Comic Book Collecting

[Hepcat]

I bought many Turoks back in the
mid to late '60s as well as dino issues of Star Spangled War Stories....

Here are scans of a half-dozen of my earliest Star Spangled War Stories comics:











'

Compared to DC superhero comics, pre-1964 DC war comics including Star Spangled War Stories are brutally difficult to find in higher grades.

[horrorhunter]

Here are scans of a half-dozen of my earliest Star Spangled War Stories comics:

Very nice copies!

The "War That Time Forgot" issues of Star Spangled War Stories have gotten pricey in higher grade. I fondly remember my stash of the SSWS dino issues as a kid. They were read to death, some even coverless. I loved those comics and still do. I picked up a couple of inexpensive eBay lots in lower grade last year and it was great to read those again. I may try to complete the run in lower grade but, as much as having higher grade copies would be nice, the window closed on affordable higher grade ones long ago. I've become tolerant of mid-grade books, and even lower in some cases, especially if I had lower grade copies of those issues as a kid.

I've gradually decided I'm probably not going to sink big bucks into comics anymore. If I have to pay triple figures or more for even a low grade copy of something I'll just settle for a reprint or pass on it entirely. There are so many issues I still want that are affordable I'll focus on getting those and avoid the expensive keys. At some point I'd like to purchase one or more collections of older books and sell off what I don't need. That's how you can really add to your collection inexpensively, but you need a lot of cash and to be willing and able to "work" a lot of comics to make it pay off. That sounds like a cool job to supplement retirement to me (and build your collection without spending a fortune).

[horrorhunter]

My copies of the first 12 issues of Marvel Spotlight:

1-3


4-6


7-9


10-12


#2 is the first Werewolf By Night, #5 is the first Ghost Rider, and #12 is the first Son Of Satan. Issues 1 and 2 have Neal Adams covers. Lots of great Mike Ploog art on the Werewolf By Night and Ghost Rider issues. The 1st, 2nd, and 6th issues are my off-the-rack copies. Issue 2 is also one of the square-bound cover price transition issues when Marvel was experimenting with going to 25 cents and making the comics bigger, between the 15 cents and 20 cents cover prices. Every title had one or two issues of these big square-bound issues in the regular runs.

[Hepcat]

My first exposure to comics was probably in the comic section of the Saturday London Free Press in the late fifties. My family didn't have a TV yet so print media was very important to us. The first strips to capture my attention were probably the Mickey Mouse strip and the Uncle Remus and His Tales of Brer Rabbit strip. Here are a couple of examples of the latter:





The strip actually began on 14 October 1945 and ran in various newspapers until 31 December 1972. Paul Murry was the initial penciller on the strip but handled the job only until 14 July 1946 at which point he went to work for Western Printing. He was the artist of record for the first Dell comic mag based on Song of the South and also worked on the General Mills Brer Rabbit premium booklets. Murry was succeeded by Dick Moores on the newspaper strip. By the time I encountered it the strip was being pencilled by Riley Thomson (1951-59), under whom Brer Rabbit acquired a less cutesy and more rascally look evident in the example immediately above. Bill Wright (1959-62), Chuck Fuson (1962) and John Ushler (1962-1972) followed on the strip.

I'm still a fan of the Uncle Remus characters after all these years and I have dozens of copies of the strip in my collection today. I also have several Golden books, records and cassettes devoted to the Tales of Uncle Remus plus these two Brer Rabbit comics:





Plus these three General Mills Brer Rabbit premium booklets:



Best of all is this custom stained glass window featuring Brer Fox and Flower from Bambi in the door beside my model cabinet leading from my collectibles room to the upstairs balcony:





This is the original image on which the stained glass window is based:



And hanging on the opposite wall from the stained glass window is the original art for the 1972 rerelease of the Song of the South movie poster which I acquired through a Hake's auction about thirteen years ago:

[geezer butler]

My copies of the first 12 issues of Marvel Spotlight:

1-3


4-6


7-9


10-12


#2 is the first Werewolf By Night, #5 is the first Ghost Rider, and #12 is the first Son Of Satan. Issues 1 and 2 have Neal Adams covers. Lots of great Mike Ploog art on the Werewolf By Night and Ghost Rider issues. The 1st, 2nd, and 6th issues are my off-the-rack copies. Issue 2 is also one of the square-bound cover price transition issues when Marvel was experimenting with going to 25 cents and making the comics bigger, between the 15 cents and 20 cents cover prices. Every title had one or two issues of these big square-bound issues in the regular runs.

