Comic Book Collecting

[geezer butler]

Here is one of my favorite comicbook series

Oh hell yeah! The Marvel Godzilla run in the late 70s is my favorite comic book series, but TOD is right up there. Werewolf by Night too.

[geezer butler]

and btw, Hep your collection is unbelievable. Congrats and thanks for sharing. Honestly, I don't think I've ever met someone (in person or virtually) with such an impressive collection.

[marsattacks666]

Oh hell yeah! The Marvel Godzilla run in the late 70s is my favorite comic book series, but TOD is right up there. Werewolf by Night too.

🤘🏼

[John Pertwee]

Tomb of Dracula is my favorite Comic book series. Once Gene and Marv took over the book, it really got going and lasted for 70 issues. I have every issue, and my extra copy of Number 1 is signed by Neal Adams. I have some extra issues signed by Gene and Marv as well. Meeting and Taking to Marv about the comic was the highlight of the weekend.

[Hepcat]

I remember the day I bought the comic that introduced me to Adam Strange particularly well. It was the day in October 1963 of the annual charity bazaar in the basement of St. Martin's church which was adjacent to my school. Included among the attractions were some designed to coax the nickels and pennies from kids' pockets such as a "fish" pond. I clearly remember standing in the outside entrance alcove at the side of the church admiring the copy of Mystery in Space 88 that I'd just purchased at Les' Variety:





Up to that point Mystery in Space had not been among the titles I'd been buying because my focus at the time was on superheroes and I thought Adam Strange was one of those future spacemen like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Space Ranger and Tommy Tomorrow. It was the cover blurb promising a Hawkman thriller that actually prompted me to buy the issue. Hawkman was a mysterious hero who I only knew from house ads such as these up to that point:





That issue of Mystery in Space 88 acted to make me a big fan of Adam Strange as well. Unfortunately Adam Strange stories illustrated by the old master Carmine Infantino continued to only issue #91. When Julius Schwartz took over the Batman editorial bailiwick from Jack Schiff in 1964, Infantino was assigned the artwork on Detective Comics and he had to give up illustrating Adam Strange stories.

Here are scans of a half dozen of my other favourite Mystery in Space covers featuring Adam Strange:

Dallas Srephens copy












I love those covers featuring the delectable Alanna!





Mystery in Space issues featuring Adam Strange from 1959 to 1962 are much tougher to find than copies of even the The Flash let alone Justice League of America from the same years making it very difficult to complete a run of Adam Strange comics in nice condition.

[Hepcat]

I also clearly remember being terribly excited when I found this issue of Green Lantern on the comic stand at Les' Variety in October:



But my comic collecting in 1963 came to another crashing halt when my sister convinced my mother to confiscate my comics and hide them from me. Don't ask me why. I've asked my sister several times over the decades what she was thinking but she doesn't have a good explanation either.

In any event I still have a very clear memory shortly thereafter of a dark dreary evening in October when I was being taken by my mother to see a new dentist on the other side of town. My parents wanted to support a young Latvian girl who had started up a practice on distant Oxford Street East. The bus that stopped a half block from our house should have enabled us to get there non-stop but for whatever reason - probably to shop at Kresge, Metropolitan or Woolworth - we had stopped at London's main downtown intersection. There on the magazine stand at the United Cigar Store on that corner was this Flash comic:



I stared at the cover featuring the mysterious Top with longing but there was no point in buying it. Now of course I have a copy.

 

[John Pertwee]

I started reading silver age DC comics as a very young kid. There was a stack of comics, mostly coverless, down in the basement. I read them over and over again. I still have that stack, and the replacements I found over the years. Two of the comics that had covers were Neal Adams covers, and I got him to sign the better copies at Planet Comiccon a few years ago. Here are what those covers look like. I need to scan the ones I had signed.

[Hepcat]

While I resisted actually buying any more comics late in 1963 and early in 1964, I continued to peruse them on newsstands. These in particular left a lasting impression on my young psyche when I spotted them on the newsstand at the News Depot on Dundas Street in downtown London:





Wow and double wow! Aquaman, the king of the seas who can command fish, and the mysterious Hawkman, monarch of the skies who can converse with birds. What a perfect pairing! Incredibly exciting!





Ullllpppp! Shrunk and stripped of his superpowers? However will old Supes get out of this desperate predicament?







Oh man, what fantastic covers! Carmine Infantino was at his creative peak in 1963-64 on both Mystery in Space and The Flash covers.

The comics more so than any others that drew me back into actually buying again though were those of my favourite hero, Green Lantern. The first of these I may have discovered at the News Depot as well:





Eeeeek!!! Talk about being in dire straits!

I was compelled to attend supplementary Lithuanian language classes throughout my grade school years on Saturday afternoons at St. Peter's School on Richmond Street in downtown London. Across Richmond St. from St. Peter's was the Davis Variety which also boasted an old-fashioned honest-to-goodness lunch counter. It was the magazine stand at the back that interested me though and it was there that I first saw Green Lantern #28 & 29.





