Gorillas have been so overdone...
While doing research for my gorilla cover comics article this week, I came to two realizations: one, that I have way too many empty coffee mugs in my computer area; and two, there are so many articles already done on gorilla comics that the subject has almost been done to death. Like myself, Boris was surprised:
So I have decided to change the focus a little bit on the article and talk about different genres of comic collecting instead. Now, in this I am going to avoid one-character or one series collecting, as this is pretty straight forward (I am a little guilty of this as I seem to major in the Super-Family titles even ones such as DC Comics Presents...), but instead I will focus upon different genres and types.
Subject covers - This would include gorilla covers, which by far seem to be the most numerous, but also include various other types, such as robot covers as pictured above. The five most popular cover subjects as I have found in my research are: gorillas, robots, bondage/"good girl", the Joker and Hitler. (Hitler?) Yes, Hitler covers from the Golden Age seems to be one of the more desirable collector bait out there, especially Captain America Comics #1. (pictured below.) The most common thing about the Hitler covers is that they portray him as getting his ass handed to him by good patriotic Americans.
One thing that collectors of this sub-genre insist upon, the covers have to be from the War era, recent covers that are depicted on DC or Marvel Bronze Age do not fall into this category. As for robot covers, collectors of this bias insist that nothing past 1980 should be considered, and the older the better.
Joker covers are a different breed. Although I said I wouldn't talk about single character books, except for a small nine-issue series in the 1970's the Joker has only appeared as a "guest" in books. In print continuously since 1940 except for a brief five-year period between 1968 and 1972, he has appeared on more covers of Detective Comics except for Batman and Robin (and I'd even argue now that he is getting close to Robin, if you only count the Dick Grayson appearances.) His Golden, Atomic and Silver Age covers all command a premium higher than other books around them, and this trend to a smaller extent has continued to the present day (from a personal note, I just paid 20 $ for a Superman (v2) #9, a Joker cover, when all the books preceding and following were 2 $) The covers from the Neal Adams period are especially sought after now.
Then (probably my favourite) there is the good girl/headlight/bondage cover subgenre. This one has a lot of collectors too. There are examples from across all eras, and of all types. Politically it may currently not be the most acceptable of collector foci, nonetheless it continues to draw it's own fan-pages and discussions, and probably will forever My only question is if the 1990's Rob Liefield types of extreme drawn women would fit in this category (the consensus seems to be it does not.) This genre form has also been extensively discussed upon the whole Internets so I will wrap up here and move on to the nest discussion. (I will post one more girl cover, though, I love this one.)
The next collection type is by genre: war, horror, super-hero, etc...by themselves, they automatically lend themselves to larger collecting options and you can narrow down from there. For example, in the war genre, you can decide to collect only the DC Four, or The 'Nam, or Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos. This makes for a large focus, but there is a lot for everything. I know a guy who only collects Archie digests. He's probably got eight large boxes of them, but he doesn't buy the actual issues, that's just what he collects. Horror is probably the most interesting, because you have Pre-Comics Code, Post-Comics Code Silver Age and Bronze Age on relaxations of the Code (see my House of Mystery article for a little more on that.)
Then, there is the collecting by Artist/Writer. This is easy to do from about 1968 on, but before, artists were rarely credited so there is a bit of research to do if this is what your want. I have my favourites, as do all, and I do tend to buy a book I would have had no interest in until I discover it was done by one of my faves (which is why I flip through Charlton Comics at cons; if I can find an Aparo, especially if the subject has a pipe, I grab it.) Doing the research can be easy or difficult depending on the popularity and proliferation of the artist's output. Matt Baker comes up as one who is famous, yet not very prolific due to his (early) death, while you can't go anywhere on a comic's site it seems without running into something by Neal Adams. Writer's make it even more difficult, because they are by nature, more behind the scenes. Again it comes down to fame and proliferation. Jim Shooter has done a ton of writing, but he is more famous for his editorialship at Marvel. Here is one of my favourite covers by my favourite artist, Curt Swan.
In conclusion, collect how you want and what you can afford. I want to own and read everything, but that is not feasible, so I have narrowed my focus down. Just doing that can still make your collection rich and rewarding, because face it, as nice as it would be, only 400 people can currently own an original copy of Detective Comics (v1) 27, thus making the rest of us, eternal searchers anyway. (BTW, if anyone disses you for comics, just say it's a branch of archaeology because you are pursuing and preserving artifacts, and play the Indiana Jones theme song in the background. At least they'll then leave you alone.)
Ottawa News and Notes - For those you are interested, next weekend is The Canadian Gaming Expo (http://cgexpo.ca/) at the Ottawa Conference and Event Centre. It should be a blast for those interested but tickets sell out fast.
