What got you into Golden Age Comics?

[nearmint]

As for good stores in OC today?

No.

 

I guess that's why I buy all my books online.

 

Me too. But I do miss the days of going to pick up my new comics and checking out the glass cases of Gold & Silver Age.

[mr.schomburg]

As for good stores in OC today?

No.

 

I guess that's why I buy all my books online.

 

Me too. But I do miss the days of going to pick up my new comics and checking out the glass cases of Gold & Silver Age.

 

I always see plenty of silver at my LCS, and GA funny books, and a few Batmans, and Supes, but never any Timely's or GA Keys, or interesting GA titles like Fantastic, Suspense, Wonder, and the like. So I assume we all have to buy at cons, or the internet. I do remember when one could go into any major comic shop and see amazing GA books, but I feel that time is long gone. I remember going to a comic shop in Portand back in the early to mid eighties, I think it was called Second Genisis and I remember seeing books I had only dreamed about in the overstreet price guide. Does anyone remember looking at the full color pic of GA books and just going off into fantasy land? The colors seamed so rich and exciting, they drew me in like a black hole in space.

[Norrin_Radd]

Fast forward a few more years to 1982. I had been buying up early Legion appearances in Adventure, and it suddenly hit me that for the same prices, I could be buying low to mid-grade Golden Age.

 

I had the same realization back in 2005. Buying GA never entered my mind because they were so much more expensive. But I was spending hundreds on BA comics and realized that I could be buying GA Batman instead.

[The Black Hand ®]

It's kinda hard to put my finger on it and there were several different reasons. One for sure is a small box of comics my dad had from when he was a kid. All in low grade or coverless condition and very few super hero stuff. Things like Ace Comics and Wings and Blondie etc. There was a cvls All Star that was appealing in a way, but when you grew up on silver age, GA was an aquired taste. When I got into it more was when Flash 137 came out and that made me start seeking out GA, which was fairly easy to find in the SF Bay Area in the early sixties. I could still pick up late 40's stuff at some of the magazine shops that had used comics and there were several collectors around to trade with or buy from along with catalogs from Howard Rogofsky and such. In about 1966-1967, new comics began going downhill in my opinion and I so switched exclusively to GA stuff. A few years later when my lottery number came up in the 20's I lost all interest in comics and my life changed rapidly. It wasn't until 1997 that I got back into it, trying to reclaim all the books I had sold before and after I entered the service.

[Kite_Fun_Books]

What got me into Golden Age Comics?

 

Easy, what is Golden Age was redefined.

 

The earliest Kite Fun Books date to 1950-1952

 

When I started collecting with the 4th edition oversteet, Golden Age was defined

to 1945, and Silver Age was Showcase #4 to 1962.

 

When Golden Age became to 1955, I became I Golden Age collector.

 

(But only about 5 books)

[skybolt]

When I got back into collecting about 4 years ago, my primary focus was on BA and SA Marvel titles. One day I decided to hit the bin on 2 raw GA books (Action Comics #120 in FN+, and Sensation Comics #69 in VF condition). There was no specific reason why I picked these 2 books, but I can't overstate the amount of joy I felt holding early Superman and Wonder Woman books that were printed a quarter of a century before I was born. After that moment I knew I had to get more, and ultimately started collecting early Batman, Sensation and a few Timely's.

 

I finally found my niche when I discovered GGA art. I was mostly collecting low grade issues until one day I spent $800 on a very fine copy of Blue Beetle #49. Before the book arrived, I kept kicking myself for not having spent the money on a key Marvel or DC book, but once the book was in hand, I knew I made the right decision. I've always been a collector of modern age good looking female covers (I've still got boxes full of bad girl art like Darkchylde, Shi, Glory, etc. and nude variant covers like Hellina, Jungle Fantasy, etc.), but the golden age GGA art blew me away. Especially, since 5 years ago I had no clue these books existed. My GGA collecting habit was definitely reinforced when I joined these boards and noticed people like Flying_Donut, adamstange and others posting their books.

[TheWatcher]

The earliest comics I remember reading were Fouth World Kirby and the Warren Spirit magazines. While attennding the old Chicago Comic Con in the mid 80's, I saw a dealer that had an original Spirit section for sale. I had never seen one before, so I decided to buy it. It was a impulsive buy and pretty much blew my budget for the day, but I was very happy to have it. I was hooked after that.

