Monster Comics

[Hepcat]

Those high res scans exaggerate every flaw, so the books look much better in hand.

Truth! i've noticed that myself.

I thought about going for high grade on the Gorgo and Konga runs because I like them so much, but the time and expense involved in completing runs in VF or better for those two titles would be daunting ... and it could take a VERY long time to put together high grade runs even if one were willing to spend the thousands of dollars to do so.

Very true. Charlton comics are brutally difficult to complete in high grade. First of all, Charlton's production values were very low. Miswraps/miscuts are therefore common. The quality of the paper used for Charlton comics was very low so that Charlton comics deteriorate more quickly over time. Finally, Charltons have never been very popular among comic collectors with the partial exception of those issues including Gorgo and Konga ones with Steve Ditko artwork. As a result, Charltons have never been that widely hoarded and thus preserved.

Chances are when a person would find Gorgo and Konga issues in high grade they would be slabbed....

Because they're not nearly as avidly collected, Charltons escape slabbing much more often than the more widely collected titles, e.g. Marvel and DC suoerhero, pre-code horror and crime, etc.

[creaturefan95]

[horrorhunter]

Some of my ECs:









Scanner shadows are evident.

[creaturefan95]

I very recently won all six of these in one fell swoop via an eBay auction for $26.50 shipped:

[horrorhunter]

GS Chillers #1 and GS Creatures #1 from my collection.





GS Chillers became GS Dracula with #2, and GS Creatures became GS Werewolf with #2.

[Memphremagog]

From my own collection:

First Morbius



Team up of Man Wolf & Morbius



First Man Wolf



First Marvel Frankenstein Monster



First Ghost Rider



First Werewolf By Night



First Son Of Satan



First Tigra



First Man-Thing



First Dracula



First Living Mummy



First Brother Voodoo(now Doctor Voodoo)



First  Simon Garth, the Zombie

[creaturefan95]

From my own collection:

First Man-Thing



First  Simon Garth, the Zombie

Technically, their first appearances are Savage Tales #1 and Menace #5, respectivley 

[horrorhunter]

Scans of my HOS #92 (1st Swamp Thing) and Swamp Thing #s 1 and 2:







I bought the HOS #92 for $6 in the late '70s at a comic shop in Brunswick Ga. The Swamp Thing issues were purchased from Bob Overstreet in 1976 around the time I first started collecting (I had read comics starting in '63 at 4 years old). I paid $5 for ST1 and $3 for ST2. Bernie Wrightson is my favorite comic book artist. The late '60s through mid '70s were an excellent time for monster comics, and most of my favorite comics were from that period.

note: Bernie Wrightson spelled his name "Berni" for years when he first started drawing published work in the late '60s. At some point he added the "e" to the end of his first name, and it became "Bernie" after that.

[creaturefan95]

HH, do you happen to have a Marvel Spotlight #2, by any chance?

[horrorhunter]

HH, do you happen to have a Marvel Spotlight #2, by any chance?

Yep. Here are scans of some of my Marvel Spotlights:












They aren't high grade, more in the FN range, but I'm glad to have them in that condition. These things are so expensive anymore I'd hate to have to pay up for them these days. 

[horrorhunter]

Here are some of my House Of Mystery comics beginning with #174 which was the first issue of DC's "Mystery" (really Horror) line of comics helmed by Joe Orlando. These featured some of the best Horror Comics in comic book history with fantastic art by the likes of Wrightson and Adams.









1st Wrightson pro work:

[horrorhunter]

DC tried to take advantage of the popularity of Dark Shadows with Gothic Romance/Horror titles like Sinister House Of Secret Love. Here are scans of my copies of #s 1-3.







Sinister House Of Secret Love began in 1972 and with #5 it became Secrets Of Sinister House which ended with #18 in '74. The Gothic Romance theme must not have been as popular with Horror comics fans as DC had hoped, so they changed the title to something more in the standard Horror vein. A sister DC title was Dark Mansion Of Forbidden Love (#s 1-4  '71-'72) which changed to Forbidden Tales Of Dark Mansion (#s 5-15  '72-'74). These books are highly valued now, especially the early title(s) issues which are fairly hard to find. The early issues have beautiful covers which accounts for much of the demand for them.

[marsattacks666]

Yep. Here are scans of some of my Marvel Spotlights:












They aren't high grade, more in the FN range, but I'm glad to have them in that condition. These things are so expensive anymore I'd hate to have to pay up for them these days. 

Really classic. Most of my Werewolf by Night and Tomb of Dracula are in average condition. Which doesn't matter, just as long as I have the series.

[horrorhunter]

Really classic. Most of my Werewolf by Night and Tomb of Dracula are in average condition. Which doesn't matter, just as long as I have the series.

That's pretty much how I feel about it. Most of my early issues of the Marvel monster titles are around FN with some being VG, and most of the later issues are around VF. My TOD #1 is in the VF range as are my TOD #s 40-70 because I bought those new off the stands. I finished those runs in the '90s for the most part and upgraded some of the beaters that I picked up at flea markets and used book stores back in the '70s and '80s. Man, I'm glad I bought them all those years ago. It would be financially daunting to finish all those runs now in FN-VF. I wouldn't even attempt to buy them in NM nowadays. You would probably have to buy slabbed ones to get true NM copies, and it would be ridiculously expensive. I prefer FN-VF books because they can be handled carefully without risking a reduction in condition which means you can actually read them instead of feeling compelled to leave them entombed in a slab of plastic to protect your investment. Even though most of those books are easily accessible through reprint volumes and online reprints I still prefer to read the original books and go over all the ads, letters, and editorials. Even the smell of the original books brings back fond memories.

[creaturefan95]

HH, did you manage to get a Tomb of Dracula #10?