Obadiah Oldbuck vs. Superman

[ShoNuff-migration]

if you spend 2 minutes doing the following "Google" searches on me, perhaps you too will be convinced:

 

steve meyer sycophant

obadiah oldbuck not a comic

steve meyer does google searches on himself

sucker pays $20 large for non-comic book

[Crowzilla]

I bought a Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats earlier this year, and I don't care what the last guy paid who bought a copy..I LOVE the book, and am thrilled to own it. This is also the case with Obadiah Oldbuck, and I am not alone...I'm just alone on this post.

 

You are certainly not alone in your love of Yellow Kid - I think everyone here realizes it's importance in the development of the medium. I remember one of Overstreet's competitors pictured a full-page color photo of it back in the early 70s, it has always been accepted as a vital link to modern-day comics.

You are also not the only person in this post who likes OO. There are a great many people who collect Platinum-age comic prototypes and forerunners. But none of these collectors believe that these are true comic books as we use the term today. Interesting developments in the history, yes - but not comic books themselves.

 

I'm sure there are many book collectors who would love to own a copy of OO. The main difference of opinion between you and them is that they feel you have paid "tomorrow's price today", and by tomorrow I mean the probable value of this book 10 years from now.

 

The fact that you paid 7x what the a copy on eBay sold for previously does not prove the price of the book is headed up any more than me paying 7x the closing price of any comic that closed last night on eBay proves the same.

What it does prove is that the seller does not have Beerbohm's marketing behind him and thus gives a more accurate picture of what the rest of the collecting community believes is the true value of the book in a 'no reserve' setting.

This is a marked contrast from your $20,000 purchase of the same item which for all purposes was basically Bob deciding how high he could get you to climb before unloading (not that there is anything wrong with that, sellers do it all the time).

 

Yes, people who buy at the peak of a market can still make a profit in the long run, but of course their holding time is exponentially greater than the wise investor (say the one who spendt $3,000 for their copy of OO). Good luck in the future with your purchases.

As you can see, there is strong resistence to labeling this anything other than a precursor to modern comic books, but again because of the rarity of the title, you only need to make a small expansion to the number of believers with your efforts.

[showcase4]

I bought a Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats earlier this year, and I don't care what the last guy paid who bought a copy..I LOVE the book, and am thrilled to own it. This is also the case with Obadiah Oldbuck, and I am not alone...I'm just alone on this post.

 

You are certainly not alone in your love of Yellow Kid - I think everyone here realizes it's importance in the development of the medium. I remember one of Overstreet's competitors pictured a full-page color photo of it back in the early 70s, it has always been accepted as a vital link to modern-day comics.

You are also not the only person in this post who likes OO. There are a great many people who collect Platinum-age comic prototypes and forerunners. But none of these collectors believe that these are true comic books as we use the term today. Interesting developments in the history, yes - but not comic books themselves.

 

I'm sure there are many book collectors who would love to own a copy of OO. The main difference of opinion between you and them is that they feel you have paid "tomorrow's price today", and by tomorrow I mean the probable value of this book 10 years from now.

 

The fact that you paid 7x what the a copy on eBay sold for previously does not prove the price of the book is headed up any more than me paying 7x the closing price of any comic that closed last night on eBay proves the same.

What it does prove is that the seller does not have Beerbohm's marketing behind him and thus gives a more accurate picture of what the rest of the collecting community believes is the true value of the book in a 'no reserve' setting.

This is a marked contrast from your $20,000 purchase of the same item which for all purposes was basically Bob deciding how high he could get you to climb before unloading (not that there is anything wrong with that, sellers do it all the time).

 

Yes, people who buy at the peak of a market can still make a profit in the long run, but of course their holding time is exponentially greater than the wise investor (say the one who spendt $3,000 for their copy of OO). Good luck in the future with your purchases.

As you can see, there is strong resistence to labeling this anything other than a precursor to modern comic books, but again because of the rarity of the title, you only need to make a small expansion to the number of believers with your efforts.