Oh man those are beautiful Double H. You know I love horror comics. Especially the 70s runs. Great House of Secrets image you posted earlier too. First appearance of Swamp Thing. I'd love to get my hands on that book.

[horrorhunter]

Oh man those are beautiful Double H. You know I love horror comics. Especially the 70s runs. Great House of Secrets image you posted earlier too. First appearance of Swamp Thing. I'd love to get my hands on that book.

Thanks, geezer.

Join the party, dude. I know you have some killer monster comics that we would love to see posted. Help me represent the Bronze Age Horror.

[horrorhunter]

More of my FFs:

51-53



54-56



57-59


Issue 52 is the 1st Black Panther. Fantastic Four hit some real high points in the issues 30s-60s. The storyline featuring Dr. Doom stealing the Surfer's Power Cosmic (pictured above) is especially good. The title also hit some high points in the 110s and 120s with exceptional artwork by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott (#112 "Hulk Vs. Thing" followed by the clash with the Overmind, for example). The blurb above the logo "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!" wasn't just hype during many of the Silver Age and early Bronze Age issues IMO.

[Hepcat]

Another strip that was carried in the London Free Press in 1958-59 that I read avidly until 1968 when it was dropped was Dick Tracy. I seem to remember that it was actually on the front page of the Free Press comic section for a number of years.



Harvey published Dick Tracy #25-145  between early 1950 and early 1961. I'm still a big Dick Tracy fan but sadly I have only a few Dick Tracy comics in my collection:











Of course I hope to add several dozen more over time!

[Rex fury]

Great collections of the FF and Dick Tracy. Just got home to find my order of the first three Loser stories from Our Fighting Forces and The Creeps 25 in the mail. That was the perfect way to end today as it is my birthday.😀

[Hepcat]

I believe that the Lone Ranger strip was also being carried in the Saturday London Free Press when I first started delving into the comic section in 1958(?). As a result the Lone Ranger remains among my very favourite cowboy characters.

Dell's Lone Ranger title featured magnificent painted covers from February 1951 to September 1957 in issues #32-111. I have nineteen of these in my collection. Here are scans of my ten earliest Lone Ranger comics:

41



42



43



44



48



52




58



61



72



76

[Rex fury]

I enjoy those Lone Rangers too. I have a few, the "Silver Anniversary"comic is probably my favorite.  Just bit the bullet and purchased a copy of Cap. 26. After discussing it here, an " affordable" copy popped up on EBay this morning. One holy grail down🤠
RF

[Hepcat]

Another comic strip from the Saturday London Free Press that I recall from my earliest comic reading years was the Katzenjammer Kids/Captain and the Kids comic strip.



I still love the characters to this very day! Here are scans of my three Katzenjammer Kids comics:

[Hepcat]

The first strips to capture my attention were probably the Mickey Mouse strip and the Uncle Remus and his Tales of Brer Rabbit strip.

The Mickey Mouse strip was always located at or near the very front of the Saturday London Free Press comic section just above the Uncle Remus strip.



To this point I've not gotten heavily into collecting Mickey Mouse comics and I have only one in my collection right now:



Quite simply with 18 Dell Four Color issues with Mickey Mouse as the title character going back to 1941 plus 84 Dell Mickey Mouse issues ending in 1962 I've always found embarking on the task of complete the run too daunting. I've got nearly half of the 14 Dell Goofy issues though!





File copy





File copy





There are also 10 Dell Four Color Pluto issues I'd like to acquire for my collection.

[Mike Scott]

Ummm, how did that work, now? 

[Hepcat]

Another comic strip that was in the Saturday London Free Press from my first memories of its comic section was Pogo by Walt Kelly:



I loved the Pogo strip as a kid although many of the references went way over my head. For a time in the early 1960's there was a pig based on Nikita Khrushchev and a goat based on Fidel Castro guesting with the other critters from the swamp.

Dell published a couple Four Color Pogo comics in 1946-47 and then sixteen issues of Pogo Possum from late 1949 to early 1954. Pogo was such a popular character at the time that Dell wanted to up the price of the Pogo comic mag to $0.15. Walt Kelly was to his everlasting credit so adamantly opposed to the idea of such price gouging that Dell desisted.

Here's a scan of my copy of Pogo 14:



I'd eventually like to acquire all sixteen issues of Pogo Possum of course.