Comics - Condition & Favorite Ages

[Thor]

I seem to like the silver and bronze age comics the most. They have a certain style to them.

[number 6]

I like to read comics but I'm also a collector, so condition is important to me. Not that I think I'm going to be able to "cash in" some day on my collection, it just gives me pleasure to see really nice condition copies in my collection. Their "value" only interests me to the extent that it determines what I have to pay for them. For every "expensive" comic I have (I'm talkn' $40 - $100) I have 3 or 4 comics like Robotech, Captain Carrot or Marvel Movie adaptations that aren't "worth" anything.

Early 60's: Due to budget, I have to limit myself to one title, Aquaman, and the best condition I can afford is from high Fine to mid-Very Fine.

Mid - Late 60's: While this stuff is from before I was born, I love it because it says "old comic" to me while still being accessible story and art wise. (Sorry, but Golden Age stuff, while historicaly important, is just too primative for my taste). With Aquaman, I try and get Very Fine to Very Fine/Near Mint copies depending on issue and price. I like picking up other titles like Batman, Detective, Doom Patrol, Hawkman, Metamorpho, Mystery in Space, Strange Adventures and other assorted issues of DC title, but I usually have to limit myself to Fine/Very Fine copies.

70's: Mostly get Aquaman related titles in the Near Mint range as well as Marvel licensed comics from the late 70's like Micronauts. Also Charltons Space: 1999 and Six Million Dollar Man; Gold Keys/Whitmans like Star Trek, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, UFO. Used to collect Neal Adams Batman, got a pretty good run back when they were reasonable. But I had to sell them when I got divorced a few years ago, and prices for nice high grade copies have spiked way out of my pay grade.

80's: This is the stuff I grew up with and for the most part is still pretty reasonably priced. I try to stick to strict Near Mint on these. Aquaman, Batman, Detective, Brave and the Bold, Captain Carrot, Shadow, Robotech, DC and Marvel licensed properties, Rocketeer, Jonny Quest, Justice League, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, just about anything DC or indepentant that catches my fancy.

90's and currant: I don't get too much of this stuff other than Aquaman and stand outs like Kingdom Come or Marvels. I try and limit myself on the new stuff because with cover prices at $3-$5 is takes alot of funds away from my back issue collecting and fills up my boxes fast.

[weatherwizard-Corey]

Silver

Silver is the best I think both in DC and Marvel. Great art and good stories.
I do like early Golden too but way too expensive!

[samurainoir]

-Hong Kong comics: the 70's. I have a real soft spot for the old martial arts comics, even though I can’t actually READ them. Sorta what you’d get if Disney had produced Bruce Lee films.

Dang Bro'! You mean the Tony Wong/Jademan comics?

It felt like to me it wasn't that many years ago when you could find stacks of those in the back alley markets in Hong Kong for pocket change. Now with their burgeoning collector culture there, this stuff isn't as disposable as it once was and they are commanding quite big bucks in the few Hong Kong comic shops that might even have them.

The Disney/Bruce Lee comparison is a good one, although I think Wong's earliest stuff has a heavy Tezuka influence as well, before evolving into that insane kinetic style in the eighties and beyond. Manga speed lines... on speed. How else could you possibly capture in the printed page what Jackie Chan and his contemporaries were doing on the Hong Kong cinema screen of that period?

My understanding is that those Jademan comics actually had a big influence on what we refer to as "the Image style"... during that period when Jim Lee, Mark Silvestri, and Wilce Portacio were all sharing a studio together while working at Marvel on the X-Men titles. Portacio in particular cites them as his main artistic influence at the time.

[samurainoir]

Can anyone recommend good books on Marvel and DC? One to learn about key issues from the silver and bronze age, etc?

Your best bet is the Essential Marvels and DC Showcase trades. Lots of good cheap reading if you want all the early and definitive stuff from the Silver/Bronze Age at a reasonable price.



Or you could go higher end with the Marvel Masterworks if you want color and nice paper.

[ctc]

>You mean the Tony Wong/Jademan comics?

Them too! HK had a huge comic market, although some stabbings and an explosion later made Jademan the biggest and most prominent.

>It felt like to me it wasn't that many years ago when you could find stacks of those in the back alley markets in Hong Kong for pocket change.

We had tons of it here in Windsor too, for cheap. Didn't understand a word of it, but I bought tons of 'em.

>The Disney/Bruce Lee comparison is a good one, although I think Wong's earliest stuff has a heavy Tezuka influence as well,

My faves are from the early 80's/70's, with obsessive, detailed, fine art inks over super cartoony pencils:



A lot of the later stuff, with that ink wash, swooshy style seems to have borrowed from Ryoichi Ikegami, and had it's own weirdness. But not the same as the earlier stuff. It's amazing how that later style almost became the house style for the whole country's comics industry; kinda like Jim Lee and 90's American books.

Don C.

[B-Lister]

I'm a BA-Modern Age guy mostly.

I like some SA stuff (mostly Superman and Legion, and oddballs like the DP, Metal Men, Metamorpho, etc.)

I collect BA Batman, Swamp Thing, Kamandi, etc. I love the Horror and Western stuff (though I don't find as much as I like, and when I do, it is more than I like to spend). I'm also a Charlton fan.

I like Modern Comics, but I do not like Hal Jordan. At all. I am a Guy Gardner fan, but feel Kyle was a worthy successor who deserved to carry the book, even after Hal returned.

as far as condition goes, I prefer very nice condition copies, but will accept reader copies until a better condition presents itself. It really depends on the deal.

I have a copy of Batman 232 that is in fantastic shape, It would easily grade at an 8.5 or better, but my copy of House of Secrets 92 is a 5 at best. But I got a good deal on it, so I'm happy.

I also have a copy of Adventure Comics 269 (First appearance of Aqualad) that looks like it was actually read underwater. But it's the first appearance of Garth, and I only paid $3 for it.

[Bionic Joe]

i love the books from the 70s to mid 80s ending at the time of DC crisis
I just don't enjoy the new stuff out now

[B-Lister]

I do, mostly because that earlier stuff predates my falling in love with comics.

most of you love the comics from when you were a kid. When you fell in love with the characters and genre.

I'm the same way, only I didn't get into comics until my senior year of High School, which was 1998.