Comics Collector Amasses Complete DC Collection

[dbryant]

At Least I'm Not As Far Gone As That Guy Dept.:

http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=5726&si=122

...but quite an achievement.

[SamS]

Whoa! Thanks for the link.

Quite impressive. Wonder how much he had to spend over the years? DC should offer to keep funneling new issues his way, as he's a living curator to their legacy.

[Michael]

Ain't passion GREAT!!!! I love it:) Money well spent...he'll never loose his investment:thumbsup:

[SamS]

He should sell put it up on display somewhere and you can pay $2 just to see all those books. I would ;)

[Michael]

He should sell put it up on display somewhere and you can pay $2 just to see all those books. I would ;)


How about a photographic Price guide! That would be quite useful for fellow collectors...What a book! 30,000 pics! or a volume of books!

[RDK]

How about a photographic Price guide! That would be quite useful for fellow collectors...What a book! 30,000 pics! or a volume of books!

There are several already available. This is one of the best in the series...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0962332844/qid=1089777837/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/104-1640447-8818340?v=glance&s=books

[Michael]

There are several already available. This is one of the best in the series...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0962332844/qid=1089777837/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/104-1640447-8818340?v=glance&s=books

...are all 30,000 covers pictured? I read hundreds...

[Todd Fredericks]

That collection is amazing!!

[Mister Kite]

...are all 30,000 covers pictured? I read hundreds...

Michael, it looks like that particular book is devoted to Marvel Comics, not DC. Two very different companies (at least, back then.) It looks nice, though. :)

Gary

[StyxCollector]

I can't imagine what the person spent on Detective #27 or Action #1. As a Batman fan who stopped collecting comics about 14 years ago, I can say this guy has spent an insane amount of money.

[guy incognito]

I think I'd make mine Marvel instead.

[R. Cat Conrad]

To Mr. Kite, et al., from a long time comic aficionado/historian ...

The Photo-Journal, published by Ernst & Mary Gerber, contains other volumes, including a two volume Golden Age set that covers most if not all publishers of that by-gone era; they're thorough, but even these aren't 100% complete. You are indeed correct that there were more than 2 companies back then; in fact, there were literally dozens including Fawcett, Quality, Fox, Nedor, Lev. Gleason, Standard, EC, Better, etc., and while DC was arguably the biggest they didn't have the most popular super hero! That honor fell to Fawcett's Captain Marvel, a character so popular that it was published bi-weekly for a time. Eventually, Fawcett sold it's rights to DC after a long and bitter lawsuit that ended in the mid-fifties. Today, DC publishes the good Captain, or "Big Red Cheese" as he's also affectionately known, in various formats, but in an ironic twist of fate DC can't use the character's name as a comic title, apparently because over time the copyrighted title was snagged by Marvel Comics and the publisher created it's own unique character and book titled Captain Marvel in the mid-60's & 70's.

Sorry about the info-dump, but I thought this might be interesting to some film/comics enthusiasts.

:cheers:
Cat

[RDK]

Since there are so many comic book fans on this site - and likely to see this thread - let me ask if anyone's going down to the San Diego Comic-Con next week? I'll be there "for work," but would be thrilled to hook up with anyone from the forum...

[Mister Kite]

Growing up in the Fifties and Sixties, I amassed a huge collection of comics. I started out as a Superman fan when I discovered the character as portrayed by George Reeves on the Adventures of Superman, and as a result, I started buying DC comics.

I especially looked forward to those "80 Page Giant" annuals that DC published. But, something happened one day in 1961 when I plopped down a dime for a comic I had not seen before called, Fantastic Four #1. I read and re-read that story and could not get enough of it. The printing was not nearly as nice as a standard DC Comic. Even to my untrained 10-year old eye, I could see that the paper was cheaper and that the pages were somehow less colorful. But, there was a magical spark of something that seemed to leap off of every page of that comic.

Suddenly, DC Comics were not as much fun anymore. Before long, I began to see other super-hero comics from this upstart company... Thor... Hulk... and then, the Amazing Spider-man! That sealed it for me. I became (as Ol' Stan would put it) a died-in-the-wool true believer Marvel maniac! I had a fan letter see print in Daredevil #13, and received a postcard signed personally by "Fabulous" Flo Steinberg informing me of my good fortune.