[jbcomicbox]

How did I get into GA? Let me give a brief full context how I got to where I am today.

 

When did I start collecting comics? I read the books as a boy and accumulated them in this old corrugated box. Collecting? I suppose it was. Probably, more of an “accumulation”. But I never conceptualized it in that fashion. Simply, the box contained my four-color treasures. And, like many an experience of others, my mother, one day, threw them away. (Recently, I have come to terms with this dark day in my life and this dastardly deed done by my mom. If she and thousands of other moms did not go through this ritual of motherhood by throwing them out, comicbooks might not be the prized collectible they are today.)

In the mid-1960s, I attended boarding school and the guys downstairs always had a stack of books from this “new” company - Marvel Comics. Boy, did I get into “The Fantastic Four”, “Sgt. Fury”, “Hulk” and, my favorite, “Spider-man”.

I still did not collect them. No, that day had to wait until one summer during law school when I passed a spinner rack and saw an issue of “Spider-man”. Rekindling those early pleasant memories of the character, I picked up an issue. Finishing the issue, I noticed, in the back of the book, an ad for old comics placed by Robert Bell. Someone actually had old issues for sale?! He was close by and I made my first purchase of past Spider-man issues. The rest is history. I was bitten by the collecting bug. Finished up Spider-man and remembered that Daredevil was cool too, so I got a couple of those and, what the heck, a couple of Fantastic Four issues..... I was hooked. I had the fever. I was a - “collector”. Back at school, I pawed through boxes of comics at the local comic store that could be had for a quarter. (Books that have more than slightly esclated in price). Finally, by the late 1970s, with job firmly in hand, my Marvel collection was completed.

About this time, I started to read all I could on the history of comics. So what was Marvel doing before 1961? I came to learn that before the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Thor and Spider-man there was another world - the golden age of comics.

 

My interest was peaked.

 

Well at one fateful comic show I took the plunge and purchased Human Torch 14. Wow! A new world was opened up for me. The little kid in me was unleashed into the world of golden age comics, unfettered by parents denying my appetite for comicbooks. There just was something special about the feel and look of these thick brightly colored magazines from the 1930s and early 1940s. These early golden age books exude an unbridled energy and vitality unmatched since that time.

I, like many collectors, became focused/developed tunnel vision for a particular area- my area being initially the Timely books. Through the years, I collected a number of Timelys. I was not infected with being as condition-conscious as I am today with some of my acquisitions. It was just the thrill of finding the remaining issues on my ever-changing, ever-expanding “want list”. My goal was set - I was going to amass an entire Timely collection.

 

I failed to complete a Timely collection.

 

My collecting eye had begun to wander as I learned that many of these early Timely artists had first had their art appear in the Centaur line of comics through Lloyd Jacquet and Funnies, Inc. Ten years later, I had gathered one of the only known complete Centaur collections. From here, I learned that these books had their roots in books put out in 1936 and 1937 by the Comic Magazine Co. This, in turn, fired an interest in the “pre-hero” titles of 1933-1938, of which I have acquired a fairly comprehensive collection. This era represents the very foundation of the comicbook industry.

Perhaps the most important event for me at this juncture was the publication of Ernie Gerber’s Photo-Journal Guide to Comics Books. Collectors are forever in Ernie’s debt for opening up a window to comics of the distant and not-so-distant past. I spent/spend hours looking at the pages of this work, and, literally would add to my collecting desires books that I dubbed “Gerber books”. Certainly, the Photo-Journal has been a major catalyst for the expansion of my collecting tastes to other areas of the golden age. Comics form a substantive basis of American “mythology”, art and culture. Gerber has introduced and re-introduced the viewer to the art of comicbooks, much of which would have been lost without these tomes. It has enabled the comicbook fan, no matter his particular collecting interest, to feast on the diversity of this medium.

