Any comic book fans out there?

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It's one of my true passions.

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[+3] - Frank Apisa - 09/17/2020[quote="FreedomEyeLove"] It's one of my true passions. [/quote] When I was into comics, during The War, Detective Comics and Action Comics were sold for 10 cents a copy. I had a huge...
[+3] - FreedomEyeLove - 10/01/2020[quote]Except Bruce Banner is still the Hulk, Tony Stark is still Iron Man, Captain America still punches Nazis, Thor is still a man. Most of those changes are pretty short-lived.[/quote] But...

Considering adding this on my quest to complete my Bernie
Wrightson Swamp Thing run,

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Swamp-Thing-9-1974-Berni-Wrightson-High-Grade-NM-9-2/353205313912?hash=item523cad6178:g:t88AAOSw6OlfYrpr

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@FreedomEyeLove,

My uncle had an almost complete collection of old EC comics . It included a complete collection of "tales from the Crypt" "WeirdScience" and a partial set of "Incredible Sci Fi" and "Vault of Horror".

When he died, I was namwd in his will to be the keeper of these comics. I used them as tools to learn and practice sktching and developing shadows in my art work.

The stories are incredibly gruesome and dark. I loved em. Thee were many of the comics of which the "Comics Codes" were developed to make comics bland. Its kind of amazing though, no matter how gruesome, the comics were into racial equality and the war comics were ANTI WAR.

I have em all in a storage service now, theres so much Bisulphite in old comic book paper, they have to be stored in a Ph 8 environment to keep from yellowing further and turning crispy.. . Trouble is, they are too much troube to get out and re read anyway and most of them are available as puter downloads.
I should see about getting em valued and donate them to some cultural institute.

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@farmerman,

Quote:

My uncle had an almost complete collection of old EC comics .

Those are INCREDIBLY valuable. Fantastic from an artistic standpoint, but also worth a pretty penny.

Quote:

The stories are incredibly gruesome and dark. I loved em. Thee were many of the comics of which the "Comics Codes" were developed to make comics bland. Its kind of amazing though, no matter how gruesome, the comics were into racial equality and the war comics were ANTI WAR.

Pre comics code comics are a succulent treat, because they remind us of how the world used to be... it treated children with the respect that they deserved. To be able to see the adult world through a stylized lens of imagination, one that no longer exits without artificially imposed restriction.

Quote:

I should see about getting em valued and donate them to some cultural institute.

If you actually have a near complete collection of EC comics from the golden age, you are likely sitting on several hundreds of thousands of dollars. If not more, based on condition.

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https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.LTt_vO10XgJUCGaGWqtG5wAAAA%26pid%3DApi&f=1

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@FreedomEyeLove,

they have a chemical life span and an almost predictable chemical end. Its too bad but, in order to stabilize em, they become almost unreadable as magazines . SO whats the point,sez I?
We collect certain things and ephemera aint one of them. Id quickly donate em ,and spread out the tax benefit.

I agree about their design and artistic merit. The characters and scenery were inked so well they defined much post modern style and of course BECAME op and pop art.

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@farmerman,

Quote:

they have a chemical life span and an almost predictable chemical end.

Oxygen is their enemy. That's what causes the yellowing and brittleness. Remove their oxygen source..

Quote:

We collect certain things and ephemera...SO whats the point,sez I?

They are a FANTASTIC time capsule. I'm quite young relative to others on this site, so even comics from the early 1990's give me that nostalgic feeling. EC comics like the ones you mentioned are incredibly rare and prized because they are a snapshot of a wonderful time in history that no longer exists.

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@FreedomEyeLove,

actually the process of using acid sulfitic washes in the pulping process is the enemy. They could have added certain alkali washes and even Ti and would have paper last much longer. Comic books were printed on cheaply made pulp with toxic inks and shitty non rag acidic pulp . O2 is ubiquitous. Longevity was never a consideration to comics design. Comics were read, then tossed. "Collecting em" is just a kind of geeky pursuit and scarcity created value. Whenevr a collectible requires a considerable effort to stabilize and maintain, its of no interest to me.

I collect Amerind Artifacts nd together, my wife and I collect arts n crafts pottery and certain work of "Flat" art.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

Quote:

actually the process of using acid sulfitic washes in the pulping process is the enemy.

Actually no. Oxygen is the enemy, and unless you've been collecting comics for most of your life like the collecting community has, then you don't understand preserving comic books.

Quote:

Whenevr a collectible requires a considerable effort to stabilize and maintain, its of no interest to me.

Sure! Why not just use the Mona Lisa as toilet paper? It takes too much work to preserve it, so **** it!

Thanks for being so insightful fairyman!

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@FreedomEyeLove,

O2 is all ovr, the pulping process could have easily recognized that with Ti and Alkalis,(it woul just cost more so **** it you said eh?). Thats why comics are called ephemera

painting the Mona Lisa on toilet paper is a kinda dim headed comparison

2there was no pulped toilet paper during Leonrdos life

3We knew and unserstood quite well, the processes of ppainting surfaces and gessos. We did NOT know much about the life of color values and chromas
(Copper pigments had a feture of turning greenish hen azurite was used as a colorant )

When O2 is ubiquitous, the chemistry is UNDERSTOOD, so we had the technology to recognize and overcome. we just chose not to.

