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Remember the days when people paid huge money for old comic books?
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Started by Robot Man,

232 posts in this topic

Cman429

Cman429

Posted
Posted
On 9/13/2023 at 11:57 PM, MattTheDuck said:

According to Wikipedia (lol), the first intentional "variant" published with two different covers was 1986's Man of Steel #1 by John Byrne.

I remember going to my first ever comicon - Pittsburgh Comicon, founded and run by a convicted murderer (seriously, look it up) - back in 1994. I was super excited to meet John Byrne. I was talking with a dealer and when mentioning I was there for Byrne, he pulls out those two MOS issues and proceeds to tell a flabbergasted teenage me, "This issue came with TWO covers. And John will even sign them BOTH!"

Wait, the same comic came with TWO different covers? What kind of sorcery was this? And the creator will sign them both? For free?!?! I couldn't get my paper route money out of my pocket fast enough.

Feel bad for kids nowadays, man. 

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Bronty

Bronty

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Posted
On 9/14/2023 at 9:57 AM, Robot Man said:

I think I only fell for that once. I bought all the X-Men 1 covers I believe. At least they had art, kind of…

I'm sure I fell for it more than once, but not many times for sure.

I didn't mind books like Adventurers 1 where the variant cover was entirely new art.    I suppose the xmen covers were like that too. 

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50YrsCollctngCmcs

50YrsCollctngCmcs

Posted
Posted
On 9/14/2023 at 1:25 AM, N e r V said:

I wasn’t old enough to see any of those in their original runs but watched all of them growing up in the 1970’s. Gigantor was one of the earliest I remember and the theme song is burned into my memories. I was the perfect age to watch Speed Racer. It was on after school ended when I was in the 7-10 age group. Along with the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon it had one of the best theme songs ever. Had no clue it was Japanese or what anime was at that age but knew it was different because it had some degree on story progression and a real ending where Speed confronted Racer X about his identity. Cartoons didn’t do things like that. 
 

Those were the pioneers of anime. The Japanese invasion would begin in the 1980’s with Robotech and friends. As US cartoons continued to fall behind in quality the Japanese anime introduced us to something different in what cartoons could actually be. Besides the trickle of anime being imported into the US colleges and others began dubbing projects and bootleg VHS tapes of anime began to circulate before western companies could buy rights. It was anime’s Wild West period and it was fantastic to experience at the time. I had tons of unauthorized bootleg tapes I’d watch with friends and girlfriends at late night parties playing role playing games or whatever was on the ticket for the evening. So many of us got introduced to stuff that way.  :)

I had to go look up the Gigantor opening sequence.

GIGANTOR!

It's oddly slower than I remember though the main part of the theme is a little quicker. I also still remember this show and I think it was my favorite of the bunch because what kid wouldn't want a remote controlled giant robot!

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50YrsCollctngCmcs

50YrsCollctngCmcs

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 9/14/2023 at 10:19 PM, Cman429 said:

I remember going to my first ever comicon - Pittsburgh Comicon, founded and run by a convicted murderer (seriously, look it up) - back in 1994. I was super excited to meet John Byrne. I was talking with a dealer and when mentioning I was there for Byrne, he pulls out those two MOS issues and proceeds to tell a flabbergasted teenage me, "This issue came with TWO covers. And John will even sign them BOTH!"

Wait, the same comic came with TWO different covers? What kind of sorcery was this? And the creator will sign them both? For free?!?! I couldn't get my paper route money out of my pocket fast enough.

Feel bad for kids nowadays, man. 

OK I had to look up that story about the founder; really wacky and right out of an EC comic. Mistresses, insurance fraud, comics; it's got it all! He wasn't even charged until 17 years after the murder!!

Edited by 50YrsCollctngCmcs
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Duffman_Comics

Duffman_Comics

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Posted

Well, this thread has some legs.

Pretty sure I've posted this in another thread - lost in the mists of time.

Appeared in the "Australian Women's Weekly". I think this may have been an American news item reprinted in Oz.

 

AWW9.75a.jpg

AWW9.75b.jpg

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Robot Man

Robot Man

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  • Author
Posted
On 9/16/2023 at 1:15 AM, Duffman_Comics said:

Well, this thread has some legs.

Pretty sure I've posted this in another thread - lost in the mists of time.

Appeared in the "Australian Women's Weekly". I think this may have been an American news item reprinted in Oz.

 

AWW9.75a.jpg

AWW9.75b.jpg

Cool! This is exactly the type of stuff I hoped would get posted here. Odd, that this would appear in Australia. I didn’t realize there were as many comic collectors there back then and they would focus on the US.

Interesting that they would mention Bill Placzek. His name turns up a lot. I was never aware of him then but then, fandom was pretty regional without having a vehicle like the internet or even printed publications available to collectors.