Golden age, other than the mainline DC and Timely books, suffer from a tremendous lack of recognition and appreciation. These golden age books, in general, lack the continuity, familiarity and comfort of the characters that DC and Timely/Marvel supply. Beside the information gap on these defunct titles and companies, the scarcity of many books daunts and frustrates the would-be golden age collector. An individual may decide to secure a copy of Mystery Men #3 and then be lucky if he can find a copy within two years. A silver age Marvel collector, on the other hand, ponders at his local convention which copy of Spider-man #3 to purchase. This lack of supply probably frustrates many neophyte collectors who are denied the instant gratification of making “the find”.

I enjoy this hunt. My reward has been to discover the vast wondrous world of the great artists who toiled in the trenches and shops of the golden age. There is art by the talents of Beck, Mac Raboy, Everett, Schwab, Kirby, Eisner, Gustavson, Burgos, Wolverton, Guardineer, Crandall, Simon and, for my money, the incomparable Lou Fine.

Golden age comics is, for me, an acquired taste. After all these are not times nor characters that I grew up with. So, by hit or miss, reading comic histories and paging through Gerber’s Photo-Journal, I learned about, and acquired a taste for, books and artists that were in favor over 50 years ago.

 

That is my long winded story.

 

Jon

[Silver Surfer]

Hardly long winded Jon but certainly much appreciated that you shared that story with us. Your posts on these boards over the years has given me a greater respect for GA comics in general.

 

How many books are you shy of a complete Timely collection? Can't imagine that there are too many gaps to fill.

[Detroit MIke]

Being a recent comic fan thanks to the Marvel cartoons and the recent live-action Shazam on Saturday mornings, I bought Giant Size Invaders # 1 off the rack, at the PX, at Selfridge Air Force Base, in 1975. I was eight years old. My grandfather was a WWII vet and we would watch a lot of war era movies. I enjoyed Abbott and Costello's Buck Privates and all other things related to World War II. Naturally, I was later drawn to the comics that featured Captain America battling the Nazis... The Invaders, Tales of Suspense, etc.. I remember OSPG # 10 featuring Timely Comics and I'd daydream about buying all these books, once I grew up. Unlike my friends, I was hypnotized by the books that preceeded the sixties.

 

My uncle, in California, was (still is) a modest collector. He had over 200 golden age hero and funny animal books. In 1979 (?), he took me to many comic shops along the west coast. The one that really stood out was a comic shop in Hollywood, that was inside an old bank. It had showcases filled with multiple copies of gold DC. I remember seeing 3 or 4 copies of many Batman issues under #10. I thought, "Oh my God!" The seed was planted. I walked out of that store with a Young Allies 20... for only twenty bucks. The single staple meant I accidentally popped the cover off within a week Anyways, I think comic collectors enjoy traveling back to their youth via the comics. I have to thank my grandfather, my uncle, and probably G.I. Joe, for the nostalgia I feel in the war era comics. Here's a sampling:

[nearmint]

These early golden age books exude an unbridled energy and vitality unmatched since that time.

 

[thedude]

REALLY nice group of books there Detroit Mike.

[G.A.tor]

 

Perhaps the most important event for me at this juncture was the publication of Ernie Gerber’s Photo-Journal Guide to Comics Books. Collectors are forever in Ernie’s debt for opening up a window to comics of the distant and not-so-distant past. I spent/spend hours looking at the pages of this work, and, literally would add to my collecting desires books that I dubbed “Gerber books”. Certainly, the Photo-Journal has been a major catalyst for the expansion of my collecting tastes to other areas of the golden age. Comics form a substantive basis of American “mythology”, art and culture. Gerber has introduced and re-introduced the viewer to the art of comicbooks, much of which would have been lost without these tomes. It has enabled the comicbook fan, no matter his particular collecting interest, to feast on the diversity of this medium.

I enjoy this hunt. My reward has been to discover the vast wondrous world of the great artists who toiled in the trenches and shops of the golden age. There is art by the talents of Beck, Mac Raboy, Everett, Schwab, Kirby, Eisner, Gustavson, Burgos, Wolverton, Guardineer, Crandall, Simon and, for my money, the incomparable Lou Fine.

Golden age comics is, for me, an acquired taste. After all these are not times nor characters that I grew up with. So, by hit or miss, reading comic histories and paging through Gerber’s Photo-Journal, I learned about, and acquired a taste for, books and artists that were in favor over 50 years ago.

 

That is my long winded story.

