Saturday, August 29, 2015

A Day of hobby momentousness that I MUST post about it, even though it's not about cards. (It's a Comic book post)

I am very happy today. It did not start out well. There is a major airshow going on just across the Hudson River, but I am not healthy enough to go to it. It is the first one being held there although it was dampened by the death of a pilot during practice yesterday. Even so, I really wanted to go. I only discovered the joys of seeing cool aircraft in 2009 so still new to me.

Not new to me is comic books. I had my first comic book read to me when I was 5 days old. I've been in the hobby ever since. In fact, I credit my large lexicon to 3 decades of comic book reading.

Most of the comics I've been reading all these years are not my own. I do have a bunch, though, and I grew up a DC reader. In fact, we read every DC book published until 2011 when they threw away their entire history, but that's a whole tangent I don't want to go on here.

A few weeks ago, I restructured the comic section on my website. I am planning, when I finish scanning my cards, to scan my comic covers. (I've scanned a few hundred already, and since last year I am scanning the new books as they arrive) I may not even wait, I've been on a comic kick since I went to the Hudson Valley Comic Expo last month. (it led directly to the restructuring of the comic section). I will probably mix in some scanning of comic covers soon...

I have not seen the majority of my collection since 2002. They have been in deep storage; the last time I had them out was a difficult time, as I was in the middle of  a sorting/documenting project of them when my Dad lost his battle with cancer.
I have not really kept up with my collection chart/stats since then, but I know I basically only got the new issues of the titles I have collected.

I dug out my old paper listing, last touched, based on the amount of dust on it, circa 2004. I determined that I had no Golden Age DC Comics. DC's Golden Age ran from 1935 through roughly 1956. While I've read more than a few of these- I had access to a spectacular collection at one point, and reprints too- I had none of my own.

Once I realized that, I had to change that. I didn't think it would be easy. Back in the day when I was hunting comics to give as gifts, Golden Age books were rare, and usually expensive. BUT...that was before I had an Ebay account. That made ALL the difference.

My very first Golden Age comic of my own arrived to me today, August 29th, 2015. I'm still in a bit of a shock that I was able to add it to my collection for under $10. I'm thrilled, ecstatic even!
Funny Folks #30, cover dated January 1951. It's late in the Golden Age, but Golden Age it is. It's not in perfect shape, but it's actually in much better shape than I expected it would be in my price range. It's all there, nothing is missing. Pretty good for a comic that is older than one of my parents!

Funny Animal comics was a big part of the world of comics in the late 40s and into the mid-1950s, but then they went away...rarely seen since. I enjoy them. I have not read all that many. The comics were just not available to me to read over the years. My love of squirrels is also well-known, so a squirrel based comic is a surefire winner!

I am actually thinking about starting a comic blog...not sure if I would have any readers, though. While I do this mostly for myself, I don't want to totally waste my time, either...I'm going to be taking on a new comic project soon where I finally read most of the comics in my collection. I was given a large collection several years back (nearly 1000 comics!) and I've never read them. I mean to change that. I am thinking about posting a scan of the cover and my thoughts on the issue. I have some time because I may not start the project even this year, so I can think about it more. I may also throw an occasional post like that onto this blog too. It is my blog, after all! :)

If any of my normal card readers are still with me (this turned into a long post!), I was able to get some packages out in the mail today. Thanks to my brother for doing the mailing for me! I'm not saying who is getting mail, though :)

4 comments:

  1. I am more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan, although I do count a few books from the Distinguished Competition among the titles on my pull list. All three of my children are named after Marvel characters, in fact.

    If you like squirrels, you might enjoy The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, which is being published by Marvel these days. If you insist on being a DC purist, you might check out the latest Harley Quinn series. She runs around with a taxidermied beaver as a companion, and everyone knows that beavers are just fat tree-eating squirrels.

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    1. That's dedication!

      I thought about the Squirrel Girl series, but I couldn't bring myself to add a Marvel comic to the pull list yet...old prejudices die hard, LOL. (Well, that, and the whole not wanting to pay for another title thing...or in actuality asking for another title, as all my comics are gifts to me, I don't actually pay for them myself)

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  2. I have a lot of comics languishing in my garage, mostly 80's-90s DC.

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    1. 90s DC was a great time in the hobby. Pre-85 was also very good...late 1985 through circa 1990 were not all that good, in my opinion...although there were a couple of good titles at the time

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