By the time I grew into my twenties, I had accumulated massive collection of Silver Age Marvel comics. All told, I was missing fewer than 45 comics to have a complete run of every Marvel title from FF#1 on, through July 1977. In addition to Marvel, I collected Charlton, Tower, Gold Key comics and many others, and had complete runs of a number of magazines including Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, National Lampoon, Castle of Frankenstein, and more. In the end, I sold everything to a dealer... and bought my very first "new" car, a 1978 Mustang 2-door coupe. To this day, my kids can't believe that I had all this stuff and sold it! :o

Gary

[dwmann]

Growing up in the Fifties and Sixties, I amassed a huge collection of comics. I started out as a Superman fan when I discovered the character as portrayed by George Reeves on the Adventures of Superman, and as a result, I started buying DC comics.

I especially looked forward to those "80 Page Giant" annuals that DC published. But, something happened one day in 1961 when I plopped down a dime for a comic I had not seen before called, Fantastic Four #1. I read and re-read that story and could not get enough of it. The printing was not nearly as nice as a standard DC Comic. Even to my untrained 10-year old eye, I could see that the paper was cheaper and that the pages were somehow less colorful. But, there was a magical spark of something that seemed to leap off of every page of that comic.

Suddenly, DC Comics were not as much fun anymore. Before long, I began to see other super-hero comics from this upstart company... Thor... Hulk... and then, the Amazing Spider-man! That sealed it for me. I became (as Ol' Stan would put it) a died-in-the-wool true believer Marvel maniac! I had a fan letter see print in Daredevil #13, and received a postcard signed personally by "Fabulous" Flo Steinberg informing me of my good fortune.

By the time I grew into my twenties, I had accumulated massive collection of Silver Age Marvel comics. All told, I was missing fewer than 45 comics to have a complete run of every Marvel title from FF#1 on, through July 1977. In addition to Marvel, I collected Charlton, Tower, Gold Key comics and many others, and had complete runs of a number of magazines including Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, National Lampoon, Castle of Frankenstein, and more. In the end, I sold everything to a dealer... and bought my very first "new" car, a 1978 Mustang 2-door coupe. To this day, my kids can't believe that I had all this stuff and sold it! :o

Gary


Sounds a lot like my story. I had almost all the Marvels, too, including the non-superhero books like Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandoes. I also collected Batman, having everything back to the early 50s. I also dumped mine to a dealer in the late 70s when interest in comics was approimately zero. Almost everything I had was near mint.
One day a couple of years ago I started adding up what all those books would be worth today, and got sick to my stomach. But who would have thought in the late 70s that someone could practically retire on the worth of a comics collection? These days I just try not to think about it anymore.

[Evan L]

An incredible achievement, for sure. It would be much harder to collect every DC title than it would every Marvel title. And the guy must be buying each book that DC publishes now!

Evan

[TSmithPage]

What a great story. Unlike some of you guys, I still have all my comics from my childhood. My books fill up 4 filing cabinets and about 60 long boxes in my basement. I plan to let my estate sell them, as I could never imagine parting with them myelf. I would LOVE to see this guy's collection. Hell, I'd just love to read the 2 Cancelled Cavalcade collections!

[Evan L]

I have all my comics from my childhood, as well as almost complete runs of several Marvel titles from the 60's, like Fantastic Four, Avengers, etc.

I have only about 15 longboxes, but that's enough!

Evan

[Chris R]

I think I'd make mine Marvel instead.
:agree: :thumbsup:

[Beatlelennon65]

Jesus, that's a bunch of books. I thought I was crazy to have 10 boxes of comics. I agree with Guy though, make mine Marvel.

[TSmithPage]

Up until about 5 or 6 years ago (actually when I started having kids), I'd periodically sort, bag and board my new purchases and then methodically file them away in alphabetical order by company of publication. Since then, I'm lucky to get them sorted in longboxes and stored away, so that regrettably the last few years of buys are separated from the rest of each title's run.

Like most of you, I was primarily a Marvel fan growing up, and their books still make up about 65% of my monthly buys. Of course, when you buy every X-Men and Spider-man book, that's not hard to do...