 

Nice! This is a GREAT summary, and respectfully worded...a rare occurance on this post

 

I do take issue though on your 7x "paid tomorrow's prices today" theory. Generally, you would be correct.... If we were talking about a Golden Age book with 200 - 2,000 copies in existence, and all you had to do was wait about 3 - 6 months and another one comes along in the condition and price range you were looking for. But we are not talking about that type of comic....we are talking about a "special" book that breaks all the rules. A comic book that is the #1 Victorian Age comic book, and America's 1st comic book, and there only an estimated 8 copies in the entire world, and it's 164 years old. Certainly characteristics exempt from the 7x is too much rule, wouldn't you agree?

[ShoNuff-migration]

I do take issue though on your 7x "paid tomorrow's prices today" theory.

7x sounds about right. Face it...you got hosed.

 

We are talking about a "special" book that breaks all the rules. A comic book that is the #1 Victorian Age comic book, and America's 1st comic book...

No. You're talking about Obadiah Oldbuck. If you want to talk about America's 1st comic book, then we'll have to switch the conversation over to "The Comical Adventures of the Little Woman, Her Dog and the Peddler".

[Crowzilla]

and there only an estimated 8 copies in the entire world, and it's 164 years old. Certainly characteristics exempt from the 7x is too much rule, wouldn't you agree?

 

Not at all. In many hobbies, 8 known examples would be a considerable number of some of the top rarities (and this would probably include the rare book market which would be more your target). I collect horror movie posters and would love for there to be 8 copies of say a Mummy 1-sheet, or 8 copies of a Black Cat 1-sheet. But there are nowhere near that many known. No matter the hobby or the rarity you certainly can pay "Tomorrow's Price Today." I am pretty sure there are not 8 complete copies known of the original 3-volume Frankenstein novel, but this does not mean that you can't arrive at a realistic market price for one when it does surface, and it would seem to be extremely unwise to pay 7x a 3-year old auction price for a copy.

[showcase4]

but this does not mean that you can't arrive at a realistic market price for one when it does .

 

OK..Heritage has in there August comics auction a VF 8.0 unrestored Suspense 3.

What's its realistic market price?

[Crowzilla]

Ok, don't know why but I'll take the bait and play your game.

Realistic market price on that issue is $36-42,000.

So now we will see if someone pays 7x market price or not, and if they do we will all laugh here and speculate about how long it will take for them to recoop their money.

[rob_react]

"Realistic market price on that issue is $36-42,000.

So now we will see if someone pays 7x market price or not"

 

7x 36,000 = $252,000

 

That would trump my surprise over the price paid in that recent Bechara/Zaid Action #1 deal by a factor of about 407.

[showcase4]

Ok, don't know why but I'll take the bait and play your game.

Realistic market price on that issue is $36-42,000.

So now we will see if someone pays 7x market price or not, and if they do we will all laugh here and speculate about how long it will take for them to recoop their money.

 

it's not really a game...it's a point. Special books bring special premiums that don't always nicely and neatly fit into a simple multiplier. This upcoming VF Suspense 3 auction is of a truly rare and special book...let's see what happens. Let's see if the marketplace agrees with me that the 8-10% annual normal appreciation rate is thrown out the window when a rare and possibly once in a lifetime comic book comes on the market. ( like Obadiah Oldbuck 1st US printing from 1842, Suspense 3 in 8.0, etc etc ) .

[lou_fine]

we are talking about a "special" book that breaks all the rules. A comic book that is the #1 Victorian Age comic book, and America's 1st comic book, and there only an estimated 8 copies in the entire world, and it's 164 years old. Certainly characteristics exempt from the 7x is too much rule, wouldn't you agree?

 

Steve;

 

Based upon your above comments, it appears that you are listing four special characteristics of this book that justifies paying 7X the going rate. Unfortunately, there is a key flaw in your analysis here.

 

The first two characteristics listed above are based upon your personal opinions and not necessarily shared by the general marketplace. The third characteristic might not hold true in the future, if additional copies show up in the marketplace which might not be a total surprise at all. The only characteristic that is based upon actual fact is the age of the book.

