Staff Thread On Comic Books

Richard

I have about 7 boxes of old comic books in my basement.

They are in fairly good shape and I think about pulling them out and selling them from time to time…but I never do.

Today an original Action Comics (with Superman on the cover) #1 sold for $317,200.

Wish I had one of those in my boxes……..I don’t think I do?!?!?

Donny

Wow! My friend sold about 40 superman comics on ebay a few years ago. it was his first ebay sale and he got $600!

Richard

I was thinking about ebay.

I pulled a couple of comics out of the box and looked them up on ebay.

One was going for about $40 and the other was selling for $27…..

That was two……I bought them when I was a kid in the late 50s and early 60s.

Makes me wonder how much money might be tied up in those boxes?

Donny

I wasn’t born then.

Richard

I was

Bruce

In Waltham MA, there is a comic book / collectables shop called “The Outer Limits.” No really, that’s the name of the place. The owner operates a myspace page. (Uh, he is older then 25.)

The place has been around 26 years. That’s a long time in the business. It you’re in the area, it’s well worth the stop in. All sorts of stuff. Mostly comics, but he also has model kits, cards, books galore. He sells collectors’ supplies, such as bags and heavy duty cardboard boxes, sized just for comics.

One day, I spotted something while visiting the shop. It was the “Barnabus Collins Dark Shadows Game”. I actually had this, back in the late 60’s. Alas, like most of my comic books, it was discarded. The one they had for sale was going for thirty bucks. Not a huge amount of cash but still… I’ve spotted lots of other stuff in there as well, including a complete, still-in-the-sealed-box model kit for the Monkeemobile.

Alas, the Outer Limits comic shop is a place of “VFW”. That means, “very few women”. Sighs heavily,,, They just don’t get this stuff, do they?

Growing up, my favorites were mostly from Marvel. I loved the Fantastic Four. (Don’t get me started on how bad the movies were.) And when it came to bad guys, none were better at being bad guys than Doctor Doom. Seriously, everyone else just seems so wimpy compared to this guy, it’s awesome. When Doctor Doom mixed it up with the Fantastic Four, man, talk about the shit hitting the fan…I’m surprised New York still stands. ;-D

Russ

I had issue #1 of the FF… my mother gave it, along with a bunch of other comics, to my cousins when they visited her house when I was in the service… I had placed all my comics in boxes… (they found them while looking for something to do…)

Good news is I still have other FF and Superman, Superman, Supergirl, etc. here with me…

Roger

How many of us had moms who threw out our collections when our backs were turned?

I lost all my Dr Strange and Fantasic Planet from the late 40s. These were in perfect condition in 1957. I could have paid my way through college with them in the sixties.

Instead I worked my way through school but couldn’t keep enough units to stay out of the draft. Instead of the army, I went in the Navy and picked up my schooling a decade later.

Thanks mom.

Larry

I’ve probably told this story before, but my big collectible as a young kid (mid 60s) was Beatles trading cards from Topps (I think). I chewed that dry, cardboard-consistency gum till my jaws ached, but I would up with a small shoebox filled with these cards. Like most of you experienced, while I was at school one day, my mother decided “the junk was taking over” (mind you, she never did this with “her junk”, but I digress), as she often did, and poof, there went the Beatles cards, and numerous other personal “treasures”, many of which I have spent substantial amounts of money to buy again… My older brother went through the same thing with stacks and stacks of comic books from the late 40s to the mid 50s. I think the thing that got to me the most was the sneaky, underhanded way it was done–like for once in their lives, they didn’t want a confrontation with one of their children (in their hearts, I think they really knew it was wrong, but still felt compelled to show who was boss).

Years later, I confronted her about that, and even in her 80s, she was completely unapologetic. I was a kid, I had no rights, and if she decided I had too much stuff, well, it was entirely at her discretion to dispose of whatever she chose. The only regret she expressed was what those cards may have been worth in later years. Geez, still with issues after all these years…

Bruce

If it wasn’t mom, then it was probably a plank-faced female teacher, who just couldn’t stand to see young males with comic books. If you brought one to school and were caught with it, the comic would be confiscated and perhaps torn up, right before your eyes, in some sort of show of authority.

How come no one has ever heard of a dad who threw away comic books? And no, I don’t buy the “in the 60’s, it was mom who did all the housework” argument.

Richard

I’ll keep that in mind.

I have 98% DC comics.

I wasn’t a Marvel fan as a kid…..

Richard

Well…my wife’s Dad was moving out of his house in NY and decided to toss everything in the attic.

He threw out the original Beatle’s wigs my wife had carefully placed in boxes as well as her original Skipper doll and “Dream Date” game to name a few…..

To this day she can’t even talk about it.

I was lucky….I moved out before my Mom started chucking everything and have dragged these boxes of comics with me from NY to CA to MA and finally to NH.