You identified a mechanism of oxidation (actually chlorine is a much stronger oxidizing agent and they used that in the process of pulping also.

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@farmerman,

You're the 'dim head' missing the point.

If comic books are 'ephemera', thus not worth the work to preserve, then why preserve anything old?

Why sink obscene amounts of money into restoring classic cars?

Being a curmudgeon really stops you from enjoying anything else that isn't also old and withered, doesn't it?

1 Reply

@FreedomEyeLove,

"preservation" is easliy accomplished by several means. As far as "painting on toilet paper", you really dont understand the differences between high art and ephemera that is consciously manufactured to be such. Comic books are sources of infotainment. Make a facsimile if you want to read em and store the originals in a suitable environment. Even museums make facsimiles of early writing and store the originals in air free, climate controlled pH /Eh environments. ( High vac, high alkali). Calling Oxygen an "enemy" is like taking a few billion year step back to the Hadean when oxygen was considered a toxin to life descendant .

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I was a big comic reader when I was younger. Nowadays, I have been cutting back and I'm mainly reading the main Batman comic and the occasional third party independent comic.

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@FreedomEyeLove,

FreedomEyeLove wrote:

It's one of my true passions.

When I was into comics, during The War, Detective Comics and Action Comics were sold for 10 cents a copy. I had a huge collection of those comics...and we kids used to trade them among ourselves. Comics with no covers were traded for other comics with no covers...and comic WITH covers were traded with other comics with covers.

Each of us were shuffling millions of dollars of merchandise around...and none of us realized it.

My favorites were Batman, Superman, Submariner, and Captain Marvel.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

Quote:

you really dont understand the differences between high art and ephemera that is consciously manufactured to be such. Comic books are sources of infotainment

Uh huh, and I suppose you're the authority on what constitutes 'high art' and what isn't. Why on earth shouldn't I deffer to your assholic 'wisdom' on something so subjective?

Seems reasonable!

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@Rebelofnj,

There aren't too many quality comics these days. There are a few, but like all other industries, the comics field has been ruined by political correctness.

That's why they made Iceman gay, made the Hulk Asian, made Iron Man into a teenage black girl, Made Captain America into a Nazi, made Thor female, etc., etc.

None of the readers like this crapola, and so the comics industry is dying.

What a glorious back catalog though. That can never be ruined.

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@Frank Apisa,

Quote:

Each of us were shuffling millions of dollars of merchandise around...and none of us realized it.

And that's exactly what made them so rare and valuable. Not many people at the time thought to preserve them.

Quote:

My favorites were Batman, Superman, Submariner, and Captain Marvel.

Which Captain Marvel? Shazam or Mar-Vel?

I have a pretty 'serious' collection (large and filled with many key books), but probably half the enjoyment is the searching aspect. Trying to find books I'm missing.

Batman could never be toppled as my all time favorite.

1 Reply

@FreedomEyeLove,

Except Bruce Banner is still the Hulk, Tony Stark is still Iron Man, Captain America still punches Nazis, Thor is still a man. Most of those changes are pretty short-lived.

Plus, there was a lot of politics in the older comics. Like Superman stopping a corrupted politician on Action Comics #1 and The Fantastic Four fighting the Hate Mongerer on the 60s, who was revealed to be a still living Adolf Hitler. Then that time Captain America discovered that Richard Nixon was a supervillain.

https://www.cbr.com/captain-america-secret-empire-president-nixon/

Not to mention the entirety of the X-Men's history being an allegory of the Civil Rights movement.

I only read some of the Alan Moore Swamp Thing run, but there was an environmental message in those comics.

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@FreedomEyeLove,

Just going through the last 15 years of the Batman comics, there is definitely a mixed bag, though it depends on the writer.

*Grant Morrison (well known comic writer) - a throwback to the 60s and 70s but it can get very weird. Gets very grandiose by the end
*Judd Winick (former reality TV star) - Above average but nothing special
*Tony Daniel (well known artist) - good artist, barely ok writer
*Scott Snyder (English professor) - leans towards horror, and the narration gets wordy at times. Gets very action packed by the end.
*Tom King (CIA counterterrorism agent) - great with short form stories. Inconsistent with long form stories.
*James Tynion IV (colleague of Snyder) [current writer] - good at tying up some loose ends from King's run. So far, his run has been good but not great.

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@FreedomEyeLove,

FreedomEyeLove wrote:

Quote:
Each of us were shuffling millions of dollars of merchandise around...and none of us realized it.

And that's exactly what made them so rare and valuable. Not many people at the time thought to preserve them.

Quote:
My favorites were Batman, Superman, Submariner, and Captain Marvel.

Which Captain Marvel? Shazam or Mar-Vel?

I have a pretty 'serious' collection (large and filled with many key books), but probably half the enjoyment is the searching aspect. Trying to find books I'm missing.

Batman could never be toppled as my all time favorite.

Billy Batson and Freddy Freeman...and Shazam.

Didn't find out about all the legal involvement with the Superman stuff until I was an adult.

0 Replies

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