[BLBcomics-migration]

This on-going thread was just pointed out to me as i no longer check out what goes on insidethe CGC threads aas there are simply too many uneducated insufficiently_thoughtful_persons here. Got back from San Diego Comicon (selling at 37 in a row for me since #1) and leave for Chicago Wizard Booth 1412 tomrrow on Wednesday.

 

here are a couple retreads from me from an earlier Plat/Vict discussion. No time to write new stuff. At the bottom are some URLs to go READ Obadiah Oldbuck, one long 40 page comic magazine/book story -

 

Ok, been away for a while, read thru this thread, and am still flabbergasted that there are some, a minority to be sure, who insist on stating that comicbooks before Action #1, Detective #1, Famous Funnies #1, Funnies On Parade, where ever you want to start in what I consider the Modern Format Period of wraparound sidestapled magazines cannot be considered in the same breath as what is contained in my Victorian and Platinum Era sections of the Overstreet Price Guide

 

Me, i define a comicbook or comicstrip as gaving a sequential story telling format

 

Most Anything you wish to talk about re Famous Funnies #1 criteria is fit with The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck Sept 1842, Wilson & Co, NYC.

 

Except for color printing, which wasn't invented yet, but one could buy hand colred versions for a bit more

 

It is side-stitched, but not yet with staples, as they too had not been invented yet -string.

 

It is wraparound, 40 pages long, about mad magazine size, one long sequential story combining words and pictures, just no word balloons

 

I was asked by John Snyder back in Oct 1996 to contribute comics history archeology into Overstreet #27 1997. John had asked me to read something in Diamond Dialog, and i pointed out there were errors in some of teh concepts presented in the piece.

 

- and shortly thereafter i discoverred the existence of sequential comic strips from the 1800s

 

- and have since discovered thousands of strips in 100s of publications in the 1800s.

 

My long time held beliefs that Yellow Kid was the first comic strip and Funnies On Parade/famous Funnies being the first comicbooks were turned upside down. For decades i had taught these erroneous concepts to people beginning to collect.

 

The original poster reminds me of those erlier persons who clung to long held myths like the earth being flat, or, my more favorite one, that the sun revolved around the earth

 

Nay_sayers went at Galileo once upon a time

 

Bob Overstreet, Arnold B, and some of the others mentioned here have little to nothing to do with the Victorian and Platinum Era comics history articles or pirce indexes.

 

That work is all Robert Lee Beerbohm, me, and a group of collector friends who have been hunting this stuff down and i am proud of it.

 

What i do miss is Arnold Blumberg editing the sections as we figured out how to cram as much data into such a small space. Whenever i add in new unearthed data, i have to agonize on what to take out, as space is at a premium. He is now over at Geppi's museum

 

And it was John Snyder who allowed the space to grow. Some people are far-sighted once they understand the roots of what we call comic strips.

 

My initial Overstreet #27 piece ran 15 pages, incorporating mainly traditional comics history lessons we all grew up with

 

This latest effort runs some 68 pages with three history lessons and two pirce indexes.

 

the Plat price index section has most of the stuff re-discovered by now - very little gets added other than refining data on individual comicbooks contained therein, such as page counts, discoveries of heretofore unknown reprints, etc

 

the Victorian section continues to grow as we will spend the rest of our lives re-discovering long lost information on a comics industry which never made it intoi easrlier comics history books.

 

i have tracked down the origin of teh Yellow Kid "first comic strip" myth to Comics and Their Creators by Martin Sheridan 1942 with a short part about when comics began.