Carmel

I was (lucky) too. And aren’t you glad you were, or you wouldn’t have those comics

Roger

The best comics came before the self-imposed comics code authority (censorship) of the 1950s. These ranged from pre-Mad Magazine content to hard science fiction. But what got all comics in trouble were the few horror and crime comics with overmuch blood and gore and suggestive covers.

DC (Detective Comics) were part of an association of titles, all of which were clean. Even scifi was clean, much like the Star Trek TV serials, without vulgarity, violence or explicit sex. So between the government and our parents, over a few rotten eggs, the whole genre got a bad rap (and which probably made all our mothers throw them out).

The cleanest of all of these were Dell comics (Disney characters, Roy Rogers, Tarzan, etc.). Dell later got out of the business (so those comics died) and got into the computer business instead.

What made all the old comics so worthwhile were those artists/writers -Ditco, Eisner, Barks… these guys were better than Rod Sterling for telling a tale/yarn/legend with a twist (i guess we know now where I get my weird writing bent, huh?)

Here is a good LINK to some of this stuff.
Thanks for the memories, guys.

Carmel

Well there you go! My dad was the one who threw out everything. Comic books and all. I was never ‘allowed’ to be a collector of anything, even for a few years. Consequently there is NOTHING left from my childhood, other than a few photos.

Beth

I have a few things. Nothing of any value though. A lot of the stuff I had collected got destroyed when I got pregnant the first time. Long story.

Richard

I remember those comics.

I also remember reading one called “Magnus” or something like that.
Might be in one of the boxes….

John

I’m so old, we used to read our comic books by the light of burning moose fat.

My mother threw her CHILDREN out. And we were looking right at her!

Eisner rules.

Russ

That was Magnus, Robot Fighter..

still have those..

Roger

We mentioned a few of our favorite comic book writer/artists

Stan Lee
Steve Ditko
Jack Kirby
Wil Eisner
Carl Barks
Frank Frazetta

These were the guys who fueled our dreams as kids with their great stories and art.

Well, who fueled THEIR dreams as kids with amazing comics (newspaper strips)?

Winsor McCay, 1905 Little Nemo
George McManus, 1913 Bringing Up Father
Harold Gray, 1924 Little Orphan Annie
Lyman Young, 1928 Tim Tyler
Hal Foster, 1929 Tarzan, 1937 Prince Valiant
Elzie Segar, 1929 Popeye
Chic Young, 1930 Blondie
Alan Raymond, 1934 Flash Gordon

John

Well…

Sorry to be a clinker, but I don’t really go along with this. My dreams weren’t ever fueled by comics, only by the great outdoors. I used to read books by Frank Buck, too, and Jack London. Nothing in a comic comes close to that kind of thrill.

But as for comics, I did love ’em, of course. But we’re talking entertainment value here, not inculcation in ways to jump-start young lives. Much later on, Wonder Wart Hog and the (The Fabulous) Furry Freak Bros. meant (and still mean) a lot to me, but this is more a matter of cultural validation than anything else — very important for those of us raised by farm animals!

Bruce

I wouldn’t say the censorship was self-imposed. Comic book publishers, William Gaines among them, were called before congressional committees, and told, “clean up your own house, or we’ll clean it up for you”. And let’s not forget that wonderful book “Seduction of the Innocent”, by Doctor know-it-all, Frederic Wertham. This book was key in damn near killing the comic book industry.

I suppose you could say that it was the 1950’s, and typical white suburban Americans were seeing communists in their morning coffee. Suspicion was high (kind of like it is today, wink-wink) and everyone was “on the lookout” for anything that just didn’t belong, including anything that wasn’t Ozzy and Harriet wholesome. Heh-heh,, could you imagine a teenaged female back then, sporting a tattoo? I wonder how long it would have been, before she would have been grabbed and sent to a “special school”?

Anyway, the end result was that those of us who grew up in the 60’s had that “Approved by the comics code Authority” mark on every comic you spent your dimes on. (yes, kiddies, they used to sell for ten cents. Hard to imagine, isn’t it?) We got some good stuff though. “Tales of Suspense” was a pretty good comic, before it turned into a vehicle for Iron Man and Captain America.

There’s a pretty good wikipedia article on it, here.

And from that article, “…Wertham also claimed Wonder Woman‘s strength and independence made her a lesbian.”

Weee! I’ll bet that sent all those June Cleavers of the day into total meltdown, yes? Now what logic did Doctor-know-it all use to arrive at that conclusion? Wonder what he’d think of “She Hulk”?

A few years ago, a friend of Bill Gaines, Russ Cochran, ran a re-print of all the EC Comics horror titles from start to finish. I’ve got a few. After reading them, I definitely had this strong desire to go out and become a juvenile delinquent. Uh-huh..

Now, here is something that’s downright friggin’ hilarious! Enjoy.

FIN