Next time will be a Random Book My Son Picks, followed by a revie of another local artist's work. Until next time....
So I have decided to change the focus a little bit on the article and talk about different genres of comic collecting instead. Now, in this I am going to avoid one-character or one series collecting, as this is pretty straight forward (I am a little guilty of this as I seem to major in the Super-Family titles even ones such as DC Comics Presents...), but instead I will focus upon different genres and types.
Subject covers - This would include gorilla covers, which by far seem to be the most numerous, but also include various other types, such as robot covers as pictured above. The five most popular cover subjects as I have found in my research are: gorillas, robots, bondage/"good girl", the Joker and Hitler. (Hitler?) Yes, Hitler covers from the Golden Age seems to be one of the more desirable collector bait out there, especially Captain America Comics #1. (pictured below.) The most common thing about the Hitler covers is that they portray him as getting his ass handed to him by good patriotic Americans.
One thing that collectors of this sub-genre insist upon, the covers have to be from the War era, recent covers that are depicted on DC or Marvel Bronze Age do not fall into this category. As for robot covers, collectors of this bias insist that nothing past 1980 should be considered, and the older the better.
Joker covers are a different breed. Although I said I wouldn't talk about single character books, except for a small nine-issue series in the 1970's the Joker has only appeared as a "guest" in books. In print continuously since 1940 except for a brief five-year period between 1968 and 1972, he has appeared on more covers of Detective Comics except for Batman and Robin (and I'd even argue now that he is getting close to Robin, if you only count the Dick Grayson appearances.) His Golden, Atomic and Silver Age covers all command a premium higher than other books around them, and this trend to a smaller extent has continued to the present day (from a personal note, I just paid 20 $ for a Superman (v2) #9, a Joker cover, when all the books preceding and following were 2 $) The covers from the Neal Adams period are especially sought after now.
Then (probably my favourite) there is the good girl/headlight/bondage cover subgenre. This one has a lot of collectors too. There are examples from across all eras, and of all types. Politically it may currently not be the most acceptable of collector foci, nonetheless it continues to draw it's own fan-pages and discussions, and probably will forever My only question is if the 1990's Rob Liefield types of extreme drawn women would fit in this category (the consensus seems to be it does not.) This genre form has also been extensively discussed upon the whole Internets so I will wrap up here and move on to the nest discussion. (I will post one more girl cover, though, I love this one.)
The next collection type is by genre: war, horror, super-hero, etc...by themselves, they automatically lend themselves to larger collecting options and you can narrow down from there. For example, in the war genre, you can decide to collect only the DC Four, or The 'Nam, or Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos. This makes for a large focus, but there is a lot for everything. I know a guy who only collects Archie digests. He's probably got eight large boxes of them, but he doesn't buy the actual issues, that's just what he collects. Horror is probably the most interesting, because you have Pre-Comics Code, Post-Comics Code Silver Age and Bronze Age on relaxations of the Code (see my House of Mystery article for a little more on that.)
Then, there is the collecting by Artist/Writer. This is easy to do from about 1968 on, but before, artists were rarely credited so there is a bit of research to do if this is what your want. I have my favourites, as do all, and I do tend to buy a book I would have had no interest in until I discover it was done by one of my faves (which is why I flip through Charlton Comics at cons; if I can find an Aparo, especially if the subject has a pipe, I grab it.) Doing the research can be easy or difficult depending on the popularity and proliferation of the artist's output. Matt Baker comes up as one who is famous, yet not very prolific due to his (early) death, while you can't go anywhere on a comic's site it seems without running into something by Neal Adams. Writer's make it even more difficult, because they are by nature, more behind the scenes. Again it comes down to fame and proliferation. Jim Shooter has done a ton of writing, but he is more famous for his editorialship at Marvel. Here is one of my favourite covers by my favourite artist, Curt Swan.
In conclusion, collect how you want and what you can afford. I want to own and read everything, but that is not feasible, so I have narrowed my focus down. Just doing that can still make your collection rich and rewarding, because face it, as nice as it would be, only 400 people can currently own an original copy of Detective Comics (v1) 27, thus making the rest of us, eternal searchers anyway. (BTW, if anyone disses you for comics, just say it's a branch of archaeology because you are pursuing and preserving artifacts, and play the Indiana Jones theme song in the background. At least they'll then leave you alone.)
Ottawa News and Notes - For those you are interested, next weekend is The Canadian Gaming Expo (http://cgexpo.ca/) at the Ottawa Conference and Event Centre. It should be a blast for those interested but tickets sell out fast.
Next time will be a Random Book My Son Picks, followed by a revie of another local artist's work. Until next time....
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