 

then THE COMICSs by Coulton Waugh 1947 took Sheridan's myth and expanded it into some [embarrassing lack of self control] about yellow color being tested

 

Then along somes COMIC ART IN AMERICA by Stephen Becker 1959 (actually written by his wife as Becker had become very ill and almost died, little known historical fact, but the family needed to get paid to live on) which quoted from Sheridan and Waugh, and voila, a Yellow Kid myth is born being the "first" comic strip

 

And to consider Famous Funnies #1 the first news stand comicbook is equally silly

 

THE FUNNIES ran from 1929-30 for quite a few dozen issues

 

both operations were co-owned by George Delacorte (Dell) and Eastern Color, BTW. Delacorte sold out with #7, but started up his wholly owned comics operation like a year later

 

But before all of them comes the "first" news stand comics pub called COMICS MONTHLY, which ran 12 consequitive issues in 1922

 

newspaper reprints like that purported "first" Famous Funnies

 

What i find boring in comics is concentrating on how few spine bends some of your CGC slabbed "treasures" contain - 9.8. 9.6. 9.4, 9.2, etc

 

If this aspect of the comics biz is so scuentifically accurate, then where is the 9.1, 9.3, 9.5, 9.7, and 9.9?

 

And reagarding that other highly important aspect of the comics world from whence the Direct Sales market originated, underground comix, not being in the Guide, well, Arnold and I conspired to fit in at least 3 covers in the Origin of the Modern Comic Book article i write and revise every year as new data emerges.

 

ZAP COMICS #1, Feds And Heads and Tales From the Tube are all we could fit in, and i give price updates on them every year. I have been a voval advocate for decades that the likes of Crumb, Shelton, Griffin, Corben, Sheridan, Schrier, Irons, Jaxon, Frank "Foolbert Sturgeon" Stack, Bode, O'Neill, London, and a host of others deserve to be recognized as "real" comic book creators and their publications are 'real" comicbooks.

 

Anyway, i applaud this subject matter being discussed on these boards, however, the naysayers are simply showing their ignorance of a sequential comics tradition in the USA which stretches back over 160 years.

 

Respectively

 

Robert Beerbohm

 

Greetings-

 

Here are the links to the Obadiah Oldbuck pages Scoop published in 2003's Main Event section:

 

 

http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=2721&si=124

 

http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=2766&si=124

 

http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=2808&si=124

 

http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=2858&si=124

 

Hope these help! If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.

 

America's Earliest Known Comic Gets Scooped

The Main Event, Scoop, Friday, June 06, 2003

 

The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, which is recognized as the earliest American comic book, has been reprinted in Italy. The limited edition - only 1,000 were made - reprints material first published in 1842.

 

Artist Rodolphe Töpffer's rollicking slapstick adventure of Obadiah Oldbuck and his pursuit of his (mostly) unrequited love is a compelling narrative that will surprise most modern readers with its complexity and cleverness.

 

While many of the earliest comics are hard to recognize as what we would today consider to be a comic book, this example is far different. With panel-to-panel storytelling that integrates words and pictures to achieve a greater degree of storytelling possible than with either component on their own, The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck is an impressive indication of what can be done with the medium. That it was done so long ago, though, may redefine for many the history of the art form.

 

Comics dealer and historian Robert Beerbohm lead the charge in the discovery and documentation of the work, and was interviewed for this re-publication by Edzioni Napoli COMICON, the concern that published the reprint. And while the interview is in Italian, the story itself is presented in its entirety in English.

 

In this edition of Scoop and over the next three weeks, we'll be presenting the full story The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. Click the images below to see the story.

 

Note: Need larger images? Hold cursor on the image, wait for the zoom icon to pop up and click once.

 

--------------------

Robert Beerbohm Comic Art

PO Box 507 Fremont, Nebraska 68026

beerbohm@teknetwork.com (402)-727-4071

www.blbcomics.com

 

COMICS CATALOG v40 #1 BRAND NEW - Summer 2006

Folds out like an old time Comics Buyers Guide!

Ask me for your Free Copy

 

Member: Grand Comics Database : www.comics.org

Moderator: www.yahoogroups.com/subscribe/PlatinumAgeComics

[BLBcomics-migration]

The moral to the story is: you shouldn't blindly believe everything Beerbohm says when he's trying to sell you an overpriced book.

AGREED!

 

OK, i will bite on this one and the insufficiently_thoughtful_person named gifflefink as well:

 

I did not solicit to sell my Obadiahs.

