large price run before I could get more than about a dozen.

 

[comicginger1789]

This is mine. Still have it. I acquired in a lot that I bought probably close to a decade ago. I kept it because at the time, there was not much value to it (still isn't I don't think) but I thought it was cool to have a book that old.

Eventually I stumbled across LB Cole and his work and that set me into a Golden Age buying zone. I try to purchase 1-5 GA books a year (horror, jungle themed or war themed) that fit my fancy, be it artist related or simply because I like the cover. I always try to buy Cole books but even his Jungle and Western stuff, which in the past was substantially cheaper, is now creeping up (or at least people are asking a lot more than they used to for it). I also eventually want to get an older Superman and Batman cover from the 40's. In due time I suppose.

[L'Angelo Misterioso]

I have a unique story, partly because I'm so young compared to almost everybody here. The first time I became acquainted with the golden age comics was the wave of stories 7-10 years ago (can't remember exactly) about high end comic sales like Tales of Suspense 39, Hulk 1 (both of which I thought were golden age at the time), Detective 27, Batman 1 and Action 1. If I recall correctly, this is when some of these blue chip books were first clearing 7 figures, and they made the rounds on news sites, Pawn Stars, and social media. That was also when I learned that there's a strong market for vintage comics. I remember having discussions with friends about how cool it would be to have the first appearance of Batman, Captain America, Superman, and other characters we liked. Still, I didn't have much interest in comics besides reading them occasionally.

Several years ago my dad, somewhat of a figure in the comic book world, passed away. He left a collection of comics behind--not an earthshattering one, but still a lot of stuff to sift through. I'm still in the process of sorting through it and it is mostly drek. After he died, we were so overwhelmed what with having to sort through his stuff and understand what he had. 

Rummaging through the stacks and stacks of book, I found an item of interest. The first thing I caught was the smell. It was distinct from any comic book I had ever held. "Marvel Mystery Comics." I've only known the company to be Marvel Comics, so I wondered--why is the word "mystery" in the title? Are these mystery stories? Is it an anthology? I threw it aside and continued searching for other books. The next one I found was this evocative horror comic from a publisher I had NEVER heard of. "Haunt of Fear." Keep in mind, I knew nothing about the market at the time. But I reasoned that because it has a 10 cent cover price, it must be really old. I put that with the Marvel Mystery I had just uncovered. The next one I found was a Human Torch book. Well, the only Torch I knew was the Fantastic Four character. I thought, huh, must be the same character? But here he's fighting Imperial Japanese soldiers drawn like yellow peril villains. It had little pieces missing from the cover, and yellowed tape all along the spine. "WOW! This is REALLY old," I said, and tossed it aside with the other two books. 

I forgot about these for a few years ago until I recently perused the collection again after hearing about more record sales of blue chip books. I still knew effectively nothing about the collector market. I didn't even know CGC, or what an EC was, or how much mid-level treasures like Timelys and Fiction House books routinely sell for. I rediscovered the 10-cent books and found yet another: A Marvel Mystery book with a damsel on the cover and binder holes punched in. I was eagerly searching to hopefully find more and more of these really old books, but the rest I found were reprints from the 1970s. Still, I was amazed by the evocative covers and history conveyed by the golden age books. I was drawn to them more than to any of the other books in the collection. They were just mesmerizing, in a way.

Here are the four original golden age books I found in the collection: 

Here are the REPRINTS I uncovered, all of which I thought were originals because of how convincing the covers look:

Ever since I found these, I became super interested in golden age comics. This discovery opened the floodgate to learning so much about not only the collector market, but also the medium in general. As a college student just entering the hobby in the late stage of collecting, I don't think I'll be able to afford many originals like the ones here. The prices in this hobby are insane. An early Action Comics book routinely sells for over $1,000. I'm still glad I got to discover this corner of the medium, and if a book for an okay price turns up I'll probably buy it. 

Edited April 20, 2023 by L'Angelo Misterioso