Great photo of Burt Blum from Cherokee. Never seen that one. Must be early ‘70’s due to the length of his hair. He was a lot more “conservative” when I first started going there. Like a lot of us, during that era, our appearances “changed” during that time. I do remember smelling that lingering oder of a “suspicious nature” wafting in the upstairs comic loft on occasion. :devil:

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adamstrange

adamstrange

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 9/13/2023 at 12:25 PM, N e r V said:

I wasn’t old enough to see any of those in their original runs but watched all of them growing up in the 1970’s. Gigantor was one of the earliest I remember and the theme song is burned into my memories. I was the perfect age to watch Speed Racer. It was on after school ended when I was in the 7-10 age group. Along with the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon it had one of the best theme songs ever. Had no clue it was Japanese or what anime was at that age but knew it was different because it had some degree on story progression and a real ending where Speed confronted Racer X about his identity. Cartoons didn’t do things like that. 
 

Those were the pioneers of anime. The Japanese invasion would begin in the 1980’s with Robotech and friends. As US cartoons continued to fall behind in quality the Japanese anime introduced us to something different in what cartoons could actually be. Besides the trickle of anime being imported into the US colleges and others began dubbing projects and bootleg VHS tapes of anime began to circulate before western companies could buy rights. It was anime’s Wild West period and it was fantastic to experience at the time. I had tons of unauthorized bootleg tapes I’d watch with friends and girlfriends at late night parties playing role playing games or whatever was on the ticket for the evening. So many of us got introduced to stuff that way.  :)

 

Edited by adamstrange
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N e r V

N e r V

Posted
Posted
On 9/14/2023 at 11:03 AM, PeterPark said:

Suspense 3? I can do tree fiddy...

I think looking back I’m not sure what’s more difficult to wrap my head around. Buying high grade copies of books like Amazing Fantasy #15 for $25.00 from Richard Alf or picking up Marvel comics #1 in grade for $750.00 or flinging Hulk #181 across my bedroom to my cousin so he could read it or seeing Suspense #3 a book that drew little interest in the 1970’s sit unwanted by most for maybe $6.00? 
 

Of coarse one of my family homes in La Jolla was bought in the 1960’s for $35,000.00 and sold for over 6 million before they bulldozed it to build something even bigger on the lot and gas was 35 cents for full service and 28 cents for the new “self service” at gas stations when I started collecting.

In the 1970’s we are all just to busy being p*ssed off when comics had their 5 cent price increases to ever think about what the future would be like…:jawdrop:

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N e r V

N e r V

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 9/16/2023 at 7:38 AM, Robot Man said:

Cool! This is exactly the type of stuff I hoped would get posted here. Odd, that this would appear in Australia. I didn’t realize there were as many comic collectors there back then and they would focus on the US.

Interesting that they would mention Bill Placzek. His name turns up a lot. I was never aware of him then but then, fandom was pretty regional without having a vehicle like the internet or even printed publications available to collectors.

Great photo of Burt Blum from Cherokee. Never seen that one. Must be early ‘70’s due to the length of his hair. He was a lot more “conservative” when I first started going there. Like a lot of us, during that era, our appearances “changed” during that time. I do remember smelling that lingering oder of a “suspicious nature” wafting in the upstairs comic loft on occasion. :devil:

Smoking pot, listening to Led Zeppelin and reading Lord of the Rings is probably about the most 1970’s you could get in California .I grew up by the beach so throw a Hang Ten T-shirt on and stop by the local head shop before heading off to beach for the over the line tournament and you were set. If you wanted some light adult reading grab an issue of Zap to go. I could roll with the best of them by age 13…

Edited by N e r V
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50YrsCollctngCmcs

50YrsCollctngCmcs

Posted
Posted
On 9/19/2023 at 11:48 AM, N e r V said:

Smoking pot, listening to Led Zeppelin and reading Lord of the Rings is probably about the most 1970’s you could get in California .I grew up by the beach so throw a Hang Ten T-shirt on and stop by the local head shop before heading off to beach for the over the line tournament and you were set. If you wanted some light adult reading grab an issue of Zap to go. I could roll with the best of them by age 13…

Ha ha I grew up next to the beach in New Jersey. Things weren't do different there except our beach season was way too short compared to California! But we had all those things and my little home town even had a head shop that sold undergrounds. I remember walking in there to look at them when I was 11 or so and being very confused!! Not tom mention they cost 50 cents!! Ha Ha!

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MusterMark

MusterMark

Posted
Posted
On 9/19/2023 at 1:00 AM, 50YrsCollctngCmcs said:

Ha ha I grew up next to the beach in New Jersey. Things weren't do different there except our beach season was way too short compared to California! But we had all those things and my little home town even had a head shop that sold undergrounds. I remember walking in there to look at them when I was 11 or so and being very confused!! Not tom mention they cost 50 cents!! Ha Ha!

There are many undergrounds I look at even NOW and get very confused.

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