 

Nor did the other person who sold Showcase a copy as well.

 

Any one who reads the facsimile of Obadiah comes away with realizing it is a comic book every bit as much as a famous Funnies and/or Action Comics #1 sans color, which had not yet been invented in 1842.

 

any one who continues arguing against Obadiah Oldbuck being a comic book/magazine, who persists in not reading the SCOOP scans Gemstone posted a couple years ago, which i have yet again reposted the URLs for people to read in my previous post, is simply an insufficiently_thoughtful_person not worthy of wasting any more time on - you know who you are, i surely do not

 

and i may or may not be able to respond to some of the wacky posts i have read on this thread before heading out to Chicago Wizard Booth 1412

 

then again, it may be months before i venture onto the CGC boards once again, a slife is too short wasting my time on those you are in sad denial

[ShoNuff-migration]

OK, i will bite on this one and the insufficiently_thoughtful_person named gifflefink as well:

 

Nice.

 

 

Any one who reads the facsimile of Obadiah comes away with realizing it is a comic book every bit as much as a famous Funnies and/or Action Comics #1 sans color, which had not yet been invented in 1842.

 

And anybody who reads "The Comical Adventures of the Little Woman, Her Dog and the Peddler" will realize that it is a comic book every bit as much as any of them....AND it was printed before Obadiah Oldbuck.

 

 

any one who continues arguing against Obadiah Oldbuck being a comic book/magazine...is simply an insufficiently_thoughtful_person not worthy of wasting any more time on - you know who you are, i surely do not

 

Sounds like you might be sitting on a few more copies of Obadiah Oldbuck you're wanting to unload.

 

 

then again, it may be months before i venture onto the CGC boards once again, as life is too short wasting my time on those you are in sad denial

 

We'll just have to try and manage without your snotty arrogance until that magical day arrives.

[lou_fine]

Ok, been away for a while, read thru this thread, and am still flabbergasted that there are some, a minority to be sure, who insist on stating that comicbooks before Action #1, Detective #1, Famous Funnies #1, Funnies On Parade, where ever you want to start in what I consider the Modern Format Period of wraparound sidestapled magazines cannot be considered in the same breath as what is contained in my Victorian and Platinum Era sections of the Overstreet Price Guide

 

Bob.......Welcome back!!!

 

It's great to see you on the boards here once again, after a much too long absence.

 

If we are including the Platinum and Victorian Ages, should we not also go further back and also include the Pioneer Age? Some of the illustrations presented in the OS indicates some similarity and even overlap with repsect to some of the Victorian Age books?

[Aman619]

Hey Bob, its always risky to try and influence people after insulting them! But, hey, why not huh?

 

One question: You described your research nicely, and how you repeatedly turned back the clock to the earliest comicbook from Famous Funnies, and The comics and even Yellow Kid. So can you say with near total assurance that your research is complete? Or will there be a NEW "first" comicbook at some point??

[ft88]

What i find boring in comics is concentrating on how few spine bends some of your CGC slabbed "treasures" contain - 9.8. 9.6. 9.4, 9.2, etc

 

What I find boring are the prints in Victorian and Paltinum cartoon books that are being trumped as the second coming. There are two issues here. One is the historical interest and belly button debate on what is what. The other is economic. Regarding the first, I'll leave that to the experts but lets face it, there is a ton of subjective interpretation and opinion involved in defining what the first comic book is and how important each criteria is.

 

Beerbom and Showcase can tout corrections and definitiosn all they want but if a potential buyer doesn't believe these pieces or information or has his own interpretation, then he's not going to buy the piece nor place a similar high value on it.

 

This leads to value and what drives it. Comic books are highly valuables item when it comes to collectibles. The life energy and range of this hobby puts cards, stamps and coins to shame. I think the driving force is the nostalgia that comics give to collectors. There's a passion here that can't be described when looked at in total. Everything else drives from that passion.

 

Whether its a number one issue being worth more than a number two issue. Original Art going for uge dollars.