Wow! The return of the Shark whom Green Lantern had somehow barely managed to overcome in issue #24.





Gil Kane was at his creative peak in 1963-64 on both The Atom and Green Lantern covers.

I couldn't resist buying Green Lantern 28. When I discovered the stack of comics my mother and sister had concealed from me inside the couch a few weeks later, I was back to collecting DC superhero comics big time!

 

[Rex fury]

Anybody remember Marvel's  "The Supernaturals"  From 1998? I finally got around to reading it for the first time last night ( yes I know that's a little slow even for the large reading piles I accumulate 🥴). What caught my attention was the free mask giveaway inserted into the comics. Low and behold the issues I have contained three of the advertised five paper masks to be collected with the series. Since the series ran four issues, I guess the idea was that you would buy multiple copies to get the collection of masks. Ah, the great marketing ploys of comic companies....
Anyway, does anybody out there actually have all five masks? The three I have are Brother Voodoo, Satana, and WWBN. The werewolf one even looks kinda like a Perlin or Ploog illustration. What was the fourth regular mask? How does the "rare" Ghost Rider mask look? Did any 90's kid actually care about a paper mask- if so they must have been reincarnated from a 50's kid.
For me, I'd love to have another box of Nabico's monster cookies which are also advertised in the series! I
RF

[Hepcat]

Ah, the great marketing ploys of comic companies....

The multiple covers and other marketing gimmicks introduced by comic publishers in the 1990's did wonders to turn pre-existing fans away from new comics. My own "stepping off" point was DC's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" from 1985-87.

Did any 90's kid actually care about a paper mask- if so they must have been reincarnated from a 50's kid. For me, I'd love to have another box of Nabico's monster cookies which are also advertised in the series!

I'd love both! Masks though should be included with boxes of cereal and not comics.

[geezer butler]

Anybody remember Marvel's  "The Supernaturals"  From 1998? I finally got around to reading it for the first time last night ( yes I know that's a little slow even for the large reading piles I accumulate 🥴). What caught my attention was the free mask giveaway inserted into the comics. Low and behold the issues I have contained three of the advertised five paper masks to be collected with the series. Since the series ran four issues, I guess the idea was that you would buy multiple copies to get the collection of masks. Ah, the great marketing ploys of comic companies....
Anyway, does anybody out there actually have all five masks? The three I have are Brother Voodoo, Satana, and WWBN. The werewolf one even looks kinda like a Perlin or Ploog illustration. What was the fourth regular mask? How does the "rare" Ghost Rider mask look? Did any 90's kid actually care about a paper mask- if so they must have been reincarnated from a 50's kid.
For me, I'd love to have another box of Nabico's monster cookies which are also advertised in the series! I
RF

Oh yeah, fun series. You know me, I'm a big Marvel horror nerd. I have some of the masks too.

[Rex fury]

Hey Geezer, do you recall what the 4th mask was? Any recollections of the Ghost Rider mask? I'm with you on the marvel horror stuff. Also, I seem to remember a Toy Biz collection of the Marvel monsters being out in the 90's. Am I recalling that correctly?
RF

[geezer butler]

Hey Geezer, do you recall what the 4th mask was? Any recollections of the Ghost Rider mask? I'm with you on the marvel horror stuff. Also, I seem to remember a Toy Biz collection of the Marvel monsters being out in the 90's. Am I recalling that correctly?
RF

I'll check later tonight when I'm in the monster room and let you know

[geezer butler]

Hey Geezer, do you recall what the 4th mask was? Any recollections of the Ghost Rider mask? I'm with you on the marvel horror stuff. Also, I seem to remember a Toy Biz collection of the Marvel monsters being out in the 90's. Am I recalling that correctly?
RF

Hey, Rex

Haven't looked at these in a while, but just checked. I've got a Werewolf by Night mask, Brother Voodoo mask, and two Gargoyles. No Ghost Rider. I wonder if there was a Satana mask. Btw, i have the four issues but also have a fifth supernaturals comic book. Some kind of "special preview."  Also, yes I have a Legion of Monsters boxset from Toy Biz. Has drac, werewolf by night, Frankenstein's Monster, and Simon the zombie.

This is old photo. Several yrs back. Over two houses ago actually. So totally different monster room setup, but you can see what it looks like at least. 

2016-03-05_06-12-46 by geezer2014, on Flickr

[The Cantankerous Collector]

Oh hell yeah! The Marvel Godzilla run in the late 70s is my favorite comic book series, but TOD is right up there. Werewolf by Night too.

That's one of my favorite comic covers. I had the issue as a kid and bought a t-shirt with that same image a couple of years ago at a comic-con. I even wore it a couple of days ago.