 

Jon

hello all...

perhaps the best post I have read on these boards, and you pointed out the Gerber guides which I totally omitted in my thought process, but that did have a HUGE impact on me...

well done, thanks Jon

rick

[the blob]

Probably when my LCS got in a nice collection circa 1994/95 and he let me have a bunch of them for 30-50% of OPG. before that I had been just SA, BA and moderns/coppers out of the 25 cent box. I'm not talking about 10 cent cover price books I might have snagged out of a dollar box, Charltons, Gold Keys and what not, but substantial GA purchases, big money for me, like $50 or more! I had actually bought some nice shape 1940s Joe Palooka's right before that at a show for $5 each, which seemed incredibly cheap to me, which got me excited.

 

I'm still ticked off that I didn't buy the NM 1st uncle scrooge four color for $250. I knew it was a mistake to pass on that when either Metropolis or Four Color Comics (I forget which) actually sent someone to his shop to buy the book half price. but $250 seemed like HUGE money for a single book and I was only working p-t making $9 an hour while in law school.

[jbcomicbox]

Hardly long winded Jon but certainly much appreciated that you shared that story with us. Your posts on these boards over the years has given me a greater respect for GA comics in general.

 

How many books are you shy of a complete Timely collection? Can't imagine that there are too many gaps to fill.

 

I gave up the Timely quest years many ago as i had the opportunity to buy Mile High copies of Lou Fine covers and drifted over to original art. I focused on Centaurs and pre-war Fox books and completed the company run. I still have many Timelys. I did complete the Marvel Mystery run and have 1-100 (yup the Marvel Tales from 93-100; no MM annual), got the Mystics and Daring Mystery and some of the other titles....Some of this material funded this other aspirations

 

Too much stuff not enough time (or money).....jon

[TheEyeSees]

I enjoy this hunt. My reward has been to discover the vast wondrous world of the great artists who toiled in the trenches and shops of the golden age. There is art by the talents of Beck, Mac Raboy, Everett, Schwab, Kirby, Eisner, Gustavson, Burgos, Wolverton, Guardineer, Crandall, Simon and, for my money, the incomparable Lou Fine.

 

Thanks for the story Jon... the above paragraph really hits home with me... I'll forgive you for forgetting Bob Kane, and Siegel and Shuster! For me, as an artist, its really about these individual visionaries that created the art form, in their own unique way.

[adamstrange]

You had me going with a very heart-felt story, but when I saw this:

 

When I misbehaved, they would confiscate them and give them away.

 

your credibility went right out the window.

 

There's no way I could believe the nicest, most polite person I know could have misbehaved enough for this to have happened.

 

Actually, my parents, while not lawyers, believed strongly enough in property rights that, though our possessions might be removed from use, they could not be given away or thrown away without our assent.

[RareHighGrade]

You had me going with a very heart-felt story, but when I saw this:

 

When I misbehaved, they would confiscate them and give them away.

 

your credibility went right out the window.

 

There's no way I could believe the nicest, most polite person I know could have misbehaved enough for this to have happened.

 

Actually, my parents, while not lawyers, believed strongly enough in property rights that, though our possessions might be removed from use, they could not be given away or thrown away without our assent.

 

Adam, to the extent that I'm nice and polite now, I blame it on my parents' tough love when I misbehaved as a child.

 

 

Mainly it was from seeing RareHighGrade's books being posted here.

FFB, I just saw your above post. I'm glad I can take partial credit for your fall into the abyss.

[tth2]

Mainly it was from seeing RareHighGrade's books being posted here.

FFB, I just saw your above post. I'm glad I can take partial credit for your fall into the abyss.

Will you still be saying that a year from now when he's blown all his money satisfying his GA addiction, his business is in ruins, his wife has left him, his house has been foreclosed and he's living on the streets with nothing but his shopping cart full of GA books?

[RareHighGrade]

Mainly it was from seeing RareHighGrade's books being posted here.

FFB, I just saw your above post. I'm glad I can take partial credit for your fall into the abyss.

Will you still be saying that a year from now when he's blown all his money satisfying his GA addiction, his business is in ruins, his wife has left him, his house has been foreclosed and he's living on the streets with nothing but his shopping cart full of GA books?

 

At least the books in his shopping cart will be Tecs 1 through 26.