The fine tuning and rarity of high and ultra highgrade comics

The cycles of Golden, Silver and Bronze Age values as supply and demand are influenced by demographics.

The influence of Hollywood on demand.

 

And finally, as relates to this topic, a growing interest in the history of comics.

 

No doubt about it, interest in the history of comics has grown. But when compared to the demand caused by third party grading, Hollywood or demographic interest (see Bronze Age pricing) it pales in comparisson. Do I have hard core statistic to back it up? No. But if you look at prices and growth in prices just using ebay, its clear where the interest and demand is.

 

I go back to the passion from nostalgia. The link to this drives prices and the link for Platinum and Victorian is weak in general. The gentleman who has a passion for comics, may show that passion by paying 20k for a 9.8 Hulk 181 or a Romita Spiderman OA cover or an Obidiah. While the price paid for all three may seem ridiculous to most of us, its easy to understand the first two. This is because these insane values paid have similar reasons to prices I personally paid for the exact same reason These reasons being a strong link to the nostalgia comics give us. This just isn't the case with Platinum and Victorian period.

 

"Oh ho, but this can change, as more people mature in their collecting habits, they'll grow into P and V, and it only takes a few sugar daddy's to drive prices through the roof."

 

Maybe, but doubtful. Forecast of growth can be argued all day long, we might as well argue who's faster; Superman or Flash. What I see though is a weak link to what drives value in the comic hobby. A fairly desperate attempt to drive interest in a market where there is little to none. And two promoters on this board who are mule headed in their opinions. That simply won't generate multiples in price growth.

 

I seriously say that these books can rise in value and that interest could increase greater than what it is today and yesterday. I doubt that will happen but it very well could. Can Showcase4 and Beerbohm think and discuss opposite of their own predictions? (without a sneer and pompous confidence thrown off by someone who "knows" they're right and everyone else is a fool)

 

Its too bad that the fine lines of grading bore Beerbohm. Based on passion and value, it doesn't seem to bore the majority in the hobby. That majority drives prices not fancy articles and ad hoc sections in Overstreet.

[showcase4]

 

the first comic book is highly valuable. with Platinum and Victorian period-

prices through the roof." what drives value in the comic hobby.

 

And two promoters on this board generate multiples in price growth.

 

I seriously say that these books can rise in value and that interest could increase greater than what it is today and yesterday. very well could. Showcase4 and Beerbohm - they're right Based on passion and value,

 

well said...and I see you are also in Baltimore...we should "do lunch" sometime

[mica]

Is there a way to read BLB's post through an insult filter?

[BLBcomics-migration]

Is there a way to read BLB's post through an insult filter?

 

I do apologize if any one feels insulted - i have only been building the Plat, then Vict, sections of the Overstreet price Guide for a decade now - i was invited by John Snyder in Oct 1996 to compile my first "history" of the comic strip/book concept. I laugh at the errors in had in there as i once believed all the previous history books i had read through.

 

- one can wonder what filter is needed after a decade of serious research re-writing what is solid evidence of a huge comics market in the 1800s, much less the early 1900s comic book output which is far and way much easier to document, plus showing numerous examples and sample strips all dating before the single panel cartoon known as The Yellow Kid, trumpeted by unenlightened masses as the "first" comic strip

 

For the record, i fought with the Overstreet/Geppi/Diamond/Gemstone people for the first 7-8 years NOT to include prices on any thing published before 1870 until the research was "down"

 

- i wanted to learn what was out there, not in any way shape or form be labeled the "market maker" of this material

 

- fielding insults like i have read on this thread from insufficiently_thoughtful_persons who obviously do not know me but feel comfortable throwing out insults because they can safely from their computer - all the while not bothering to READ the damn story of Obadiah Oldbuck - searching for a woman to be his wife

 

I feel comfortable that most of what we need to learn about the 1800s comics business is now known as best as can be determined. There are still a few more "fill in the blanks", but, by & large, the lion's amont of the research is completed to my personal satisfaction.

 

Only in the last few years of my building the Victorian and Plat price indexes from nothing have i allowed prices to be added to pre 1870 material.

 

I have no agenda on where prices go - i follow eBay final prices, my own sales of this older material as well as input from some 400 members of a Plat list i organized on yahoogroups back in december 1999 as an outgrowth of teh comics scholars list no HQ'd out of the Univ of Florida There are now over 16,000 archived posts contained on that site exploring the origins of the comics from some 30 countries. Go read the archive and learn before blurting out and proving to me how uneducated some of you are on these CGC "boards"

 

My passion to learn the history of the comics continues unabated since being a Jr High Schooler in 1965 when i got my first comics history book, Feiffer's THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES. I got my first RBCC in May of 1966 #45 and placed my first ad therein in RBCC 47 Oct 1966 - Cupples and Leon ads were common as dirt back then, the nostalgia of the collectors for the older material dying out for a spell as the collectors themselves died out.

 

Soon thereafter, i acquired Becker's 1959 tome COMIC ART IN AMERICA as well as checked out from our local library Waugh's THE COMICS from 1947 and Sheridan's COMICS AND THEIR CREATORS from 1942. later in the 60s and early 70s a flood of comics history books has come out unabted it seems, most of them merely rehashing info gleaned from earlier books - all compunding myth upon myth of the origins of the comics business in America.

 

Therein in those last two mentioned Waugh's THE COMICS and Sheridan's COMICS AND THEAIR CREATORS are the origins of the myth of The Yellow Kid being the "first" comic strip - it is not even the "first" newspaper comic strip,

 

Becker's 1959 book builds on the myth by quoting Waugh and Sheridan

 

It was in 1998 that i first learned of the existence of the Wilson & Company 1842 printing from the original printing plates made by the British company Tilt & Bogue for two of the three English translations that London based company did. The next year i uncovered my first copy and had my comic book geek mind blown and had to leasrn more.

 

Two of them came over to America:

 

1) The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, first printed in NYC in 1842 with a 2nd printing in 1849 and numerous re-printings dating to as late as 1904, according to hard copy documentaion i uncovered in The New York Times from that year, all documented in my Vict article in the last few Overstreets

 

2) The Strange Adventures of Bachelor Butterfly Wilson & Co 1846 and numerous printings documented as late as the 1880s

 

The Comical Adventures of Beau Ogleby is the 3rd Tilt & Bogue English translation of Topffer's seven comic books - it was never printed in America

 

There are four more Töpffer comic books created by this genius in Genva Switzerland that have never been translated. I own Euro copies of all four of these as well. Toppfer died in 1846 otherwise there would have bene more of his sequential comic book stories created.

 

I have been working with Art Spiegelman, Prof david Kunzle and Chris Ware to facilitate a complete printing in English translation of all seven of Töpffer's comic books - to be out from Art's MAUS publisher in the near term.

 

The First original American comic book, home grown & created in this country was titlled JOURNEY TO THE GOLD DIGGINS BY JEREMIAH SADDLEBAGS 1849 by the Read Brothers, a fantasy of going out west to hunt for gold and encountering indians and assorted whatnot along the way - and it is obvious the brothers had never ventured out there when they did this comic book.. This book sells for over ten grand into the Gold Forty Niners market place outside of the comic book world.

 

I will have copies of the 2003 out of print OBADIAH Italian exact size facsimile for people to look at at the upcoming Chicago Wizard show Booth 1412

[BLBcomics-migration]

 

No. You're talking about Obadiah Oldbuck. If you want to talk about America's 1st comic book, then we'll have to switch the conversation over to "The Comical Adventures of the Little Woman, Her Dog and the Peddler".

 

what is this book and do you have scans to send me at beerbohm@teknetwork.com ??

 

I found it impossible to read thru the 100s of posts on this thread so if this has already been presented with URLs to check it out, i apologize in advance

 

Obadiah first printing frpom 1842 contains 6 to 12 panels per page and is one long 40 page story

 

Robert Beerbohm